Overview

Spoken Language and Applied Linguistics argues for putting spoken language right at the centre of the syllabus. It brings together a number of separate studies by the author, based on the CANCODE spoken corpus, and weaves them together to illustrate the central role the study of spoken language can play in applied linguistics. After an introduction to the corpus, the author lays out the main components of a theory of spoken genres, with corpus examples. There then follows a broad discussion of what can/should be taught about the spoken language, followed by chapters on discourse grammar and on the sometimes parallel, sometimes different, grammatical patterning of spoken and written texts. The book then turns to lexis, with a general overview of the vocabulary of spoken language and closes with a look at another central area of language teaching, speech reporting.