Space is largely ignored in both the theory and the practice of education. At the same time, however, there is an abundance of spatial metaphors that are used to describe schooling, the curriculum and educational processes. Some of these (top of the class, department) have their origins in spatial arrangements that once dominated schools and…

From a consideration of variability in language-learner and language-user data, the concept of proficiency is considered in relation to models of second and foreign language learning. Proficiency is defined in relation to four separate dimensions: grammatical well-formedness, speech-act rules, functional elaboration, and code diversity. This…