Guy Cook
Biographic Data
| ID | 3823662 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Guy Cook |
| GIVEN NAMES | Guy |
| FAMILY NAME | Cook |
| SIGNATURE | COOK G |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8907-7212 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 91 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Henry Widdowson
‘There has been general agreement in recent years’ blandly intones one writer quoted in this book. Most readers pass over such harmless verbiage without comment. Not Henry Widdowson. He takes issue. ‘General agreement’ is not the desirable quality this hapless writer assumed. Where such general agreement has become unthinking orthodoxy, it is ruthlessly and rigorously taken apart, piece by piece, again and again. Iconoclastically, irreverently, p…
Ledatoo
The article discusses the morality of W. B. Yeats’ sonnet Leda and the Swan in the context of a widening gap between the sexual mores of earlier times and our own, and whether the poem remains a suitable choice for the teaching of stylistics. I begin by examining stylistics treatments of the poem, and its political, social and artistic context, then move on to consider charges of misogyny against the poem for eroticising and failing to condemn th…
Dan Jurafsky
Birds out of Dinosaurs
This article reflects on the fragmentation and conceptual incoherence of contemporary applied linguistics.
A pig is a person’ or ‘You can love a fox and hunt it
In contemporary urban society, animals have been erased in many people’s lives. They are generally encountered only as meat, pets, pests or vicariously in fiction and documentaries; yet the relation of humans to other animals is a matter of pressing environmental, social, economic and philosophical concern, and across the social and natural sciences there is increased interest in human–animal interaction. This situation gives rise to many differe…
English Language Teacher Education
The first part of this paper considers approaches to teacher education for EFL developed during the 1960s-1990s, drawing upon two sources: the taxonomy of three approaches proposed by Wallace (1991) and personal reminiscence. It discusses each of Wallace's approaches in turn: craft, 'applied science', and reflective practice.The second part considers whether these approaches are adequate models for teacher education now. I suggest that while they…
British applied linguistics
This article critically examines the demand that academic research should be assessed by its impact, and universities' compliance with that demand. Although the discussion centres mainly on the UK, it will have relevance to any academic context where government and/or business seek to control academics. The article begins by briefly examining the meaning of impact. It next considers the role of applied linguistics in shaping language-teaching rev…
Own-language use in language teaching and learning
Until recently, the assumption of the language-teaching literature has been that new languages are best taught and learned monolingually, without the use of the students’ own language(s). In recent years, however, this monolingual assumption has been increasingly questioned, and a re-evaluation of teaching that relates the language being taught to the students’ own language has begun. This article surveys the developing English language literatur…
Sweet talking
At a time of diminishing resources, the sum of apparently minor personal decisions about food can have immense impact. These individual choices are heavily influenced by language, as those with vested interests seek to persuade individuals to act in certain ways. This makes the language of food politics a fitting area for an expanding applied linguistics oriented towards real-world language-related problems of global and social importance. The pa…
Overlooked issues of religious identity in the school dinners debate
The TV broadcast of Jamie's school dinners in 2005 prompted action throughout the UK to improve the standards of school meals. A public debate continues across the media around changes, resistance to them and consequences. This article draws upon the findings of a one‐year ESRC‐funded project on the English school dinners debate, which analysed interviews with stakeholders, focus groups of primary and secondary pupils and their parents, and corpo…
But it's all true!”
Debates over food politics provide insight into the convergence of commercial and political discourses. As the organic food market has grown, campaigners and independent producers have faced the dilemma of how far they should promote their cause using standard marketing language. We report on a research project which combined corpus analysis, interviews and focus group discussions to investigate the discourse of organic food promotion in Britain,…
A thing of the future
“Words of mass destruction”
This article reports the findings of a one-year project examining British press coverage of the genetically modified (GM) food debate during the first half of 2003, and both expert and non-expert reactions to that coverage. Two pro-GM newspapers and two anti-GM newspapers were selected for analysis, and all articles mentioning GM during the period in question were stored in a machine readable database. This was then analyzed using corpus linguist…
Calm seas or troubled waters? Transitions, definitions and disagreements in applied linguistics
This article advances the position that an apparent current consensus over the nature and scope of applied linguistics is illusory. It is achieved only when definitions of the discipline are couched in the most general terms. When the details of theories are specified, we find fundamental differences of opinion both within applied linguistics and with linguistics. In the first part, the article reflects upon the history of applied linguistics, ch…
Rewritten rites
Despite their personal and social significance, life-course transition rituals (marking, for example, birth, marriage, death) have received scant attention in discourse analysis. Yet radical changes in them, including a growth in secular ceremonies, can provide insight into contemporary discourse and society. This article considers the case of funerals. By contrasting the openings of a traditional religious (Christian) funeral, an updated version…
The Scientists Think and the Public Feels’
Debates about new technologies, such as crop and food genetic modification (GM), raise pressing questions about the ways ‘experts’ and ‘ nonexperts’ communicate. These debates are dynamic, characterized by many voices contesting numerous storylines. The discoursal features, including language choices and communication strategies, of the GM debate are in some ways taken for granted and in others actively manipulated by participants. Although there…
The Discourse of Advertising
This comprehensive introduction to advertising discourse examines the language of contemporary advertising, not as an isolated object, but in complex interaction with the texts around it, with music and pictures and, importantly, with the people who make and experience it. Clearly explaining relevant theories of linguistics and poetics, each chapter ends with a series of stimulating exercises, and theoretical discussion is accompanied by examples…
'The philosopher pulled the lower jaw of the hen'. Ludicrous invented sentences in language teaching
This paper assesses, and contests, the long tradition of attacks on the use of invented sentences in language teaching. It seeks to separate arguments against them which rely on parody and ridicule, from more reasoned assertions. Four main serious arguments are identified: invented sentences are 'meaningless'; they are not discourse; they are not 'real'; and they are 'bad' for learners. Each of these claims is discussed in turn, and countered. It…
Language Teaching
Language Knowledge: Pronunciation. Christiane Dalton and Barbara Seidlhofer. 1994. Language Knowledge: Grammar. Rob Batstone. 1994. Language Knowledge: Vocabulary. Michael McCarthy. 1990. Language Knowledge: Discourse. Guy Cook. 1989. Modes of Behaviour: Listening. Anne Anderson and Tony Lynch. 1988. Modes of Behaviour: Speaking. Martin Bygate. 1987. Modes of Behaviour: Reading: Catherine Wallace. 1992. Modes of Behaviour: Writing.: Christopher T…
Genes, memes, rhymes
Trancribing infinity
The Scientists Think and the Public Feels’
Debates about new technologies, such as crop and food genetic modification (GM), raise pressing questions about the ways ‘experts’ and ‘ nonexperts’ communicate. These debates are dynamic, characterized by many voices contesting numerous storylines. The discoursal features, including language choices and communication strategies, of the GM debate are in some ways taken for granted and in others actively manipulated by participants. Although there…
Own-language use in language teaching and learning
Until recently, the assumption of the language-teaching literature has been that new languages are best taught and learned monolingually, without the use of the students’ own language(s). In recent years, however, this monolingual assumption has been increasingly questioned, and a re-evaluation of teaching that relates the language being taught to the students’ own language has begun. This article surveys the developing English language literatur…
Trancribing infinity
Rewritten rites
Despite their personal and social significance, life-course transition rituals (marking, for example, birth, marriage, death) have received scant attention in discourse analysis. Yet radical changes in them, including a growth in secular ceremonies, can provide insight into contemporary discourse and society. This article considers the case of funerals. By contrasting the openings of a traditional religious (Christian) funeral, an updated version…
A pig is a person’ or ‘You can love a fox and hunt it
In contemporary urban society, animals have been erased in many people’s lives. They are generally encountered only as meat, pets, pests or vicariously in fiction and documentaries; yet the relation of humans to other animals is a matter of pressing environmental, social, economic and philosophical concern, and across the social and natural sciences there is increased interest in human–animal interaction. This situation gives rise to many differe…
A thing of the future
Sweet talking
At a time of diminishing resources, the sum of apparently minor personal decisions about food can have immense impact. These individual choices are heavily influenced by language, as those with vested interests seek to persuade individuals to act in certain ways. This makes the language of food politics a fitting area for an expanding applied linguistics oriented towards real-world language-related problems of global and social importance. The pa…
Trancribing infinity
Genes, memes, rhymes
Language Teaching
Language Knowledge: Pronunciation. Christiane Dalton and Barbara Seidlhofer. 1994. Language Knowledge: Grammar. Rob Batstone. 1994. Language Knowledge: Vocabulary. Michael McCarthy. 1990. Language Knowledge: Discourse. Guy Cook. 1989. Modes of Behaviour: Listening. Anne Anderson and Tony Lynch. 1988. Modes of Behaviour: Speaking. Martin Bygate. 1987. Modes of Behaviour: Reading: Catherine Wallace. 1992. Modes of Behaviour: Writing.: Christopher T…
The Discourse of Advertising
This comprehensive introduction to advertising discourse examines the language of contemporary advertising, not as an isolated object, but in complex interaction with the texts around it, with music and pictures and, importantly, with the people who make and experience it. Clearly explaining relevant theories of linguistics and poetics, each chapter ends with a series of stimulating exercises, and theoretical discussion is accompanied by examples…
'The philosopher pulled the lower jaw of the hen'. Ludicrous invented sentences in language teaching
This paper assesses, and contests, the long tradition of attacks on the use of invented sentences in language teaching. It seeks to separate arguments against them which rely on parody and ridicule, from more reasoned assertions. Four main serious arguments are identified: invented sentences are 'meaningless'; they are not discourse; they are not 'real'; and they are 'bad' for learners. Each of these claims is discussed in turn, and countered. It…
The Scientists Think and the Public Feels’
Debates about new technologies, such as crop and food genetic modification (GM), raise pressing questions about the ways ‘experts’ and ‘ nonexperts’ communicate. These debates are dynamic, characterized by many voices contesting numerous storylines. The discoursal features, including language choices and communication strategies, of the GM debate are in some ways taken for granted and in others actively manipulated by participants. Although there…
Calm seas or troubled waters? Transitions, definitions and disagreements in applied linguistics
This article advances the position that an apparent current consensus over the nature and scope of applied linguistics is illusory. It is achieved only when definitions of the discipline are couched in the most general terms. When the details of theories are specified, we find fundamental differences of opinion both within applied linguistics and with linguistics. In the first part, the article reflects upon the history of applied linguistics, ch…
Rewritten rites
Despite their personal and social significance, life-course transition rituals (marking, for example, birth, marriage, death) have received scant attention in discourse analysis. Yet radical changes in them, including a growth in secular ceremonies, can provide insight into contemporary discourse and society. This article considers the case of funerals. By contrasting the openings of a traditional religious (Christian) funeral, an updated version…
“Words of mass destruction”
This article reports the findings of a one-year project examining British press coverage of the genetically modified (GM) food debate during the first half of 2003, and both expert and non-expert reactions to that coverage. Two pro-GM newspapers and two anti-GM newspapers were selected for analysis, and all articles mentioning GM during the period in question were stored in a machine readable database. This was then analyzed using corpus linguist…
A thing of the future
Overlooked issues of religious identity in the school dinners debate
The TV broadcast of Jamie's school dinners in 2005 prompted action throughout the UK to improve the standards of school meals. A public debate continues across the media around changes, resistance to them and consequences. This article draws upon the findings of a one‐year ESRC‐funded project on the English school dinners debate, which analysed interviews with stakeholders, focus groups of primary and secondary pupils and their parents, and corpo…
But it's all true!”
Debates over food politics provide insight into the convergence of commercial and political discourses. As the organic food market has grown, campaigners and independent producers have faced the dilemma of how far they should promote their cause using standard marketing language. We report on a research project which combined corpus analysis, interviews and focus group discussions to investigate the discourse of organic food promotion in Britain,…
Sweet talking
At a time of diminishing resources, the sum of apparently minor personal decisions about food can have immense impact. These individual choices are heavily influenced by language, as those with vested interests seek to persuade individuals to act in certain ways. This makes the language of food politics a fitting area for an expanding applied linguistics oriented towards real-world language-related problems of global and social importance. The pa…
British applied linguistics
This article critically examines the demand that academic research should be assessed by its impact, and universities' compliance with that demand. Although the discussion centres mainly on the UK, it will have relevance to any academic context where government and/or business seek to control academics. The article begins by briefly examining the meaning of impact. It next considers the role of applied linguistics in shaping language-teaching rev…
Own-language use in language teaching and learning
Until recently, the assumption of the language-teaching literature has been that new languages are best taught and learned monolingually, without the use of the students’ own language(s). In recent years, however, this monolingual assumption has been increasingly questioned, and a re-evaluation of teaching that relates the language being taught to the students’ own language has begun. This article surveys the developing English language literatur…
English Language Teacher Education
The first part of this paper considers approaches to teacher education for EFL developed during the 1960s-1990s, drawing upon two sources: the taxonomy of three approaches proposed by Wallace (1991) and personal reminiscence. It discusses each of Wallace's approaches in turn: craft, 'applied science', and reflective practice.The second part considers whether these approaches are adequate models for teacher education now. I suggest that while they…
Birds out of Dinosaurs
This article reflects on the fragmentation and conceptual incoherence of contemporary applied linguistics.
A pig is a person’ or ‘You can love a fox and hunt it
In contemporary urban society, animals have been erased in many people’s lives. They are generally encountered only as meat, pets, pests or vicariously in fiction and documentaries; yet the relation of humans to other animals is a matter of pressing environmental, social, economic and philosophical concern, and across the social and natural sciences there is increased interest in human–animal interaction. This situation gives rise to many differe…
Dan Jurafsky
Ledatoo
The article discusses the morality of W. B. Yeats’ sonnet Leda and the Swan in the context of a widening gap between the sexual mores of earlier times and our own, and whether the poem remains a suitable choice for the teaching of stylistics. I begin by examining stylistics treatments of the poem, and its political, social and artistic context, then move on to consider charges of misogyny against the poem for eroticising and failing to condemn th…
Henry Widdowson
‘There has been general agreement in recent years’ blandly intones one writer quoted in this book. Most readers pass over such harmless verbiage without comment. Not Henry Widdowson. He takes issue. ‘General agreement’ is not the desirable quality this hapless writer assumed. Where such general agreement has become unthinking orthodoxy, it is ruthlessly and rigorously taken apart, piece by piece, again and again. Iconoclastically, irreverently, p…
Linguistics (17 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · History (6 works)