This book is designed to provide insight into the roles of English in and for Europe. The starting point for this comparative study is recognition of the increasing importance of communication with peoples from other cultures and countries. The book contributes to discussions of the possibilities of transnational media offerings, and facilitates a better understanding of the influence of media in foreign language acquisition.

This two volume handbook provides a comprehensive examination of policy, practice, research and theory related to English Language Teaching in international contexts. More than 70 chapters highlight the research foundation for best practices, frameworks for policy decisions, and areas of consensus and controversy in second language acquisition and pedagogy. The Handbook provides a unique resource for policy makers, educational administrators, and researchers concerned with meeting the increasing demand for effective English language teaching. It offers a strongly socio-cultural view of language learning and teaching. It is comprehensive and global in perspective with a range of fresh new voices in English language teaching research.

This volume discusses several facets of English in today's multilingual Europe. It emphasizes the interdependence between cultures, languages and situations that influence its use. This interdependence is particularly relevant to European settings where English is being learned as a second language. Such learning situations constitute the core focus of the book. The volume is unique in bringing together empirical studies examining factors that promote the learning of English in Europe. Rather than assuming that English is a threat to linguistic diversity and cultural independence, these studies discuss psycholinguistic factors such as the input, and sociolinguistic factors such as the type of English that is targeted in learning. The contributing authors are well-established specialists who have worked on multilingualism, English as a Lingua Franca and second language acquisition. The book will be of interest to applied linguists, sociolinguists and teachers of English as a foreign language.

In a constantly interconnected world communication takes place beyond territorial boundaries, in networks where English works as a lingua franca. The volume explores how ELF is employed in internationally-oriented personal blogs; findings show how bloggers deploy an array of resources to their expressive and interactional aims, combining global and local communicative practices. Implications of findings in ELF and ELT terms are also discussed.

This book explores the use of English within otherwise local-language conversations by two continental European social media communities. The analysis of these communities serves not only as a comparison of online language practices, but also as a close look at how globalization phenomena and ‘international English’ play out in the practices of everyday life in different non-English-speaking countries. The author concludes that the root of the distinctive practices in the two communities studied is the disparity between their language ideologies. She argues that community participants draw on their respective national language ideologies, which have developed over centuries, but also reach beyond any static forms of those ideologies to negotiate, contest, and re-evaluate them. This book will be of interest to linguists and other social scientists interested in social media, youth language and the real-world linguistic consequences of globalization.

This book examines everyday literacy in English as a foreign language (EFL). Focusing on the out-of-school literacy practices of teenagers in Athens, Greece, it challenges the notion that classrooms are the only contexts which provide exposure to English for learners. The author demonstrates that English can be a powerful resource for teenagers, as a symbolic tool granting them additional means of communication and self-expression. In doing so, she makes an original contribution to the areas of literacy, language education, and applied linguistics.