s the world continues to interconnect, in this modern age, the need for people to understand one another is magnified. Whether for business purposes, entertainment, tourism or any other reason, the more people learn about the world and the cultures that define them, the more they are able to make this world a better place. The languages people speak reflect the lives lived. Understanding people's cultures therefore necessitates the use of language. This book underscores the importance of using language and literature to enhance cultural understanding. It also discusses the ways in which the teaching of African languages and literature can be used as vehicles for developing people's understanding of African cultures.

This edited book brings together contributions from scholars in different international and educational contexts to take a critical look at the design and implementation of second language Study Abroad Research (SAR). Examining data sources and types, research paradigms and methods, and analytic approaches, the authors not only provide insight into the field as it currently stands, but also offer recommendations for future research, with the aim of revitalizing inquiry in the field of SAR. This book will be of interest to applied linguists, as well as educators and education scholars with an interest in researching international study.

For more than fifty years a dynamic modern literature has been developing in the Kiswahili language. The political weight that Kiswahili carries as the emerging national and pan-national language of many East African countries places this literature, much of it in the form of novels, at the centre of heated literary debates on the social function of literature in the context of rapid global social change. Garnier provides new insights into the Swahili novel form with all its vibrancy and capacity for experimentation. Its obsession with social issues relates to larger, all-pervasive political debates running through East Africa: in its press, its streets, its public and private places. The novels both record and provoke these debates. Based on the study of more than 175 Swahili novels by almost 100 authors, Garnier brings to light a body of work much neglected by African literary critics, but which looks outwards to the wider world. Xavier Garnier teaches African Literature at the Universit Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle and is former director of the Centre d'Etudes des Nouveaux Espaces Litt raires, Universit Paris 13.

To address the idea of agency in translation is to highlight the interplay of power and ideology: what gets translated or not and why a text is translated is mainly a matter of exercising power or reflecting authority. The contributions in this book serve as an attempt to understand the complex nature of agency in terms of its relation to agents of translation; the role of translatorial agents and the way they exercise their agency in (de)constructing narratives of power and identity; and the influence of translatorial agency on the various processes of translation and hence on the final translation product as well. (Series: Reprasentation - Transformation. Representation - Transformation. Representation - Transformation. Translating across Cultures and Societies - Vol. 10) [Subject: Translation Studies, Linguistics]