For some, bitch is a four-letter word. Cast into the same category as expletives like fuck and shit, bitch has been branded profane, obscene, and indecent. As a tabooed word, it has often been censored or avoided altogether by the mainstream media, to protect tender eyes and ears. In its written form, bitch been expurgated from books and newspapers. In the past, bitch was considered to be defamatory, a dangerous smear on a woman’s character, and leveling the slur at an innocent party could land the offender in court. In its spoken form, bitch has been bleeped in songs and muted in movies, while some radio stations and television networks have been fined for using it. Thanks to the many pioneers pushing the word’s use, bitch has undergone a dramatic “unbleeping” over time. As taboos changed, the word started to be used more openly. Nowadays, bitch is everywhere. This chapter looks at the many bans on bitch and controversies surrounding the word, both past and present.

In his ‘concluding perspectives’, the author first emphasises the differences between current and ancient ways of dealing with history in view of modern notions of history and the science of history. But he also draws attention to the fact – and cites respective remarks by a renowned historian (Angelos Chaniotis) on the director of the film Alexander the Great, Oliver Stone – that even in our times the elements of the true and the fictitious can be fruitfully combined when it comes to the adequate representation of history. Intentional or not – what brings history to life and keeps it alive is narration.

This chapter covers three situations of vocabulary learning, all of which can occur outside the classroom. The first situation has been called extramural English or extramural learning, and could be called learning through entertainment. It involves largely incidental learning through watching TV or movies, surfing the Internet, online social interaction, playing online games, listening to songs, or reading or listening for pleasure. It can also include social interactions with native speakers. Extramural learning is not a part of a regular English course and is not under the control of a classroom teacher. The second situation is supplementary learning. This involves learning outside the classroom which is related to a course occurring inside the classroom. It is largely directed by the classroom teacher. It may involve extensive reading, extensive listening, interacting with others, and writing, and could also involve the deliberate learning of vocabulary and other language features. The third situation has been called self-directed learning and involves the learner organising their own language course without the help of a teacher.

Learning vocabulary through listening is one type of learning through meaning-focused input. Learners need at least 95 per cent coverage of the running words (around 3,000 word families) in the informal spoken input in order to gain reasonable comprehension and to have reasonable success at guessing unknown vocabulary from context clues. A well-balanced listening and speaking course includes opportunities to learn through listening to monologues and interactive communication, opportunities to learn from speaking and interacting with others, the deliberate study of pronunciation, vocabulary and multiword units, and grammar, and opportunities to become fluent in listening and speaking. This chapter includes a large range of activities to provide these opportunities, and describes how teachers can design speaking activities so that vocabulary is more likely to be learned. The research shows that those who observe speaking activities are just as likely to learn the vocabulary in the activities as those who actively participate

Don DeLillo’s novelistic imagination has been inspired by and intertwined with film. This chapter discusses the roles of film across many of DeLillo's novels, but also examines DeLillo's filmic approach to literature and narrative.

Chapter 4 charts the Indian government’s ambition to make planning ‘democratic’ by convincing its citizenry of the need for planning and securing their participation. The government sought to spur grassroots enthusiasm by planting it—a campaign that was self-undermining by its very nature. It examines why public participation in planning mattered to the Indian government and uncovers the many channels through which the state sought to spread the gospel of planning. The means employed by government to instil “Plan-consciousness” included publicity teams on bullock carts and boats, a Khushwant Singh-edited Plan magazine named Yojana, plays by leading Hindi playwrights like Ramesh Mehta, musical and drama troupes, and state propaganda films screened for mass audiences through the Films Division. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how this Plan-consciousness even seeped into commercial Hindi cinema, or Bollywood.

Stoppard has written several screenplays and won a shared Oscar for Shakespeare in Love. He has also done considerable script-doctoring and directed the film of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. His ongoing engagement with film has continued to influence the cinematic dimension of his writing.

The American film industry was motivated by a practical patriotism during the First World War which balanced competing desires to win audiences and to be good citizens. It was understood that enlisting in the war effort on the home front would likely benefit the film industry’s long-term interests. Film producers, exhibitors, and distributors all contributed to the war effort. About 20% of movies released in 1917 and 1918 were war related, including D.W. Griffith’s popular epic, Hearts of the World. Over the decades, films featuring the Great War continued to be produced although their stories and themes changed, and movie-making technology allowed for ever more spectacular scenes. First World War films constitute an eclectic batch, difficult to categorize as a genre, worthy of close reading. While their narratives refer to one time period, 1914-1918, interpretation of the films and their reception resonates also with their respective times of production and reception.