Investigating English Discourse

Book excerpt: In this challenging and at times controversial book, Ronald Carter addresses the discourse of 'English' as a subject of teaching and learning. Among the key topics investigated are: * grammar * correctness and standard English * critical language awareness and literacy * language and creativity * the methodological integration of language and literature in the curriculum * discourse theory and textual interpretation. Investigating English Discourse is a collection of revised, re-edited and newly written papers which contain extensive contrastive analyses of different styles of international English. These range from casual conversation to advertisement, poetry, jokes, metaphor, stories by canonical writers, public notices and children's writing. Ronald Carter highlights key issues for the study and teaching of 'English' for the year 2000 and beyond, focusing in particular on its political and ideological inflections. Investigating English Discourse is of relevance to teachers and students and researchers in the fields of discourse analysis, English as a first, second and foreign language, language and education, applied and literary linguistics.