language mixing mixed language language obsolescence language death language of gestures body language, sign language language pedagogy [Grk paidagogia ‘instruction, training,’] (also language teaching)

Scientific and instructional discipline (subdiscipline of general pedagogy) concerned with the needs, goals, content, and methods of language instruction with a view to linguistic, sociocultural, educational psychological, and pedagogical aspects. In language pedagogy, methods of language transmission are also developed, tested, and established. As a generic term, language pedagogy refers to either native or foreign language instruction or, in contrast to foreign language pedagogy, to instruction in the native language which encompasses the following three domains: (a) enhancement of linguistic competence; (b) transmission of knowledge about the structure of the language; and (c) reflections about language. Regarding the enhancement of competence (which is especially concerned with offsetting socially or personally caused differences), pedagogical decisions pertain to the basic concept of language (whether it be language as a system of signs or language as an emotional, cognitive, creative or persuasive means of communicative behavior). Though lagging somewhat behind the most current developments in linguistics, the form and method of language instruction more or less reflect the general direction of the linguistic sciences insofar as the concepts of prescriptive grammar are based on scientific insights and findings, e.g. structuralism, func-tional grammar, transformational grammar, dependency grammar, behaviorism and pragmatics.