Grammar, Meaning, and Concepts ― A Discourse-based Approach to English Grammar

Grammar, Meaning, and Concepts is a book for language teachers and learners that focuses on the meanings of grammatical constructions within discourse rather than on language as structure governed by rigid rules. This text emphasizes the ways in which users of language construct meaning, express viewpoints, and depict imageries using the conceptual meaning-filled categories that underlie all of grammar. Written by a team of authors with years of experience teaching grammar to future teachers of English, this book puts grammar in the context of real language and illustrates grammar in use through an abundance of authentic data examples. Each chapter provides a variety of activities that focus on grammar, genre, discourse, and meaning that can be used as is or adapted for classroom practice. The activities are also designed to raise awareness about discourse, grammar, and meaning in all facets of everyday life, and can be used as springboards for upper high school, undergraduate, and graduate level research projects and inquiry-based grammatical analysis. This is an ideal textbook for those in the areas of teacher education, discourse analysis, applied linguistics, second language teaching, ESL, EFL, and communications looking to teach and learn grammar from a dynamic perspective.

Susan Strauss is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and Asian Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. Her research interests center on the interface of discourse, cognition, interaction, and culture, often from a cross-linguistic/cross-cultural perspective. She is co-author of Discourse Analysis: Putting our Worlds into Words (Routledge, 2014).

Parastou Feiz is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of English at California State University San Bernardino, USA. Her research focuses on comparative analyses of grammatical structures across languages, particularly Persian and English. She is the co-author of Discourse Analysis: Putting our Worlds into Words (Routledge, 2014).

Xuehua Xiang is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. Her research focuses on using empirical lenses, such as discourse analysis, corpus tools, and cognitive-functional perspectives, to study the interaction of language, culture and communication.