This chapter surveys the scholarship on linguistics in education and analyzes the status of linguistics in language education master’s programs. Using the National Center for Education Statistics’ Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) system to define the data field, we searched the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System for institutions conferring degrees between 2011-2020 for CIP code 13.14, the designation for master’s programs in Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. From this list, we analyzed available curricula for both MA/MS TESOL degree and MA/MS in elementary, secondary, or adult education language teacher training. Considering programs across 255 institutions, we analyzed linguistics courses as required, elective, or not present. Results reveal that linguistics is integrated at variable rates. Focusing on four core subdisciplines, TESOL fares better: Introductory linguistics was required 69% of the time, sociolinguistics 41.5%, syntax/grammar 53%, and second language acquisition (SLA) 70%. A more dismal picture appears for the other language education group: Introductory linguistics was required 6% of the time, sociolinguistics 6%, syntax/grammar 4%, and SLA 12%. This study demonstrates that language teachers require more robust linguistics education to better equip them for serving language learners’ needs.

Chapter 1 opens with a discussion of the foundational importance of classical education in Roman society and politics, and how it served as a basis for both office-holding and elite Roman identity and self-fashioning. The chapter also provides a prosopographical sketch of the teachers and students that are visible in the historical record from the fourth to early sixth centuries in Gaul, showing that identifiable teachers and students begin to fade from the sources from the later-fifth and early-sixth centuries. It discusses the marked shift in the visibility of these individuals, the changing nature of our sources for education throughout the period, the limitations of our sources, and what we can learn from those limitations. The chapter argues that, while classical education largely disappears from the historical record by the early sixth century, this by no means indicates that classical education ceased to exist entirely. Rather, it shows that classical education was no longer a ‘public’ institution as it had been under the Roman empire, and that it did not occupy that specific place within politics, society, and culture that allowed it to be visible and take a prominent place in the technical and literary texts of the period.

The introduction sets out the approaches, sources, and scope of the book. It acquaints the reader with the main features of classical education and places the book within the modern historiography.

This chapter presents a portrait of study and teaching at the Faculty of Arts in Paris during the first half-century of the university's existence: from enrolment under a master to obtaining a licence, entering the corporation of the Magistri Artium and, eventually, enrolment in one of the higher faculties (theology, canon law or medicine).

This chapter discusses the work of twelfth-century theologians in Paris who laid the foundations for the development of theology as a discipline in the university. These thinkers explored the characteristics and limits of the discourse on God in theological treatises and summae, which employed increasingly sophisticated technical terminology drawn in part from grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

This chapter traces the development of a number of Trinitarian issues throughout the second half of the twelfth century - the classification of theological language, the debate about why we can say 'God begot God' but not 'essence begot essence', and the definition of the personal properties - and show how they shape Lateran IV and continue thereafter. Finally, the chapter indicates some new approaches and areas of focus among theologians writing after the council.

This chapter is about the development of human language, one of the more distinctive traits of the human species. In the first two sections, we present some reflections about the nature of human language and the theories that have aimed to explain their acquisition in children to date. The core of the chapter focuses on a thorough description of the course of language development in children and adolescents according to their four most prominent aspects: phonology, semantics, grammar, and pragmatics. Finally, we present a section on atypical language development (in children with hearing, visual or intellectual impairment, and children with specific language impairment), and another section devoted to bilingualism and second-language learning.

This chapter surveys the field of recent grammatical change in English. We focus on the period since 1900 but also discuss how certain recent changes relate to longer-term trends. Many of our examples involve the verb phrase or verbal complementation, but changes in other areas such as the noun phrase are also noted. We address methodological issues that arise in researching recent change, considering the various kinds of corpora available and the complexities involved in tracking grammatical change over time. We then discuss how patterns of change vary between spoken and written language and across different genres. Finally, we consider a range of possible explanations or motivations for change, including grammaticalisation, economy and social influences.

This chapter explores the language of dialect writing in the history of English. It surveys the complexities underlying the social and linguistic interactions between (non-)standard varieties with examples of literary dialect and dialect literature written between 1500 and 1900 that are now available in the Salamanca Corpus. It is shown that such evidence provides useful insight into the history of forms that remain underexplored, while it vividly reflects changing ideologies about dialect variation. In this regard, this chapter draws on third-wave sociolinguistic models to illustrate that the combination of frameworks such as enregisterment and indexicality with quantitative analysis of dialect writing can prove beneficial in reconstructing linguistic ideas about dialects and ascertaining shifting indexicalities, while it informs our understanding of the social meaning of dialect variation in the past.

Kant claims that to “pick out from ordinary cognition the concepts that are not based on any particular experience and yet are present in all cognition from experience (for which they constitute as it were the mere form of connection) required no greater reflection or more insight than to cull from a language rules for the actual use of words in general, and so to compile the elements of a grammar” (4:323). The analogy with grammar offers a fruitful way to understand how the categories apply to and structure the materials provided by sensibility and empirical concepts. The categories might be described as providing the rules of a kind of ‘transcendental grammar’ that makes experience possible. Attending to the analogy with grammar reveals that the link between the categories and empirical concepts is far closer than one might initially think, since the content to which the categories apply must be grounded in sensible experience. Grammar does not create new content but rather informs propositions by giving structure to linguistic elements available to speakers of a language; likewise, the categories do not produce new cognition but rather ‘inform’ judgments by giving structure to the sensible contents provided by experience.

After acquiring sufficient vocabulary in a foreign language, learners start understanding parts of conversations in that language. Speaking, in contrast, is a harder task. Forming grammatical sentences requires choosing the right tenses and following syntax rules. Every beginner EFL speaker makes grammar errors – and the type of grammar errors can reveal hints about their native language. For instance, Russian speakers tend to omit the determiner “the” because Russian doesn’t use such modifying words. One linguistic phenomenon that is actually easier in English than in many other languages is grammatical gender. English doesn’t assign gender to inanimate nouns such as “table” or “cup.” A few years ago, the differences in grammatical gender between languages helped reveal societal gender bias in automatic translation: translation systems that were shown gender-neutral statements in Turkish about doctors and nurses assumed that the doctor was male while the nurse was female.

Practical wisdom is caring understanding of the good in the situations of a human life. Our emotions are rational to the extent that we care about the real good and are truthful about the facts. The two main kinds of virtues – the virtues of caring and the enkratic virtues – embody different aspects of practical wisdom. On the one side, in compassion, generosity, justice, and sense of duty, we care about and understand our good in its varieties and aspects. On the other side, we know about and know our practical way around ourselves, our shortcomings and the ways they may be mitigated and repaired by use of courage, patience, perseverance, and self-control. The virtues of caring form a coherent ensemble and overall picture of the good, a practical wisdom by which we see our situations in the perspective of a whole life.

After briefly touching upon the relevance of online communication to language learning and the learning of grammar in today’s world, the chapter opens with an introduction to the theoretical and historical background of grammar teaching. It then moves on to introduce some of the more popular and accessible forms of technology-based grammar instruction, elucidating how each one ties in with grammar teaching principles and pedagogical practices. Following this, relevant research practices are introduced, followed by recommendations for research and practice. The chapter ends with predictions for the future of technology-enhanced grammar teaching and learning.

Describe the challenges children face in learning language; understand key features of child language development; explain the strategies children use to learn sounds, words, and grammar.