Language, Politics and Society: The New Languages Department: Festschrift in honour of Professor D E Ager

167 Pages·2000·0.84 MB·English

by  Sue Wright

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title: Language, Politics, and Society : The New Languages
Department : Festschrift in Honour of Professor D.E. Ager
author: Ager, D. E.
publisher: Multilingual Matters
isbn10 | asin: 1853594873
print isbn13: 9781853594878
ebook isbn13: 9780585273129
language: English
subject Sociolinguistics, Language and languages--Study and
teaching.
publication date: 2000
lcc: P40.L298 2000eb
ddc: 306.44
subject: Sociolinguistics, Language and languages--Study and
teaching.
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Page i
Language, Politics and Society

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Page ii
Multilingual Matters
Analysing Political Speeches
Christina Schäffner (ed.)
Managing Language Diversity
Sue Wright and Helen Kelly-Holmes (eds)
Chtimi: The Urban Vernaculars of Northern France
Timothy Pooley
Community and Communication
Sue Wright
Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
Colin Baker and Sylvia Prys Jones
Ethnicity in Eastern Europe: Questions of Migration, Language Rights and Education
Sue Wright (ed.)
European Television Discourse in Transition
Helen Kelly-Holmes (ed.)
Ethnicity in Eastern Europe: Questions of Migration, Language Rights and Education
Sue Wright (ed.)
European Television Discourse in Transition
Helen Kelly-Holmes (ed.)
'Francophonie' in the 1990s: Problems and Opportunities
Dennis Ager
Identity, Insecurity and Image: France and Language
Dennis Ager
Language, Culture and Communication in Contemporary Europe
Charlotte HoffMan (ed.)
Language and Conflict: A Neglected Relationship
Sue Wright (ed.)
Language Policy and Language Issues in the Succesor States of the Former USSR
Sue Wright (ed.)
Mass Media in the Asian Pacific
Bryce T. McIntyre (ed.)
One Country, Two Systems, Three Languages: A Survey of Changing Language Use in Hong Kong
Sue Wright and Helen Kelly-Holmes (eds)
A Reader in French Sociolinguistics
Malcolm Offord (ed.)
Please contact us for the latest book information:
Multilingual Matters, Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall,
Victoria Road, Clevedon, BS21 7HH, England
http://www.multilingual-matters.com

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Page iii
Language, Politics and Society
The New Languages Department
Festschrift in Honour of Professor D.E. Ager
Edited by
Sue Wright, Linda Hantrais and
Jolyon Howorth

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Page iv
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Language, Politics and Society: The New Languages Department:
Festschrift in honour of Professor D.E. Ager
Edited by Sue Wright, Linda Hantrais and Jolyon Howorth
Includes bibliographical references and index
1. Sociolinguistics. 2. Language and languages-Study and teaching.
I. Ager, D.E. II. Wright, Sue. III. Hantrais, Linda. IV. Howorth, Jolyon.
P40.L298 2000
306.44-dc21 99-054925
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 1-85359-487-3 (hbk)
Multilingual Matters Ltd
UK: Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall, Victoria Road, Clevedon BS21 7HH.
USA: UTP, 2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA.
Canada: UTP, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario M3H 5T8, Canada.
Australia: P.O. Box 586, Artarmon, NSW, Australia.
Copyright © 2000 Sue Wright, Linda Hantrais, Jolyon Howorth and the authors of individual articles.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing
from the publisher.
Typeset by Solidus Ltd, Bristol.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by the Cromwell Press Ltd.

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Page v
Dennis E. Ager
Professor of Modern Languages
Aston University, 19711999

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Page i
Language, Politics and Society

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Page vii
Contents
Introduction
Sue Wright and Jolyon Howorth ix
Acknowledgements xv
Contributors xvii
1
Strange Encounters in the Fourth Dimension: Foreign Language
Study As a Voyage of Exploration
Michael Townson 1
2
Living There: Jewish Identity and Culture in Germany after the
Holocaust
Eva Kolinsky 16
3
The Fugitive, the Transport, the BBC and Mass Murder: A BBC
Broadcast about Gassings in Auschwitz in June 1944
Mark Roseman 26
4
Business Élites in France: Reflections on the Continued Exercise
of Power
Mairi Maclean 40
5
'Le Retour Du Civil' in French Political Culture
Gino Raymond 56
6
The City as Narrative: Representations of Paris in French Cinema
(1930-1990s)
Susan Hayward 64
7
The Front National in the 1990s: From Consolidation to Crisis
James G. Shields 72
8
Franco-British Relations and the European Common Foreign and
Security Policy: From Cooperation to Integration?
Jolyon Howorth 85
9
Metaphors and Trains of Thought: Spotting Journey Imagery in
British and German Political Discourse
Andreas Musolff 100
10
From Contexts to Concepts: Comparing Social Policy Inputs and
Outcomes in Europe
Linda Hantrais 110

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Page viii
11
Communicating Across Divides: lingua francas in Europe
Sue Wright 119
12
Sociolinguistics in a Classless Society?
Frank Knowles 129
13
Real-World Contexts for English Spelng Studis
Christopher Upward 140

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Page ix
Introduction
Sue Wright and Jolyon Howorth
The thirteen essays in this volume are dedicated to Professor Dennis Ager on his retirement.
Their range is eloquent testimony to the catholicity and openness of Professor Ager's approach to what was originally
called 'Area Studies'. They celebrate the diversity over which he presided as head of the French department and head of
the faculty of Modern Languages in the period 19711998. Dennis Ager was one of the instigators of a new style of
modern languages department in which literary criticism played a lesser role and where contemporary politics and
society replaced them as the main focus of study Although a linguist by training, he was convinced that a new approach
was required in language departments with inputs from across the whole range of disciplines clustering under the
umbrella of the social and human sciences. Another innovation was the belief that this scrutiny would be undertaken
entirely in the language of the society studied. Since language acquisition was often linked to the study of texts on the
same subjects, the distinction between language classes proper and study of the society was blurred; there were no
longer two strands to a languages degree. This model has been refined and elaborated over the years, but the philosophy
remains essentially the same as that developed in the mould-breaking innovations of the 1970s to which Dennis Ager
contributed so influentially He not only advanced theory tested out in his own department and in his own classes, but
was also instrumental in promoting the associations which spread the new ideas and socialised academics into the new
culture.
All the authors in this present volume are, or have been, members of the faculty at Aston. Dennis Ager had an
outstanding gift for spotting talented young researchers and, as the list of former Aston staff demonstrates, succeeded in
building up and constantly replenishing a department which acted as a crucible for many of the teachers and scholars
who currently lead the field both at Aston and in other departments throughout the country Above all, he knew how to
encourage his staff to give of their best, both in teaching and in

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