In this challenging and at times controversial book, Ronald Carter addresses the discourse of 'English' as a subject of teaching and learning.
Among the key topics investigated are:
* grammar
* correctness and standard English
* critical language awareness and literacy
* language and creativity
* the methodological integration of language and literature in the curriculum
* discourse theory and textual interpretation.
Investigating English Discourse is a collection of revised, re-edited and newly written papers which contain extensive contrastive analyses of different styles of international English. These range from casual conversation to advertisement, poetry, jokes, metaphor, stories by canonical writers, public notices and children's writing. Ronald Carter highlights key issues for the study and teaching of 'English' for the year 2000 and beyond, focusing in particular on its political and ideological inflections.
Investigating English Discourse is of relevance to teachers and students and researchers in the fields of discourse analysis, English as a first, second and foreign language, language and education, applied and literary linguistics.

Ronald Carter is Professor of Modern English Language at the University of Nottingham and was National Co-ordinator of the 'Language in the National Curriculum' Project (LINC) from 1989-1992. He has published extensively and is the editor of the Interface and co-editor of the Intertext series, both published by Routledge.

Part I Language, Discourse and 'English'; Introduction1 Introduction to Part I; Chapter 1 The text of this Chapter was first delivered as an inaugural lecture at the University of Nottingham on 3 December 1992. Some of the characteristics of the spoken discourse of its delivery have been retained in this written version; the Chapter is also a modified version of a paper published in English in Education, 27, 3 (1993).; Chapter 2 This Chapter was first published in Carter, R. (ed.) Knowledge about Language and the Curriculum: The LINC Reader (Hodder and Stoughton, Sevenoaks, 1990).; Chapter 3 This Chapter is a modified version of a paper of the same title in Hasan, R. and Williams, G. (eds) literacy in Society(Longman, 1996). It was originally delivered as a plenary paper to the annual conference of the Australian Applied Linguistics Association, Sydney, July 1992.; Chapter 4 This Chapter is an extensively revised version of a paper entitled 'Standard Englishes in speech and writing' previously published in Hayhoe, M. and Parker, S. (eds) Who Owns English? (Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1994).; Chapter 5 This Chapter has not previously been published. It is based on a plenary paper delivered at a conference on 'Language and Knowledge' at the National University of Singapore in September 1996.; postscripts1 Postscripts and Prospects; Part II Literature, Discourse and 'English'; Introduction2 Introduction to Part II; overview Overview: 'Lang' and 'Lit': Interpreting Discourse; Chapter 6 This Chapter is a re-edited version of a paper with the same title in Steele, R. and Threadgold, T. (eds) Language Topics: Essays Presented to Michael Halliday, Vol. 2 ().; Chapter 7 This Chapter is a rewritten version of a paper entitled 'Clines of metaphoricity and creative metaphors as situated risk taking' first published in Journal of Literary Semantics, 17, 2 (1988). The original paper was co-written with Rukmini Bhaya and Michael Toolan and I am grateful to my co-authors for allowing me to use the original paper as a basis for this Chapter.; Chapter 8 This Chapter is a rewritten version of a paper entitled 'Discourse and creativity: bridging the gap between language and literature' in Cook, G. and Seidlhofer, B. (eds) Principles and Practice in Applied Linguistics: Studies in Honour of H.G. Widdowson(Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995). The paper was co-written with Michael McCarthy, to whom I am grateful for allowing me to draw on the original source.; Chapter 9 This Chapter originally appeared as 'linguistic models, language and literariness: study strategies in the teaching of literature to foreign students' in Brumfit, C.J. and Carter R. (eds) Literature and Language Teaching(Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1986).; Chapter 10 This Chapter is a rewritten version of a paper entitled 'What is stylistics and why can you teach it in different ways?' in Short, M.H. (ed.) Reading, Analyzing and Teaching Literature(Longman, Harlow, 1989). The Chapter also draws on .; postscripts2 Postscripts and Prospects;