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Text and Pretext in Language Use and Learning

Tuesday, November 26th, 2002, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Speaker: Henry Widdowson, University of Vienna

Henry Widdowson is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Vienna. Professor Widdowson sits on the Board of Management of the ELT Journal and, among other projects, he is the general editor of the Oxford Introductions to Language Study, designed to provide brief, clear introductions to the main disciplinary areas of language study, such as Second Language Acquisition, Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Language Testing, and Language and Culture.
This talk is about how written texts are processed and what that indicates about their use in the teaching of English. It will focus on the effect of pretextual conditions, the purposes and assumptions people bring to their reading and how they position themselves as readers. Participants will think about the types of written texts that should be presented in class, consider how texts should be selected, or specially designed, and what kind of activities texts should be associated with to make them effective for learning. This presentation welcomes audience participation and will offer an occasion for further discussion on key issues in the field of English language teaching.
This program is co-sponsored by JACET (Japan Association of College English Teachers)

Organization: The British Council Tokyo Centre (Tokyo British Council)

Cost: free

Venue: British Council Osaka Centre

Location: Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Contact Tokyo British Council

Neil Stead