Download or read book Inventory to Assess Language Knowledge Itlak written by Elizabeth D. Pena and published by Brookes Publishing Company. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sold in a package of 20, these ITALK forms are part of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA), a language assessment for use with children ages 4 through 6 years who have varying degrees of bilingualism. Completed by the examiner as a parent and teacher interview, the 10-minute ITALK addresses relative use of a child's two languages and five areas of speech and language development (vocabulary, grammar, sentence production, comprehension, and phonology) in both Spanish and English. Parents and teachers identify the child's perceived level of performance in each language, and the ITALK provides a helpful summary of parent and teacher concerns that can be used to guide target areas of assessment. Results of the ITALK can be used to interpret diagnostic results from BESA or other speech and language tests. ABOUT BESA A valid and reliable assessment that specifically responds to the needs of young Spanish-English bilingual children, BESA was developed to: identify phonological and/or language impairment in bilingual children and English language learners using a standardized protocol differentiate between a delay in English language acquisition and a true language disorder document children's speech and language strengths and needs monitor children's progress in both languages and use the information to make decisions about intervention Through a combination of subtests for students and surveys for teachers and parents, BESA reveals the big picture of a young bilingual child's language development. Learn more about BESA here.

Download or read book Bilingual English Spanish Assessment BESA written by Elizabeth D. Peña and published by . This book was released on 2018-01-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a young bilingual child experiences language difficulties, it can be hard to tell if those challenges are due to a disorder or just limited exposure to the English language. That's a critical distinction--because while limited language exposure will fix itself over time, a language impairment is a clinical issue that will cause the child difficulties in school without timely and effective intervention. Now there's a valid, reliable assessment that specifically responds to the needs of young Spanish-English bilingual children. For use with children ages 4 through 6 years who have varying degrees of bilingualism, the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA) was developed to: identify phonological and/or language impairment in bilingual children and English language learners using a standardized protocol differentiate between a delay in English language acquisition and a true language disorder document children's speech and language strengths and needs monitor children's progress in both languages and use the information to make decisions about intervention How BESA Works Through a combination of subtests for students and surveys for teachers and parents, BESA reveals the big picture of a young bilingual child's language development. Comprehensive assessment with BESA includes: 3 subtests (in both English and Spanish). These three standardized- norm-referenced subtests address the key domains of morphosyntax, semantics, and phonology. The subtests are administered with children one-on-one in a quiet, well-lit, well-ventilated room free of distractions. 2 questionnaires. The SLP gathers more information by interviewing both parents and teachers. Bilingual Input-Output Survey (BIOS): determines Spanish and English use at home and school and pinpoints which language(s) need testing Inventory to Assess Language Knowledge (ITALK): identifies the parent's and teacher's perception of the child's performance in each language and highlights areas of possible concern. Pragmatic activity. This 5- to 10-minute warmup activity, in which children are asked to "help wrap a present" with the examiner, is used to establish rapport with the child and give clinicians an idea of how collaborative and interactive the child will be during the rest of the assessment. BESA Benefits Valid and reliable. There are very few assessment tools for bilingual children, and even fewer that are valid and reliable. BESA answers the call for a bilingual assessment backed up with solid evidence of validity and reliability. Culturally and linguistically appropriate. BESA subtests are different for each language; the Spanish subtest isn't just a translation of the English one. Dialects were taken into consideration--the norming sample included 17 Spanish dialects and 7 regional dialects for English--and items were developed for each language based on the markers, structure, and culture of that language. Uncovers the full picture of a child's language development. Not only does BESA identify language impairments, it also helps you gauge progress in both languages and document a child's dominant language across different domains of speech and language. This critical information will help you plan interventions and educational programming for bilingual children. Flexible and convenient. You can use each BESA component independently or combine them as part of an assessment battery. Choose which component you want to give--you're not required to administer both the English and Spanish subtests. BESA can also be given over multiple sessions, so you can easily fit it into your schedule. What's in the kit? 1 BESA Test Manual 1 BESA Stimulus Book 20 BESA Protocol English Forms 20 BESA Protocol Spanish For

Download or read book Besa Stimulus Book written by Elizabeth D. Pena and published by Brookes Publishing Company. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Purpose: The Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA) was developed in response to the need for valid, reliable instruments for assessment of speech and language ability, along a continuum, in English-Spanish bilingual children ages 4 through 6 years. DESCRIPTION OF BESA COMPONENTS AND SUBTESTS The BESA is a comprehensive assessment of a child's speech and language abilities in English and Spanish. Two ancillary questionnaires (BIOS and ITALK) can be used to document language exposure and use, allowing the examiner to develop a profile of any parent and teacher concerns. BESA subtests address the domains of phonology, morphosyntax, and semantics separately for both Spanish and English. There are three standardized and norm-referenced subtests addressing language ability, and one criterion-referenced activity allowing observation of pragmatic language. Administration time varies depending on whether or not both languages are tested and which subtests are included. Administration takes between one hour (for one language) and two hours (for both languages). Bilingual Input-Output Survey (BIOS) The BIOS is typically completed as part of an interview by the examiner. In this survey, parents are asked about the language exposure history of the child. This information helps the examiner know when and in what context each of the child's two languages were used on a year-to-year basis. In addition, parents and teachers are asked what language the child hears and uses during a typical school day, and during a typical weekend day on an hour-by-hour basis. This information provides clinicians with information about relative use and exposure to each language and can help guide whether to test children in Spanish, English, or both. The parent survey (BIOS-Home) takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete; the teacher survey (BIOS-School) can be completed in 5 to 10 minutes. Inventory to Assess Language Knowledge (ITALK) The ITALK is completed by the examiner as a parent and teacher interview. The ITALK items address relative use of a child's two languages and five areas of speech and language development in Spanish and English (vocabulary, grammar, sentence production, comprehension, and phonology). Parents and teachers are asked to identify the perceived level of the child's performance in each language. This inventory provides a brief indicator of relative language use. It also provides a description of parent and teacher concern and can be used to guide development of the assessment strategy. Results of the inventory can be used to interpret diagnostic results from BESA or other language tests. The ITALK can be completed in 10 minutes or less. BESA Pragmatics Activity The Pragmatics activity is based on Fey's (1986) model of assertiveness and responsiveness. In an interactive format, children are asked to "help wrap a present" with the examiner. Through this realistic situation, obligatory contexts are set up to elicit different assertive and responsive acts. The Pragmatics activity utilizes English, Spanish, or both languages together (via code-switching) depending on the child's preferred language of interaction. The activity should be used to identify children who may encounter difficulties in situations that require the children to be active participants (e.g., classroom). If administered at the beginning of a battery of tests, the Pragmatics activity provides an excellent opportunity to establish rapport with the child and will also provide clinicians with an indication of how collaborative and interactive the child will be during the rest of the assessment. This activity takes 5-10 minutes to complete. BESA Phonology Subtest The Phonology subtest is a single-word phonological assessment designed primarily to differentially diagnose typical from atypical phonological skills in Spanish-English bilingual children. Analyses are also included that allow the examiner to profile the phonological skills in these children. The assessment includes two measures. The Spanish measure assesses phonological production using 28 Spanish words. The English measure assesses phonological production using 31 English words. The Phonology subtest takes 10 to 15 minutes to administer in each language, depending on the individual child (20 to 30 minutes total). BESA Morphosyntax Subtest The Morphosyntax subtest employs cloze and sentence repetition tasks to target grammatical morphemes and sentence structures that were predicted to be difficult for children with language impairment in English or Spanish. Forms tested in English include plural -s, possessive -s, past and present tense, third-person singular, progressives, copulas, auxiliary do + negatives, and passives, as well as complex verb forms, conjunctions, and embedded prepositions and noun phrases. The English Morphosyntax Subtest has 24 cloze items and 9 sentence repetitions items. Forms tested in Spanish include articles, progressives, clitics, subjunctives, preterite, complex verb forms, and conjunctions. The Spanish Morphosyntax Subtest has 15 cloze items and 10 sentence repetitions items. For each language, a grammatical cloze subscore, a sentence repetition subscore, and a total score that is a composite of those two are derived. The morphosyntax test takes approximately 15 minutes to administer in each language (30 minutes total). BESA Semantics Subtest The Semantics subtest targets six tasks: analogies, characteristic properties, categorization, functions, linguistic concepts, and similarities and differences. These six item types were based on the literature describing acquisition of semantic breadth and depth in order to tap into how children organize and access their lexical system (Peña, Bedore, & Rappazzo, 2003). The English Semantics subtest has a total of 25 items: 10 receptive and 15 expressive. The Spanish Semantics subtest also has 25 items, 12 receptive and 13 expressive. Scoring allows for code-mixing--giving children credit for a correct response in either language. Subscores are provided for semantics receptive and semantics expressive, as well as a total semantics score for each language. The Semantics subtest takes about 15 minutes to administer in each language (30 minutes total). USES OF THE BESA The BESA is designed to be used with children who speak English, Spanish, or both languages. The BESA subtests are psychometrically sound and yield scaled and standard scores for each of the domain tests (phonology, morphosyntax, and semantics). The questionnaires provide criterion-based guidelines to determine language(s) of testing and to develop an assessment strategy. The tests can be used together for a complete speech and language battery or the examiner may select tests specific to the diagnostic question. Presently, the test is appropriate for children between the ages of 4;0 and 6;11. The BESA can be used (a) to identify language impairment in bilingual and monolingual Latino children, (b) to document progress in speech and language related to intervention, (c) to document the dominant language in each domain including morphosyntax, semantics, and phonology, and (d) in research studies of bilingual children with and without language impairment. Identification of Language Impairment The BESA is specifically designed to assess the speech and language of English-Spanish bilingual children's two languages. The primary use of the BESA is to identify phonological and/or language impairment in bilingual and EL children via a standardized protocol. The objective scores obtained on the BESA across three domains can be used in combination with clinical observations, language samples, as well as with other standardized measures to identify children with speech and/or language impairment. Through use of a combination of BESA subtests, clinicians can document children's speech and language strengths and needs. Documentation of Progress A second use of the BESA is to monitor children's progress in speech and language. After initiation of a speech and language intervention program, children's progress should be regularly documented. It is recommended that daily probes be used to monitor children's session-to-session progress. This information should be used to make decisions about the direction of the intervention. The BESA is sensitive to year-to-year changes in children's speech and language growth and the particular language in which progress is being made. Thus, in addition to the more sensitive measures of daily progress, the BESA can be administered at broader intervals (e.g., annually or semi-annually) to gauge progress in a specific program of intervention, to document continued need for intervention, and to document achievement of treatment goals for exiting services. Documentation of Language Input and Output Documentation of a bilingual's dominant language is a challenge in school settings. Many children who have exposure to more than one language demonstrate mixed dominance, whereby they perform higher in one language in one domain, but higher in the other language in a different domain. It is therefore important to know what a child's relative dominance is across different domains of speech and language. This information can be useful for planning intervention, as well as for planning educational programming for bilingual children. Together, the BIOS-Home and BIOS-School provide an objective measure of children's input and output of Spanish and English. This information helps speech-language pathologists, parents, teachers, and administrators know how much the child hears and uses each language and in what contexts. This information is independent of performance, which can be affected by child characteristics such as language ability. In addition to the BIOS, the Spanish and English standardized test scores can be compared directly for phonology, morphosyntax, and semantics to determine a child's best language for a particular domain. If children's standard scores across domains are within 5 points of each other, we consider them to be balanced. Research Uses There are a number of ways that the BESA subtests can be used in research. ITALK can be used to gain parent and teacher observations about the child's performance across five domains of speech and language in Spanish and English as part of qualifying data for a study. BIOS can be used to document weekly input and output in Spanish and English as a way of grouping children by language experience and/or by year of first exposure. For bilingual children with language impairment, BIOS provides a measure that is independent of their test performance on speech and language tasks. The three domain subtests can be used together or independently to assess children's speech and language. These can be used to qualify children for a study or to group children by ability. As of this writing, the authors have conducted and published several studies with the longer, experimental versions of BESA subtests. In addition, researchers across the country have used the experimental versions of BESA in studies of bilingual Spanish-English speakers. Researchers in Spanish-speaking countries are in the process of using the Spanish version of these measures in research studies.

Download or read book The Handbook of Language Assessment Across Modalities written by Tobias Haug and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The identification of language problems and subsequent evaluation of interventions depend in part on the availability of useful and psychometrically robust assessments to determine the nature and severity of their problems and monitor progress. The purpose of these assessments may be to measure a child's language proficiency, that is, how they perform relative to other children and whether they have the language level expected and needed for schooling, or they may have a specifically clinical purpose, to identify the occurrence and nature of a disorder. The purpose of assessment is key to the aspects of language targeted in an assessment and the methods used to target these. In the case of spoken English, there are many language assessments ranging from broad language tests to more narrowly focused measures, reflecting the complexity of the language system and its use"--

Download or read book Multilingual Acquisition and Learning written by Elena Babatsouli and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2024-06-15 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume espouses an ecosystemic standpoint on multilingual acquisition and learning, viewing language development and use as both ontogenesis and phylogenesis. Multilingualism is inclusively used to refer to sociolinguistic diversity and pluralism. Whether speech, writing, gesture, or body movement, language is a conduit that carries meaning within a complex, fluid, and context-dependent framework that engages different aspects of the individual, the communicative interaction, communicative acts, and social parameters. Continually modified over the years to better represent its multidisciplinary scope, the sociobiological notion of language has found steady and productive ground within major theoretical frameworks, which, individually or holistically, contribute to a rounded understanding of language acquisition, learning, and use by exploring both system-internal and system-external factors and their interaction. Summoning the work of leading academics, the volume outlines the changing dynamics of multilingualism in children and adults internationally with the latest advances and under-represented coverage that highlight the ecosystemic nature of multilingual acquisition, learning, and use.

Download or read book Typical and Atypical Language Development in Cultural and Linguistic Diversity written by Weifeng Han and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-09-29 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Typical and Atypical Language Development in Cultural and Linguistic Diversity brings together state-of-the-art studies in both typical and atypical language development. Placing the topic in the context of cultural and linguistic diversity (CALD), the book offers readers serious theoretical consideration of the topic and provides implications for multilingual educational and clinical practices. The content covers a wide range of topics related to multilingual language development in CALD: typical and atypical language development in CALD, and the interface between both; the relationship between multilingual competence and academic performance in CALD; providing unbiased speech and language measures in CALD; and heritage and minority languages education in CALD. Each chapter outlines the core theoretical and practical issues and explores both theoretical and pedagogical/clinical implications in the area and possible future developments. This volume is an essential resource for all those who study, research, or are interested in multilingual development, educational linguistics, and clinical linguistics in the CALD context.

Download or read book Language and Literacy Development written by Linda I. Rosa-Lugo and published by Plural Publishing. This book was released on 2020-04-03 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language and Literacy Development: English Learners with Communication Disorders, from Theory to Application, Second Edition brings you the most useful, up-to-date information on best practices for English learners (ELs) with communication disorders from a variety of backgrounds—how to conduct assessment, intervention, and progress monitoring. The first edition of this text gave a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of serving ELs with communication disorders, and the second edition is expanded to show the nuts and bolts of how to meet ELs’ needs and how professionals can support their success at school. This text emphasizes collaboration between speech-language pathology (SLP) and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) professionals. More importantly, it shows how to apply the knowledge and implement the mechanics and practicalities of assessment, intervention, and progress monitoring. New to the Second Edition: * Updated EL and EL with communication disorders demographics and legislation. * An innovative assessment/intervention/monitoring (AIM) framework geared toward language proficiency development and academic content expansion of ELs with communication disorders. * Research-based and proficiency-level appropriate pedagogical interventions and recommendations for implementing effective assessments that support English learners with communication disorders in their language and content growth. * Updated information on commonly used assessments used by speech-language pathologists to identify/determine disability. Disclaimer: Please note that ancillary content (such as documents, audio, and video, etc.) may not be included as published in the original print version of this book.

Download or read book The Listening Bilingual written by François Grosjean and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vital resource on speech and language processing in bilingual adults and children The Listening Bilingual brings together in one volume the various components of spoken language processing in bilingual adults, infants and children. The book includes a review of speech perception and word recognition; syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of speech processing; the perception and comprehension of bilingual mixed speech (code-switches, borrowings and interferences); and the assessment of bilingual speech perception and comprehension in adults and children in the clinical context. The two main authors as well as selected guest authors, Mark Antoniou, Theres Grüter, Robert J. Hartsuiker, Elizabeth D. Peña and Lisa M. Bedore, and Lu-Feng Shi, introduce the various approaches used in the study of spoken language perception and comprehension in bilingual individuals. The authors focus on experimentation that involves both well-established tasks and newer tasks, as well as techniques used in brain imaging. This important resource: Is the first of its kind to concentrate specifically on spoken language processing in bilingual adults and children. Offers a unique text that covers both fundamental and applied research in bilinguals. Covers a range of topics including speech perception, spoken word recognition, higher level processing, code-switching, and assessment. Presents information on the assessment of bilingual children’s language development Written for advanced undergraduate students in linguistics, cognitive science, psychology, and speech/language pathology as well as researchers, The Listening Bilingual offers a state-of-the-art review of the recent developments and approaches in speech and language processing in bilingual people of all ages.

Download or read book Behavioral and Neurophysiological Approaches to Code Switching and Language Switching written by Jeanine Treffers-Daller and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2021-05-03 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Bilingualism Across the Lifespan written by Wendy S. Francis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-31 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bilingualism Across the Lifespan explores the opportunities and challenges that are inherent in conducting cognitive research in an increasingly global and multilingual society. Divided into three sections, the book highlights the multifaceted and complex nature of bilingualism. The first section focuses on what every cognitive psychologist ought to know about bilingualism: the impact of bilingualism on cognition across the lifespan, the idea that bilinguals are not a special case, and the importance of bilingualism in cognitive research beyond language. The second section focuses on challenges inherent in bilingual research: diversity of bilingual experience, the assessment of proficiency, and finding matched comparison groups and materials. Finally, the book considers opportunities that are created when bilingualism is incorporated into the cognitive research enterprise. It illustrates how researchers of bilingualism leverage theory, methodology, and findings from single-language research, incorporate uniquely bilingual processes or representations, and target populations of bilinguals that help to establish universal properties. Bringing together leading international contributors, the book provides the reader with a better understanding of the nature of bilingualism and bilingual research as it relates to human cognition. It will be an essential read for all researchers and upper-level students of bilingualism and cognitive psychology more generally.

Download or read book Research Methods for Understanding Child Second Language Development written by Yuko Goto Butler and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-15 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Butler and Huang’s book is one of the first to focus on second language (L2) development research methods and techniques specifically targeted at children of primary and pre-primary years. The last decade has seen a growing number of L2 studies of children aged 4–12, a demographic with special developmental characteristics that confound research methods designed for studying adults. Written by experts from a variety of disciplines, this book covers major research methods and techniques in existing L2 development research, including observations, surveys, interviews, introspective methods, speech production methods, receptive methods, eye tracking, and brain imaging, as well as research methods specifically designed for L2 children with special educational needs. The book also discusses various age-related considerations and challenges if they are employed to young L2 learners. This will be essential reading for SLA, child development, and TESOL researchers, and students in these courses will benefit particularly from pedagogical material such as further readings and discussion questions.

Download or read book Language Disorders from Infancy Through Adolescence written by Rhea Paul, PhD CCC-SLP and published by Elsevier Health Sciences. This book was released on 2024-03-27 with total page 781 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning the entire child developmental period, Language Disorders from Infancy Through Adolescence, 6th Edition is the go-to text for learning evidence-based methods for assessing childhood language disorders and providing scientifically based treatment. The most comprehensive title available on childhood language disorders, it uses a descriptive-developmental approach to present basic concepts and vocabulary, an overview of key issues and controversies, the scope of communicative difficulties that make up child language disorders, and information on how language pathologists approach the assessment and intervention processes. This edition also features significant updates in research, trends, neurodiversity, cultural diversity, and best practices. An eBook, included with print purchase, provides access to all the text, figures, references, and bonus video clips, with the ability to search, customize content, make notes and highlights, and have content read aloud. UNIQUE! Practice exercises with sample transcripts in the assessment chapters guide you in practicing analysis methods. UNIQUE! Helpful study guides at the end of each chapter provide opportunities to review and apply key concepts. Clinical application focus includes features such as cases studies, clinical vignettes, and suggested projects. Video-based projects support cooperative learning activities. Highly regarded lead author is an expert in language disorders in children and provides authoritative guidance on the diagnosis and management of pediatric language disorders. More than 230 tables and boxes organize and summarize important information such as dialogue examples, sample assessment plans, assessment and intervention principles, activities, and sample transcripts. NEW! An eBook version, included with print purchase, provides access all the text, figures, references, and bonus video clips, with the ability to search, customize content, make notes and highlights, and have content read aloud. Revised content throughout provides the most current information needed to be an effective, evidence-based practitioner. Updated references ensure content is current and applicable for today's practice.

Download or read book BESA written by Elizabeth D. Peña and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Bilingual Input Output Surveys BIOS written by Elizabeth D. Pena and published by Brookes Publishing Company. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sold in a package of 20, these BIOS forms are part of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA), a language assessment for use with children ages 4 through 6 years who have varying degrees of bilingualism. Completed by the examiner as a parent and teacher survey, the BIOS helps uncover when and in what context each of the child's two languages were used on a year-to-year basis. There are two parts: BIOS-Home. In this 10- to 15-minute survey, parents are asked to report on the language exposure history of the child and what language the child hears and uses during a typical weekend day on an hour-by-hour basis. BIOS-School. In this 5- to 10-minute survey, teachers are asked to report on what language the child hears and uses during a typical school day on an hour-by-hour basis. The BIOS provides clinicians with valuable information about relative use and exposure to each language. It should be used prior to BESA assessment to help determine whether to test children in Spanish, English, or both. ABOUT BESA A valid and reliable assessment that specifically responds to the needs of young Spanish-English bilingual children, BESA was developed to: identify phonological and/or language impairment in bilingual children and English language learners using a standardized protocol differentiate between a delay in English language acquisition and a true language disorder document children's speech and language strengths and needs monitor children's progress in both languages and use the information to make decisions about intervention Through a combination of subtests for students and surveys for teachers and parents, BESA reveals the big picture of a young bilingual child's language development. Learn more about BESA here.

Download or read book South and Southeast Asian Psycholinguistics written by Heather Winskel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking volume explores the languages of South and Southeast Asia, which differ significantly from Indo-European languages in their grammar, lexicon and spoken forms. This book raises new questions in psycholinguistics and enables readers to re-evaluate previous models in light of new research.

Download or read book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running written by Haruki Murakami and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2009-08-11 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the best-selling author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and After Dark, a rich and revelatory memoir about writing and running, and the integral impact both have made on his life. In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Haruki Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a slew of critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and—even more important—on his writing. Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and includes settings ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvellous lens of sport emerges a cornucopia of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs and the experience, after the age of fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in distance running.

Download or read book Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy written by Michael Baxandall and published by Oxford Paperbacks. This book was released on 1988 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to 15th century Italian painting and the social history behind it, arguing that the two are interlinked and that the conditions of the time helped fashion distinctive elements in the painter's style.