Celia Roberts & Ana Barro 
Language Learners as Ethnographers [PDF ebook] 

This book looks at the role of cultural studies and intercultural communication in language learning. The book argues that learners who have an opportunity to stay in the target language country can be trained to do an ethnographic project while abroad. Borrowing from anthropologists’ the idea of cultural fieldwork and ‘writing culture’, language learners develop their linguistic and cultural competence through the study of a local group. This book combines a theoretical overview of language and cultural practices with a description of ethnographic approaches and materials specifically designed for language learners.

Table of Content

Part I Language Learning and Ethnography: Theory and Practice
1 New Goals
2 Introducing Cultural Learning into the Language Curriculum
3 Theoretical Issues in Language and Cultural Practices
4 Representations, Discourses and Practices
5 Ethnography for Linguists
Part II The Ealing Ethnography Project: A Case Study
6 Teaching Ethnography
7 Developing the Principles for an Ethnography Course
8 The Ethnography Class
9 The Student Ethnography Projects
10 ‘The Year Abroad’: An Ethnographic Experience
11 Conclusions and New Perspectives
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Brian V Street is Emeritus Professor of Language in Education at King’s College, London University and Visiting Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania. He has a commitment to linking ethnographic-style research on the cultural dimension of language and literacy with contemporary practice in education and in development. Over the past 25 years he has undertaken anthropological field research and been consultant to projects in these fields in countries of both the North and South (e.g. Nepal, S. Africa, India, USA, UK). He has published 18 books and 120 scholarly papers.