Riitta Jaatinen 
Learning Languages, Learning Life Skills 
Autobiographical reflexive approach to teaching and learning a foreign language

Learning Languages, Learning Life Skills offers an autobiographical reflexive approach to foreign language education. The orientation of the book is practical, containing rich descriptions of language learning situations including authentic language use and student stories.

Teaching, including planning, methods, classroom work and evaluation, and case studies of ‘good’ language learning and how dialogue based on reminiscing can be used to promote students’ well-being in the language classroom are described in detail. Many practical examples of how to develop autobiographical reflexive approach, based on the phenomenological philosophy, and methodology, are presented. Learning Languages, Learning Life Skills significantly enhances the communicative approach and going beyond it into a new paradigm, whereby foreign language teaching and learning are seen as foreign language education.

The book offers unique ways of developing vocational language teaching as an integrated holistic approach combining language contents with vocationally relevant topics and the interactive, dialogical processes of working in language classes. Presented in a ‘common sense’ way and accessible to non-native English readers, Learning Languages, Learning Life Skills will be of interest to teachers as well as researchers in the areas of applied and educational linguistics.

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