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In foreign language teaching, the study of place names provides an opportunity for cooperation of several branches of knowledge and can tell us much about major socio-cultural influences on communities of speakers. Introducing placenames in language teaching can give students tools for thinking about how places get named, following a cross-disciplinary approach. This paper concentrates on English language toponymy, due to the world-wide presence of English-speaking communities. Starting with a brief presentation of the relevant terminology, it illustrates the main historical factors shaping English toponymy and offers a series of suggestions for cross-disciplinary projects and activities in English language and culture teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alongside areas of our country well attended from the standpoint of place-name research, wide-ranging and totally reliable registers of place names being available, having been collected rigorously and thoroughly via direct survey and document analysis, and likewise transcribed in keeping with strict pre-established norms of standardization as set down, there exist others, as in the case of southern-tending communities, which are lacking in unquestionably reliable toponymic inventories, this being the result of such names not having been compiled and transcribed in terms of either a rigorous methodology or a regulatory apparatus based on strict scientific criteria (of a linguistic nature, given that it is linguistic material that is being dealt with). In order to meet the pressing need for toponymic standardization in monolingual areas as far as Spanish is concerned, we have carried out a research project in recent times, the main lines of action of which are set out in this discussion by means of the exploration of a large number of illustrative cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]