This volume is the first of a series contributing to the academic study of Language Arts, as an English-language teaching paradigm. Language Arts has been widely used in native English-speaking countries including Australia and New Zealand. Its recent adoption into the second-language teaching curriculum in Hong Kong, as well as similar initiatives within secondary and tertiary education in mainland China, enhances its interest to scholars studying second-language teaching and learning in Asian contexts. This book offers many papers and discussions of interest to teachers, language professionals, scholars and administrators. Its chapters explore current topics in Language Arts research including trends in the rapprochment of stylistics and linguistics, teaching approaches and learning outcomes. At the same time, they offer diverse theoretical and methodological aproaches, of interest to the practitioner and policy-maker as well as the researcher. The value of this volume lies particularly in strengthening the theoretical and methodological foundations of Language Arts. The use of literature and the arts in humanist education has a long history within Europe, being traditionally appreciated for its ability to transform leaders, instill finer sensibilities and question social ills. In its postcolonial incarnations, as the traditional subject areas were informed by critical and linguistic theories, language arts subject areas were less often used, as they were understood to offer opportunities to analyse their functions as apology for leaders, coopting the young, and pacifying dissent but less often used to teach second language skills. Language Arts curricula arising since the 1980s have increasingly embraced authentic voices, styles and genres. Contemporary Language Arts curricula use literature to teach reading-based and communication skills, in conjunction with critical and creative thinking. The movement of English-language education beyond native English shores has placed Language Arts into a World Englishes frame, and therefore its curricula have included the teaching ethics, civics and intercultural sensitivity. The explosion of media and digital communications of the 1990s led to the adoption of media literacy as a crucial Language Arts skill. As digital innovations continue to impact the teaching of English, Language Arts has adopted multiliteracies. These developments are represented in the papers included in this volume.

This volume is the second of a series deepening the research understanding and academic study of Language Arts, as an English-language teaching paradigm. Previously used extensively in native-speaking countries, Language Arts has been taken up in the past decade in many parts of Asia. Language Arts uses intrinsically motivating materials such as literature, drama and popular culture to help students develop mastery of written and spoken language and text-types. In recent years, Language Arts has embraced media and multiliteracies, as well as critical and creative thinking, intercultural sensitivity, civics and ethics. This volume offers a breadth of topics, which embody methodologically sophisticated and contemporary language arts research. These include multimodal analysis, virtual environments, the use of comics, anime and film in second language teaching, and learners’ experiences of drama and literary tourism. The use of literature and the arts in humanist education has a long history within Europe. It was traditionally appreciated for its ability to instil ethics and finer sensibilities and teach leadership. But the traditional program was marred by its function in inculcating and preserving elitist, high-culture voices, texts and values. The post-colonial incarnation of Language Arts has been informed by critical and linguistic theory, helping it to embrace a popular scope, and include a wide array of authentic social and media texts. The movement of English-language teaching beyond native-speaker shores has given rise to a vibrant variety of World Englishes, whose literary and media works are now represented within Language Arts. The explosion of media over the past few decades has given rise to an increasing array of media to use in language teaching. These trends invite scholarly analysis, and this is clearly reflected in the chapters in this volume. Linguistics has long had a connection to, and a natural role to play in, analysing the creative verbal and visual arts. As a paradigm, Language Arts now takes an inclusive view of the continuum of spoken, written and performed languages and texts. Cutting edge Language Arts research is now also supported through the new journal Language Arts and Linguistics (Taylor and Francis).

This collection is unique in bringing together key thinkers on language and literature to discuss the future of English in Asia. Many of the contributors are themselves responsible for important sub-genres in English linguistics and literary studies and this collection gives them the opportunity to respond to each other directly. The different chapters also respond to different contemporary debates and emerging trends and discourses that are hugely important for the future of English language teaching in schools across Asia. This volume is also ground-breaking in bringing English literary studies and Applied English Linguistics together in the contemporary Asian context. The Future of English in Asia includes studies on the following subject areas: Cultural Translation in World Englishes, Multilingual Education, English Futures and the function of Literature, English Literary Studies in Japan, and English and Social Media in Asia. Well into this century, it appears that it is still very difficult to know what to expect when it comes to the future of English. The future of English will continue to be determined by complex local contexts. As it has in other parts of the world, the future of English in Asia will continue to rely on the proliferation of its transformations as much as its hegemonic status. This volume reflects the widespread acknowledgement that whatever future English has will inevitably be shaped by its fate in Asia. The collection will be a welcome resource for scholars and students of English linguistics, English literary studies, and topics related to the teaching of English in Asia.

This book gives readers a present and critical view of different language and linguistic issues in selected Asian contexts. The language aspect of the manuscript explores various areas of English language learning and teaching while the linguistic aspect looks at different fields such as sociolinguistics, semantics, stylistics, corpus-based studies, translation studies and cultural studies. These aspects also provide distinct tangents in researching language for they offer significant points of view and outcomes in understanding the influence and/or the function of cultures when dealing with either spoken or written discourses involving native or non-native speakers. Such dynamics are instrumental in bringing about wider range of topics pertinent to the transdisciplinary nature of the current research theme in this part of the world. Substantially, the major sub-disciplines included in the manuscript frame both theoretical and hands-on implications for more rigourous innovations and expansions in the respective area of investigation.

The contributors place the development of Asian studies programs in small colleges in historical context, make a compelling case for the inclusion of Asian studies in the liberal arts curriculum, and consider the challenges faced in developing and sustaining Asian studies programs and ways of meeting such challenges now and in the future.

Reading in Asian Languages is rich with information about how literacy works in the non-alphabetic writing systems (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) used by hundreds of millions of people and refutes the common Western belief that such systems are hard to learn or to use. The contributors share a comprehensive view of reading as construction of meaning which they show is fully applicable to character-based reading. The book explains how and why non-alphabetic writing works well for its users; provides explanations for why it is no more difficult for children to learn than are alphabetic writing systems where they are used; and demonstrates in a number of ways that there is a single process of making sense of written language regardless of the orthography. Unique in its perspective and offering practical theory-based methodology for the teaching of literacy in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean to first and second language learners, it is a useful resource for teachers of increasingly popular courses in these languages in North America as well as for teachers and researchers in Asia. It will stimulate innovation in both research and instruction.