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In this accessible introduction, Mike Sharwood Smith provides a working model or 'map' of the mind, with language as its centrepiece. Drawing on cutting-edge research across linguistics, psychology and neuroscience, it allows students to quickly grasp how each separate aspect of the mind's operations can be related. This 'big picture' view includes the way the mind makes, stores and loses memories of all kinds as well how its various 'expert systems' combine and collaborate to solve, typically beyond our conscious awareness, the myriad of tasks we are faced with every minute and millisecond of our existence. The book also focuses on language, that is, the mind of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual speakers. It will be of interest to all students wishing to learn more about the complex relationship between language - one of the most important ways in which we define ourselves as human - and the mind.
List of contents
Introduction; Part I. Mechanisms of the Mind: 1. The basic design; 2. Perception; 3. Motion; 4. Meaning; 5. Affect; 6. Memory, processing and activation; 7. Consciousness and attention; 8. Developing knowledge and ability; Part II. Language(s) in the Mind: 9. Defining language; 10. The core system; 11. Language beyond the core; 12. Two ways of knowing a language; 13. Language and affect; 14. Language development in the monolingual; 15. Becoming multilingual.
About the author
Mike Sharwood Smith is an Emeritus Professor at Heriot-Watt University and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. He has worked in many countries across the world, teaching (applied) linguistics, English language and second language acquisition. He has more than a hundred publications and is known for terms such as 'grammatical consciousness-raising', 'crosslinguistic influence' and 'input-enhancement'. His major interests are the cognitive processes underlying the use and acquisition of languages. With John Truscott, he pioneered a crossdisciplinary framework for framing explanations of many diverse aspects of language acquisition. He is also founding editor of the leading journal Second Language Research.
Summary
This introductory textbook is for students and academic specialists in any area of cognitive science. It will also be a valuable resource as background reading for practitioners or professionals involved in the teaching of languages, applied linguistics, language therapy, translation and interpreting.
