Language: History & General Works

Dongjing Han Vocabulary Knowledge and Listening Performance in English Language Learning

Case Studies in China

New York, 2020 . XXII, 154 pp ., 5 b/w ill ., 60 tables .

hb . • ISBN 978-1-4331-6368-5 CHF 93 .– / €D 80 .95 / €A 82 .50 / € 75 .– / £ 60 .– / US-$ 89 .95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-1-4331-7055-3 CHF 93 .– / €D 89 .95 / €A 90 .– / € 75 .– / £ 60 .– / US-$ 89 .95

The primary aim of this book is to enhance English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ listening proficiency and provide pedagogical implications for vocabulary and listening teaching practice . This book gives particular attention to mastery of aural vocabulary knowledge to enhancement of listening performance in Chinese context . It provides a comprehensive picture of the role of vocabulary acquisition approaches and strategy practice in listening performance . This book evaluates the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL), which has not been sufficiently investigated empirically . In particular, it has an added focus on the use of aural vocabulary knowledge tests in detecting the role of vocabulary knowledge in listening comprehension . It highlights the role of vocabulary knowledge in determining listening success . Specifically, it draws scholars’ attention to the contributions of aural vocabulary knowledge to listening comprehension . The study also confirms the previous hypotheses of higher correlations between aural vocabulary size knowledge and listening comprehension . Pedagogically, it confirms the significance and necessity of improving both aural and written forms of vocabulary knowledge and focusing on strategy-embedded listening activities in EFL listening education . In this book, each chapter is dedicated to a specific theme in EFL learning and acquisition, providing a China case study dedicated to further development of EFL education . Manuel Barberá López Making the Best of a Bad Job

Representations of Disability, Gender and Old Age in the Novels of Samuel Beckett

New York, 2021 . XIV, 198 pp . Masculinity Studies. Literary and Cultural Representations. Vol. 11

hb . • ISBN 978-1-4331-8729-2 CHF 98 .– / €D 84 .95 / €A 87 .10 / € 79 .20 / £ 64 .– / US-$ 94 .95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-1-4331-8730-8 CHF 98 .– / €D 84 .95 / €A 87 .10 / € 79 .20 / £ 64 .– / US-$ 94 .95

This book explores the representations of disability, gender and old age in the novels of Samuel Beckett . His works go against the foundations of Western thought, which has been traditionally focused on success, clarity, learning and ability, while Beckett chose to focus on failure, confusion, decay and impotence . This study purports to show the central importance of the three categories chosen for the general understanding of the writer’s work . It constitutes an attempt to provide a gendered interpretation of Beckett’s protagonists, who are increasingly unable to reason, talk or move properly, extremely old and do not fit hegemonic models of masculinity . Beckett, who denies his own ability as an author to understand and explain a chaotic world, chooses these disabled, old men as the ultimate representatives of the human condition and the best models to transmit his worldview . This is a book combining different perspectives and getting to conclusions regarding power structures which are particularly interesting for researchers or students taking courses on the dialectics of alterity, masculinities studies or new readings of Samuel Beckett’s works . The author’s research is based on the main arguments of feminist thought, masculinities studies, disability studies, ageing studies and recent work on Beckett . The ultimate goal of such interdisciplinary approach is to show how different systems of oppression work in similar ways and to draw the political implications of Beckett’s literary choices, in terms of visibility and solidarity .

Marc Caball• David F. Ford (eds.) Musics of Belonging

The Poetry of Micheal O’Siadhail

Oxford, 2007 . XVI, 248 pp ., 6 b/w ill . Carysfort Press Ltd.. Vol. 786

pb . • ISBN 978-1-78997-064-7 CHF 81 .– / €D 69 .95 / €A 71 .50 / € 65 .– / £ 53 .– / US-$ 78 .95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-1-78997-065-4 CHF 81 .– / €D 76 .95 / €A 78 .– / € 65 .– / £ 53 .– / US-$ 78 .95

Micheal O’Siadhail is not only one of the most widely read contemporary Irish poets, but his poetry has also increasingly drawn the attention of critics and commentators . In this intriguing book some leading Irish, English and American literary scholars of his poetry come together with others who approach him and his work through biography, history, art, music, translation, religion and philosophy . Their essays are intended for whoever has enjoyed O’Siadhail’s life-loving, intense yet accessible poems . An overall account is given of his life, his work and the reception of his poetry so far . There are close readings of some poems, analyses of his artistry in matching diverse content with both classical and innovative forms, and studies of recurrent themes such as love, death, language, music and the shifts of modern life . His rich intellectual and imaginative world of meaning is explored, and special attention is paid to early collections, to his tour de force on the Holocaust, and to Globe’s meditations on history and vision in a time of rapid change . O’Siadhail’s stature as an Irish and European poet is assessed, and a range of affinities with other poets - Donne, Rilke, Dante, Kavanagh - are traced . Yet the attempt to categorize O’Siadhail comes up against the real possibility that, according to one critic, ‘it may be that he has done something rare, that he has created his own tradition’ . Martin Simonson• Jon Alkorta Martiartu From East to West

The Portrayal of Nature in British Fantasy and its Projection in Ursula K . Le Guin’s Western American “Earthsea”

Bern, 2021 . 160 pp . Critical Perspectives on English and American Literature, Communication and Culture. Vol. 27

pb . • ISBN 978-3-0343-4250-6 CHF 56 .– / €D 47 .95 / €A 49 .30 / € 44 .90 / £ 37 .– / US-$ 54 .95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-3-0343-4327-5 CHF 56 .– / €D 47 .95 / €A 49 .40 / € 44 .90 / £ 37 .– / US-$ 54 .95

The portrayal of nature in the genre of fantasy fiction, from the Middle Ages to more modern times, has been conditioned by the diverging social, political and historical contexts . This book seeks to disclose how the natural world has been depicted within this genre during different periods, drawing a comparison between the British tradition of fantasy literature and Ursula K . Le Guin’s Earthsea cycle . Le Guin adheres to the general traits of the genre up to a point, but as a woman of the 20th century living in the American West, her works also deviate from the received tradition in many significant ways .