This new book offers a timely and lively appraisal of the concept of communicative repertoires, resources we use to express who we are when in dialogue with others. Each chapter describes and illustrates the communicative resources humans deploy daily, but rarely think about – not only the multiple languages we use, but how we dress or gesture, how we greet each other or tell stories, the nicknames we coin, and the mass media references we make – and how these resources combine in infinitely varied performances of identity. Rymes also discusses how our repertoires shift and grow over the course of a lifetime, as well how a repertoire perspective can lead to a rethinking of cultural diversity and human interaction, from categorizing people’s differences to understanding how our repertoires can expand and overlap with other, thereby helping us to find common ground and communicate in increasingly multicultural schools, workplaces, markets, and social spheres. Rymes affirms the importance of the communicative repertoires concept with highly engaging discussions and contemporary examples from mass media, popular culture, and everyday life. The result is a fresh and exciting work that will resonate with students and scholars in sociolinguistics, intercultural communication, applied linguistics, and education.

This new book offers a timely and lively appraisal of the concept of communicative repertoires, resources we use to express who we are when in dialogue with others. Each chapter describes and illustrates the communicative resources humans deploy daily, but rarely think about – not only the multiple languages we use, but how we dress or gesture, how we greet each other or tell stories, the nicknames we coin, and the mass media references we make – and how these resources combine in infinitely varied performances of identity. Rymes also discusses how our repertoires shift and grow over the course of a lifetime, as well how a repertoire perspective can lead to a rethinking of cultural diversity and human interaction, from categorizing people’s differences to understanding how our repertoires can expand and overlap with other, thereby helping us to find common ground and communicate in increasingly multicultural schools, workplaces, markets, and social spheres. Rymes affirms the importance of the communicative repertoires concept with highly engaging discussions and contemporary examples from mass media, popular culture, and everyday life. The result is a fresh and exciting work that will resonate with students and scholars in sociolinguistics, intercultural communication, applied linguistics, and education.

Whether considering the art of debate; understanding dialogic teaching methods; the necessity of questioning; or the ability to assess and develop these skills, this book has been written by a classroom teacher, for classroom teachers, in the hope that oracy is dragged out of the shadows and recognised for its significance to improving students’ life skills and future aspirations. When we think about the transferable skills all students will take with them post-academia, oracy, literacy and numeracy should logistically stand proudly side by side. This triad of skillsets are the key components that are used to measure intellectual development in childhood, as well as being further instilled and nurtured in all students throughout their education. However, as children become students and as these students become critical thinkers, an element of this crucial triad appears to have been disowned in recent years. In 2020, oracy appeared to have even less relevance in academia, with the only supportive provision for both Language and Literature to deal with any missed learning being the eradication of any recorded proof of this skill. Yet another indication that oracy has, in some circumstances, been cast into the shadows and banished into the realm of the subject specific curricular. We need to be realistic and embrace the idea that this skill is a necessity to success for all learners post-academia. Training students in the ability to communicate effectively with different audiences in different contexts, needs to be brought back into the spotlight in the hopes that we can attempt to resolve any misconceptions regarding oracy’s place in the curriculum. Through the recognition of the theoretical understanding of communication that will provide the foundations for this book, the aim is that it acts as a supportive guide that will provide suggestions and strategies in order to hopefully empower and encourage educators in all subjects in education, thus restoring the use and appreciation for this necessary skill both inside and outside the classroom. For so long, focus has been on the stress and rigor of assessments, and the fulfilment of the curriculum to ensure that all students can navigate their GCSE examinations. This book will question whether this will have a detrimental effect on students who may have been exposed to fewer of the skills that they will require when leaving an educational setting and venturing into everyday life. So, let’s address the elephant in the room, and provide it a voice.

Studying Language in Interaction is a holistic practical guide with a hybrid purpose: To emphasize a particular approach to language in the world—a theory of language that has room for communicative repertoire and sociolinguistic diversity—and to provide a practical guide for new researchers of language in interaction. Each chapter focuses on one way of communicating, providing a set of strategies to observe, note, and reflect on context-specific ways of using multiple languages, of sounding, naming, using social media, telling stories, being ironic, and engaging in everyday routines. This approach provides a practical guide without stripping out all the wonder and nuance of language in interaction that originally draws the novice researcher to critical inquiry and makes language relevant to the humans who use it every day. Studying Language in Interaction is not only a practical research guide; it is also a workbook for being in the world in ways that matter, illustrating that any research on language in interaction involves both tricks of the trade and a sustained engagement with humanity. With extensive pedagogical resources, this is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of sociolinguistics, intercultural communication, linguistic anthropology, and education who are embarking on fieldwork projects.

This book challenges two tacit presumptions in the field of intercultural communication research. Firstly, misunderstandings can frequently be found in intercultural communication, although, one could not claim that intercultural communication is constituted by misunderstandings alone. This volume shows how new perspectives on linguistic analyses of intercultural communication go beyond the analysis of misunderstanding. Secondly, intercultural communication is not solely constituted by the fact that individuals from different cultural groups interact. Each contribution of this volume analyses to what extent instances of discourse are institutionally and/or interculturally determined. These linguistic reflections involve different theoretical frameworks, e.g. functional grammar, systemic functional linguistics, functional pragmatics, rhetorical conversation analysis, ethno-methodological conversation analysis, linguistic an­thro­­pology and a critical discourse approach. As the contributions focus on the discourse of genetic counseling, gate-keeping discourse, international team co-operation, international business communication, workplace discourse, internet communication, and lamentation discourse, the book exemplifies that the analysis of intercultural communication is organized in response to social needs and, therefore, may contribute to the social justification of linguistics.

The ability to understand nonverbal communication is essential for successful social interactions. If we don’t know what is being communicated, how can we respond appropriately? In recent years, the importance of understanding nonverbal communication – also called paralanguage – including facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice, has become increasingly recognized. Reading these nonverbal clues is challenging for many, including individuals on the autism spectrum. Yet parents, teachers, and therapists are often unprepared to teach something as complex, yet so intuitive as paralanguage. The book includes a basic structure and ideas for teaching emotions, facial expressions, and body language. The book begins with an overview of understanding emotions – a prerequisite to understanding tone of voice. A chapter is then devoted to facial expressions and body language followed by chapters on each of the distinguishing characteristics of tone of voice – volume, rate, emphasis, and inflection. The final chapter, Tone of Voice, integrates these voice characteristics with facial expressions and body language to give the student practice at determining a speaker's emotional state. Each chapter includes: An overview and background information, teaching activities, demonstrations, discussions, and suggestions for active participation "Just for Fun" – additional resources, including free or inexpensive apps and clips from TV programs and movies.--Publisher.