Szakkönyv

Africa is home to hundreds of ethnic groups, who together speak more than a thousand languages. It is not surprising, then, that Africa's enormous range of peoples, cultures, and ways of life has engendered a wide diversity of religious practices.This Very Short Introduction offers a wide-ranging look at the myriad indigenous religious traditions on the African continent. Drawing on archeological research, historical evidence, ethnographic studies, and archival materials such as missionaryrecords, Jacob Olupona-one of the world's leading authorities on African religions-captures a wealth of information in a short compass. The book not only gives the reader a full and vivid sense of African religious belief-exploring myths, gods and localdeities, ancestor worship, rites of passage, festivals, divination, and much more-but it also underscores the role these religions play in everyday African life. Indeed, traditional religions inform everything from birthing and death, marriage and familydynamics, to diet, dress and grooming, health care, and even governance. Monarchs, chiefs, and elders play both political and religious roles, imparting secular and spiritual guidance to their subjects, while also being guardians of religious centressuch as shrines, temples, and sacred forests. The author also examines the spread of Christianity and Islam throughout Africa, both the moderate sects (which often blend aspects of indigenous faith into their own practice) and the more extremefundamentalist sects, which the author states have had a dire effect on African life. In fact, radical forms of Christianity and Islam-both of which decry tradition religion as paganism-have driven a near total collapse of indigenous practice. But iftraditional religions are engaged in a battle for their lives in Africa, Olupona shows that they are thriving elsewhere in the world-particularly in the Americas and in Europe.

This book has two related purposes. The first is to demonstrate the extent and importance of language play in human life

Recent social and political changes have focused attention on the debate about the relationship between language and culture. This book offers an accessible survey of key concepts such as social context and cultural authenticity, using insights fromfields which include linguistics, sociology and anthropology.

Learners who cannot decode alphabetic script have been left out of the SLA research enterprise, at considerable cost to our understanding of the human capacity for language learning. This book offers research evidence documenting the significant impactof low literacy skill on adolescents' processing of oral L2 input and acquisition. Together with a large body of closely related research in cognitive psychology, the findings lead to a startling conclusion: language processing skills that have beenassumed to be universal human traits appear instead to be a product of learners' experience with alphabetic print literacy.

Sociolinguistics is the study of the different ways in which different groups of people use language. This book provides a brief but comprehensive introduction to the field, making links with related disciplines such as history, politics, and genderstudies.

Most of us recognize that organizations are everywhere. You meet them on every street corner in the form of families and shops, study in them, work for them, buy from them, pay taxes to them. But have you given much thought to where they came from, whatthey are today, and what they might become in the future? How and why do they have so much influence over us, and what influences them? How do they contribute to and detract from the meaningfulness of lives, and how might we improve them so they betterserve our needs and desires?This Very Short Introductions addresses all of these questions and considers many more. Mary Jo Hatch introduces the concept of organizations by presenting definitions and ideas drawn from the a variety of subject areas including the physical sciences,economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, literature, and the visual and performing arts. Drawing on examples from prehistory and everyday life, from the animal kingdom as well as from business, government, and other formal organizations, Hatchprovides a lively and thought provoking introduction to the process of organization.

- Provides a unique and timely re-examination of key issues such as strategies in context, strategy instruction, and strategy research methods by numerous experts in the field.- Offers an invaluable overview of what is known from empirical research about listening, reading, speaking, writing, vocabulary, and grammar strategies.- Proposes a clear and focused research agenda for the next decades.Research into language learner strategies has the fundamental goal of improving the teaching and learning of second languages. This book explores the notion that the reason some learners of second languages excel and others struggle lies in what thelearners themselves do-the strategies they bring to language learning and to language use.

'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it' This slogan, attributed to Voltaire, is frequently quoted by defenders of free speech. Yet it is rare to find anyone prepared to defend all expression in everycircumstance, especially if the views expressed incite violence. So where do the limits lie? What is the real value of free speech? Here, Nigel Warburton offers a concise guide to important questions facing modern society about the value and limits offree speech: Where should a civilized society draw the line? Should we be free to offend other people's religion? Are there good grounds for censoring pornography? Has the Internet changed everything? This Very Short Introduction is a thought-provoking,accessible, and up-to-date examination of the liberal assumption that free speech is worth preserving at any cost.

A groundbreaking reconsideration of translation in English language teaching, this book is a survey and critical assessment of arguments for and against translation in different teaching contexts. This book proposes translation as one of a numberof ways of relating English to students own languages. It surveys the contexts of monolingual and bilingual teaching and discusses the different uses and roles of translation and bilingualisation for different stages and ages of learning and fordifferent purposes, e.g. explanation, practice, and testing. Establishing a new direction in practice and research, it goes on to suggest and discuss ways in which translation might be incorporated into materials, curriculum development, and teachereducation.The book presents translation as: An aid to language acquisition, pedagogy, and testing.A contribution to student needs, rights, and empowerment.An educational insight into relationships between languages

- Contains eighteen academic and pedagogical articles and seven satirical pieces.- Brings Michael Swan's best known and most widely cited articles together in a single book for the first time. This creates a unique and valuable resource both for people already familiar with these articles and for those discovering them through thiscollection.- Articles were all originally published in leading journals such as Applied Linguistics and the English Language Teaching Journal- All articles are published in their original form, but each one has an introduction by the author written specifically for this book, giving readers a historical and personal perspective on the topics discussed.- Suitable for a wide audience, including teacher trainers, practising and trainee teachers, as well as academics and researchers.A selection of Michael Swan's best known published articles on the theory and practice of teaching English as a foreign language.

Compelling and accessible, this Very Short Introduction challenges the perception of borders as passive lines on a map, revealing them instead to be integral forces in the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives.Highlighting the historical development and continued relevance of borders, Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen offer a powerful counterpoint to the idea of an imminent borderless world, underscoring the impact borders have on a range of issues, such aseconomic development, inter- and intra-state conflict, global terrorism, migration, nationalism, international law, environmental sustainability, and natural resource management. Diener and Hagen demonstrate how and why borders have been, are currently,and will undoubtedly remain hot topics across the social sciences and in the global headlines for years to come.

Darkest Hour: How Churchill Brought Us Back From the BrinkFrom the prize-winning screenwriter of The Theory of Everything, this is a cinematic, behind-the-scenes account of a crucial moment which takes us inside the mind of one of the world's greatest leaders - and provides a revisionist, more rounded portraitof his leadership.May, 1940. Britain is at war, European democracies are falling rapidly and the public are unaware of this dangerous new world. Just days after his unlikely succession to Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, faces this horror - and a sceptical King and aparty plotting against him. He wonders how he can capture the public mood and does so, magnificently, before leading the country to victory.It is this fascinating period that Anthony McCarten captures in this deeply researched, gripping day-by-day (and often hour-by-hour) narrative. In doing so he revises the familiar view of Churchill - he made himself into the iconic figure we remember andchanged the course of history, but through those turbulent and dangerous weeks he was plagued by doubt, and even explored a peace treaty with Nazi Germany. It's a scarier, and more human story, than has ever been told.

After decades of conservative dominance, the election of Barack Obama may signal the beginning of a new progressive era. But what exactly is progressivism? What role has it played in the political, social, and economic history of America?This very timely Very Short Introduction offers an engaging overview of progressivism in America-its origins, guiding principles, major leaders and major accomplishments. A many-sided reform movement that lasted from the late 1890s until the early 1920s,progressivism emerged as a response to the excesses of the Gilded Age, an era that plunged working Americans into poverty while a new class of ostentatious millionaires built huge mansions and flaunted their wealth. As capitalism ran unchecked and moreand more economic power was concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, a sense of social crisis was pervasive. Progressive national leaders like William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M. La Follette, and Woodrow Wilson, as well as muckrakingjournalists like Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell, and social workers like Jane Addams and Lillian Wald answered the growing call for change. They fought for worker's compensation, child labor laws, minimum wage and maximum hours legislation

This book explores the relationship between research, teaching, and tasks, and seeks to clarify the issues raised by recent work in this field. The book shows how research and task-based teaching can mutually inform each other and illuminate the areas oftask-based course design, methodology, and assessment. The author brings an accessible style and broad scope to an area of contemporary importance to both SLA and language pedagogy.

This book introduces readers to the concepts of political philosophy. It starts by explaining why the subject is important and how it tackles basic ethical questions such as 'how should we live together in society?' It looks at political authority, thereasons why we need politics at all, the limitations of politics, and whether there are areas of life that shouldn't be governed by politics. It explores the connections between political authority and justice, a constant theme in political philosophy,and the ways in which social justice can be used to regulate rather than destroy a market economy. David Miller discusses why nations are the natural units of government and whether the rise of multiculturalism and transnational co-operation will changethis: will we ever see the formation of a world government?

In this new offering from Stanley Wells, the pre-eminent Shakespearian scholar, comes a Very Short Introduction to the life and writings of the world's greatest and best-known dramatists: William Shakespeare.Looking at his early life and education, Wells explores Shakespeare's social and intellectual background and the literary traditions on which Shakespeare drew. Examining the theatres and theatrical profession of the time, he also considers howShakespeare experienced this world, both as an actor and as a writer.Examining Shakespeare's narrative poems, sonnets, and all of his plays, Wells outlines their sources, style, and originality over the course of Shakespeare's career, to consider the fundamental impact his work has had for subsequent generations. Writtenwith enthusiasm and flair by a scholar who has devoted a lifetime to the study of Shakespeare and his works, this is an engaging and authoritative introduction.

Art Theory: A Very Short IntroductionCynthia FreelandVery Short IntroductionsTable of ContentsList of Illustrations1: Blood and Beauty2: Paradigms and Purposes3: Cultural Crossings4: Money, Markets, Museums5: Gender, Genius, and Guerrilla Girls6: Cognition, Creation, Comprehension7: Digitizing and DisseminatingConclusionReferencesFurther ReadingIndex

German writers, from Luther and Goethe to Heine, Brecht, and Günter Grass, have had a profound influence on the modern world.This Very Short Introduction presents an engrossing tour of the course of German literature from the late Middle Ages to the present, focussing especially on the last 250 years. Emphasizing the economic and religious context of many masterpieces ofGerman literature, it highlights how they can be interpreted as responses to social and political changes within an often violent and tragic history. The result is a new and clear perspective which illuminates the power of German literature and theGerman intellectual tradition, and its impact on the wider cultural world.

The human body is thought of conventionally as a biological entity, with its longevity, morbidity, size and even appearance determined by genetic factors immune to the influence of society or culture. Since the mid-1980s, however, there has been a risingawareness of how our bodies, and our perception of them, are influenced by the social, cultural and material contexts in which humans live.Drawing on studies of sex and gender, education, governance, the economy, and religion, Chris Shilling demonstrates how our physical being allows us to affect the material and virtual world around us, yet also enables governments to shape and direct ourthoughts and actions. Revealing how social relationships, cultural images, and technological and medical advances shape our perceptions and awareness, he exposes the limitations of traditional Western traditions of thought that elevate the mind over thebody as that which defines us as human. Dealing with issues ranging from cosmetic and transplant surgery, the performance of gendered identities, the commodification of bodies and body parts, and the violent consequences of competing conceptions of thebody as sacred, Shilling provides a compelling account of why body matters present contemporary societies with a series of urgent and inescapable challenges.

This book deals with the study of style in language, how styles can be recognized, and their features. It examines how style is used in literary and non-literary texts, and how familiarity with style is a matter of socialization. The author alsodiscusses the relationship between text and discourse, the production and reception of meaning as a dynamic contextualized interaction, the question of perspective and the variable representation of reality, and how stylistics can complement literarycriticism. The final chapter deals with social reading and ideological positioning, including some thoughts on feminist stylistics and critical discourse analysis.Readership: Teachers, trainee teachers, students of linguistics and literature, and teacher educators. Ideal for undergraduate university courses and pre-reading on MA courses.

Thomas Hobbes, the first great English political philosopher, has long had the reputation of being a pessimistic atheist, who saw human nature as inevitably evil and proposed a totalitarian state to subdue human failings. In this illuminating study,Richard Tuck re-evaluates Hobbes's philosophy and dispels these myths, revealing him to have been passionately concerned with the refutation of scepticism, and to have developed a theory of knowledge which rivalled that of Descartes in its importance.

Welfare states vary across nations and change over time. And the balance between markets and government

This book goes back to basics by investigating fundamental assumptions about the way English should be defined and taught as a school subject. It looks at different attitudes to English, and developments in its description, and it critically examinescurrent proposals for the specification of course content and classroom methodology, with particular reference to ideas about authenticity and task-based learning.