Marion Williams

Fragments Made Whole was birthed in my struggle to find the meaning and purpose to my life. Born into a world where I knew nothing but pain, I abhorred my very existence. I needed and wanted so desperately to be healed of this pain! This book is about my journey to find wholeness! My life was on a spiral spin toward death: the pains and struggles of my childhood painted an ugly picture of whom I should become; this was to dictate my future and map out for me a path of pain, misery and destruction. I lived my life trying to drown out the many voices, which haunted my every step; these were voices, which told me that misery and pain was all that life would hold for me; that there was no future in me and I was supposed to end my life through my lifestyle. I was an alcoholic whose only means of survival was to drink from the moment I woke until I fell asleep. I tried everything I could to stop the pain, and for a moment the drinking, smoke and sex would shut out all the voices around me. But when the sex was over and the drink didn't work anymoreA[a¬A]all it left was a vile taste in my mouth. When everything you've tried no longer works and the voices within begin to torment you and cry out all the more, you have only two options: go back to the thing that once silenced them or search for the something that would make them stopA[a¬A]and that is where you once would find me, searching through the ruins of my life, hoping and praying that among these fragments I would find me. Yet, in among these ruins, through my struggles and pain someone found me and brought me to a place of healingA[a¬A] Fragments made whole!

A Journey from Hopelessness

Fragments Made Whole

Sarah Mercer

This collection of papers brings together a diverse range of conceptualisations of the self in the domain of second language acquisition and foreign language learning. The volume attempts to unite a fragmented field and provides a thorough overview of the ways in which the self can be conceptualised in SLA contexts.

Multiple Perspectives on the Self in SLA

Instead of viewing different perspectives on the self as competing with each other and considering one perspective on the self as being inherently ‘better’ than another, this book takes the view that a fuller, more comprehensive picture of the self in SLA can be gained by examining and combining insights from different perspectives. This original collection of papers thus attempts to provide a thorough overview of the ways in which the self can be conceptualised in SLA contexts. The editors have brought together a diverse range of theoretical perspectives on the self to allow the reader to appreciate the insights that each approach contributes to overall understandings of the self in the domain of second language acquisition and foreign language learning.

Stephen Ryan

Offering a timely snapshot of current theory and research in the field of psychology in foreign language learning, this book is accessible to both specialists and non-specialists. Each chapter focuses on a different psychological construct and provides an overview of current thinking in the area drawing on insights from educational psychology.

Insights from Research, Theory and Practice

Psychology for Language Learning

Robert L. Burden

Psychology for Language Teachers examines the field of educational psychology and considers various ways in which a deeper understanding of this discipline can help language teachers. The first part presents an overview of educational psychology, and discusses how different approaches to psychology have influenced language teaching methodology. Following this, four themes are identified: the learner, the teacher, the task and the learning context. Recent psychological developments in each of these domains are discussed and implications are drawn for language teaching. Areas considered include approaches to learning, motivation, the role of the individual, attribution, mediation, the teaching of thinking, the cognitive demands of tasks and the learning environment. Psychology for Language Teachers does not assume previous knowledge of psychology.

Marion Williams

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