Innovations and Challenges: Women, Language and Sexism brings together an outstanding collection of essays from internationally recognised researchers to recontextualise some of the questions raised by feminist thinkers 40 years ago. By taking linguistically mediated violence as a central topic, this collection’s main objective is to explore the different and subtle ways sexism and violence are materialised in discursive practices. In doing so, this book: Takes a multi-stranded investigation into the linguistic and semiotic representations of sexism in societies from an applied linguistic and semiotic perspective; Combines critical discourse analysis, multimodality, interactional sociolinguistics and corpus methodologies to look at language, visuals and semiotic resources in the context of consumerist culture; Examines the conflicted position of women and the discourses of discrimination that still exist in every strand of modern societies; Contextualises pervasive gender issues and reviews key gender and language topics that changed the ways we interpret interaction from the early 1970s until the present; Focuses on institutional discourses and the questions of how women are excluded or discriminated against in the workplace, the law and educational contexts. Innovations and Challenges: Women, Language and Sexism revisits the initial questions posed by the first feminist linguists – where, when and how are women discriminated against and why, in postmodern societies, is there so much sexism in all realms of social life? This book is essential reading for those studying and researching gender across a wide range of disciplines.

Shortlisted for BAAL (British Association for Applied Linguistics) Book Prize 2022 The Routledge Handbook of Language, Gender, and Sexuality provides an accessible and authoritative overview of this dynamic and growing area of research. Covering cutting-edge debates in eight parts, it is designed as a series of mini edited collections, enabling the reader, and particularly the novice reader, to discover new ways of approaching language, gender, and sexuality. With a distinctive focus both on methodologies and theoretical frameworks, the Handbook includes 40 state-of-the art chapters from international authorities. Each chapter provides a concise and critical discussion of a methodological approach, an empirical study to model the approach, a discussion of real-world applications, and further reading. Each section also contains a chapter by leading scholars in that area, positioning, through their own work and chapters in their part, current state-of-the-art and future directions. This volume is key reading for all engaged in the study and research of language, gender, and sexuality within English language, sociolinguistics, discourse studies, applied linguistics, and gender studies.

Innovations and Challenges in Grammar traces the history of common understandings of what grammar is and where it came from to demonstrate how ‘rules’ are anything but fixed and immutable. In doing so, it deconstructs the notion of ‘correctness’ to show how grammar changes over time thereby exposing the social and historical forces that mould and change usage. The questions that this book grapples with are: Can we separate grammar from the other features of the language system and get a handle on it as an independent entity? Why should there be strikingly different notions and models of grammar? Are they (in)compatible? Which one or ones fit(s) best the needs of applied linguists if we assume that applied linguists address real-world problems through the lens of language? And which one(s) could make most sense to non-specialists? If grammar is not a fixed entity but a set of usage norms in constant flux, how can we persuade other professionals and the general public that this is a positive observation rather than a threat to civilised behaviour? This book draws upon both historical and modern grammars from across the globe to provide a multi-layered picture of world grammar. It will be useful to teachers and researchers of English as a first and second language, though the inclusion of examples from and occasional references to other languages (French, Spanish, Malay, Swedish, Russian, Welsh, Burmese, Japanese) is intended to broaden the appeal to teachers and researchers of other languages. It will be of use to final-year undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students as well as secondary and tertiary level teachers and researchers in applied linguistics, second language acquisition and grammar pedagogy.

Innovations and Challenges in Identity Research examines established and emergent issues within identity research. This innovative book adopts a disciplinary transcendent approach, drawing on a range of social science, humanities and human science disciplines on the way to a detailed consideration of: the history of identity as a construct the components of a poststructuralist/social constructivist approach to identity the prospect of a Marxist political economy approach to identity the interrelationship between structure and agency and a model of structuring spheres an expanded version of positioning theory the digital universe as the future of identity research. Leading researcher David Block provides a personal take on this key topic of study in applied linguistics and explains why and how discourse analysis is still a useful means through which we can understand identity today. The book is essential reading for students and academics studying and researching within the area of language and identity.

This collection of essays deals with the interplay of language and social change, asking the question: How can language and society be made gender equal? The contributors examine the critical role of language in the lives of white women and women of color in the United States. Since language pervades many dimensions of women’s lives, this study takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the issues considered. The volume is divided into three sections. The first, “Liberating Language,” focuses on the active role women had in altering the extent of linguistic sexism in English during the 1970s. A second section, “Identity Creation,” deals with the alteration of that portion of language which serves to name women and their experiences. The final section, “Women of Color,” offers a rare and timely look at the particular problems confronted by minority women. It argues that women of color have different problems and different links to language than white middle-class women.

Runner up, British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Book Prize 2023 This book combines teaching-informed research studies and research-informed teaching accounts which explore English language education that engages with (a)gender and (a)sexual diversity. Informed by critical theories, critical literacy, post-structuralism, queer theory, and indigeneity/(de)coloniality, the critical perspectives in this volume consider gender and sexuality as dimensions of human life and aim to promote sexual, gender, emotional and relational wellbeing together with the construction of cultural horizons and citizenship. The chapters are organised around three interdependent areas of inquiry: 1) how educators design pedagogies and curriculums around gender diversity and sexuality, 2) how students and teachers navigate issues of gender diversity and sexuality in practice, as well as 3) how issues of gender diversity and sexuality are (not) addressed in the materials for teaching and learning English. The contributors are all teacher educators-researchers and therefore have vast experience in enacting, implementing, designing, and examining the field of English language teacher education from/for the classroom with a gender perspective in diverse settings, with chapters come from Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the UK and Uruguay.

This edited collection investigates the linguistics of globalisation, geopolitics and gender in workplace cultures in a range of different contemporary international settings. The chapters examine how issues of globalisation, gender and geopolitics affect professionals in different workplace contexts, including domestic workers; IT professionals; teachers, university staff; engineers; entrepreneurs; CEOs of different corporates including locally based businesses as well as multinationals; farmers; co-operative leaders; NGO leaders; bloggers; healthcare assistants and caregivers. Taking different sociolinguistic approaches to exploring language and the geopolitics of gender at work in Dubai, Kuwait, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco, Nigeria, Malaysia, Turkey, Belgium, Switzerland, New Zealand, Uganda, the UK and the USA, each chapter focuses on a range of salient geopolitical issues which often have global applicability, but which may also be subject to more localised socio-cultural variation. The chapters critically discuss issues of gendered language, perceptions and representations of workplace cultures, discrimination, the role of gendered stereotyping and deeply ingrained socio-cultural myths about gender and the importance of examining the intersections of identity – all of which continue to persist as barriers to equality and inclusion in workplaces worldwide. Despite the variation and diversity in professions and geopolitical contexts captured across the chapters, remarkably similar issues of gender discrimination and persisting inequalities are identified and critically discussed, thus pointing to the global nature of these issues. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.