When Alan Davies was growing up he seemed to drive his family mad. 'What are we going to do with you?' they would ask - as if he might know the answer. Perhaps it was because he came of age in the 1980s. That decade of big hair, greed, camp music, mass unemployment, social unrest and truly shameful trousers was confusing for teenagers. There was a lot to believe in - so much to stand for, or stand against - and Alan decided to join anything with the word 'anti' in it. He was looking for heroes to guide him (relatively) unscathed into adulthood. From his chronic kleptomania to the moving search for his mother's grave years after she died; from his obsession with joining (going so far as to become a member of Chickens Lib) to his first forays into making people laugh (not always intentionally); Teenage Revolution is a touching and funny return to the formative years that make us all.

Rebel Without A Clue: How The 80s Made Me

Davies, Alan

Biographies & Memoirs

Michael, Joseph

The mechanical eye in Australia: Photography 1841-1900

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Oxford University Press

British Politics and Europe (Access to Politics)

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

Hodder&Stoughton

'A simply astonishing achievement. The quality, depth, emotional power and terrifying honesty of Alan Davies's story-telling take the breath away' Stephen Fry 'This hugely affecting book is brave, insightful and, at times, funny about things it is hard to be funny about' Jo Brand The story of a life built on sand. In the rain. In this compelling memoir, comedian and actor Alan Davies recalls his boyhood with vivid insight and devastating humour. Shifting between his 1970s upbringing and his life today, Davies moves poignantly from innocence to experience to the clarity of hindsight, always with a keen sense of the absurd. From sibling dynamics, to his voiceless, misunderstood progression through school, sexuality and humiliating 'accidents', Davies inhabits his younger mind with spectacular accuracy, sharply evoking an era when Green Shield Stamps, Bob-a-Job week and Whizzer & Chips loomed large, a bus fare was 2p - and children had little power in the face of adult motivation. Here, there are often exquisitely tender recollections of the mother he lost at six years old, of a bereaved family struggling to find its way, and the kicks and confusion of adolescence. Through even the joyous and innocent memories, the pain of Davies's lifelong grief and profound betrayal is unfiltered, searing and beautifully articulated. Just Ignore Him is not only an autobiography, it is a testament to a survivor's resilience and courage.

Just Ignore Him

Humor & Entertainment

ABACUS +

The volume offers an explanatory account of the progress of academic language proficiency testing in the UK (and later Australia), from the British Council's English Proficiency Test Battery (EPTB), through the revolutionary English Language Testing Service (ELTS) to the present solution of IELTS. The three stages of academic language testing in the UK over the last 50 years move from grammar through real life to features of language use. At the same time, comparison of predictive validities suggests that all three measures account for very similar shares of the variance (about 10%) and that therefore the choice of an academic language proficiency test is determined only in part by predictive validity: other factors such as test delivery, test renewal in response to fashion, research and impact on stakeholders, and assessment of all four language skills are also important.

Assessing Academic English: Testing English Proficiency 1950-1989 - The IELTS Solution (Studies in Language Testing)

Reference

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Cambridge University Press

This Dictionary of Language Testing was written over a number of years by a group of researchers at the Language Testing Research Centre at the University of Melbourne. It contains some 600 entries, each listed under a headword with extensive cross-referencing. It is intended for those who may or may not have had experience in the field of language assessment but who do have a need for information. It is intended as a first stage in meeting that need, and intends to provide an orientation and, where appropriate, indicate where next to look.

Dictionary of Language Testing (Studies in Language Testing, Series Number 7)

McNamara, Tim

Brown, Annie

Elder, Cathie

Hill, Kathryn

Lumley, Tom

This Dictionary of Language Testing was written over a number of years by a group of researchers at the Language Testing Research Centre at the University of Melbourne. It contains some 600 entries, each listed under a headword with extensive cross-referencing. It is intended for those who may or may not have had experience in the field of language assessment but who do have a need for information. This Dictionary is intended as a first stage in meeting that need, and intends to provide an orientation and, where appropriate, indicate where next to look.

Dictionary of Language Testing (Studies in Language Testing)

The volume offers an explanatory account of the progress of academic language proficiency testing in the UK (and later Australia), from the British Council's English Proficiency Test Battery (EPTB), through the revolutionary English Language Testing Service (ELTS) to the present solution of IELTS. The three stages of academic language testing in the UK over the last 50 years move from grammar through real life to features of language use. At the same time, comparison of predictive validities suggests that all three measures account for very similar shares of the variance (about 10%) and that therefore the choice of an academic language proficiency test is determined only in part by predictive validity: other factors such as test delivery, test renewal in response to fashion, research and impact on stakeholders, and assessment of all four language skills are also important.

Assessing Academic English: Testing English Proficiency 1950–1989 - The IELTS Solution (Studies in Language Testing, Series Number 23)

In this book, Alan Davies considers whether it is possible to become a native speaker of a language which is not your mother tongue and attempts an explanation of what it means to be a native speaker. He shows how applied linguistics constantly refer to "the native speaker" and "the mother tongue" yet no real definition of either has been decided upon. Disagreeing with Chomsky's universalist view of language and his declaration that "the difference between 'native' and 'non-native' is just pointless", Davies argues that there is a noticeable difference between the two. He concludes that although this disparity can affect second-language learning, it does not stop it being possible for a non-native speaker to become a native speaker.

The Native Speaker in Applied Linguistics

Edinburgh Univ Pr

An Introduction to Applied Linguistics: From Practice to Theory (Edinburgh Textbooks in Applied Linguistics)

Language and language problems affect us all and are an integral part of our social experience. Alan Davies takes this premise as his starting point and proceeds to argue that, rather than simply studying or reading about it, applied linguistics is best understood in practice. In the process of setting this practical outlook against the historical background and changing public needs and competing ideologies, Davies demonstrates how theory can be derived.

Words, Language & Grammar

Edinburgh University Press

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Books by Davies, Alan