Humanising Language Teaching
Year 2; Issue 6; November 2000
Short Reviews
(We here republish reviews that appeared in the teacher trainer, our sister publication - 14/3)
This column picks out publications of relevance to modern language teacher trainers and swiftly describes them so you can check if they are interesting enough to read or buy.
A Teachers' Grammar by R.A. Close (1992) ISBN 0-906717-48-5. LTP. A revised edition of Close's "English as a foreign language" which argues that the grammar of English is a matter of relatively few but quite powerful distinctions including that between objective grammar as Fact ("children" not " childs") and subjective grammar as Choice ("I live/am living in Kent" are both possible).
The Guide To Languages and Careers by A.King & G.Thomas (1997) ISBN 1-87401686-1. Designed for modern languages students, parents, teachers and career advisors in the UK, this independent guide from CILT provides course and careers info for post- 16 and post- 18 year olds. Includes advice on study and work abroad and a useful book list.
Dictionaries by Jon Wright (1998) ISBN 0-19-437219-7. OUP. 80+ ideas written up as recipes for making effective use of dictionaries both as a reference tool and a language learning resource. Sections on getting started, headwords, meaning, vocabulary development, texts for integrated skills work and bilingual dictionaries.
How To Teach English by Jeremy Harmer (1998) ISBN 0582-29796-6. Longman. For pre-service, inexperienced EFL teachers. Discussion of how to: be a good teacher and a good learner, manage and describe teaching, learning and language, teach the four skills, use textbooks, plan lessons and solve classroom problems. Mainstream, adult, UK, EFL. Includes a Task File of photocopiable training tasks.
The Book of Days by Adrian Wallwork (1999) ISBN 0-521-62612-9. CUP.A resource book plus cassette of skills materials based around particular special days of the year (e.g Carnival, Christmas, Fasting, Mother's day, Diwali, Summer Solstice) and designed to inform and entertain teenagers and young adults via discussion. Black and white and slightly dated visually.
Teaching Very Young Children by Genevieve Roth (1998) ISBN 84-294-5446-2. Richmond pubs. Looks at the development of children between 3-8, implications for the teacher and then explains how to set up a wide variety of simple activities in class using minimal resources. Well laid- out with questions in the margin. Jargon-free. Includes photocopiable templates An excellent book for starter teachers or teachers new to the age level.
Computer Literacies by Chris Corbel (1997) ISBN 1-86408-330-1. NCELTR. An activity-based course helping you to work, step by step with diskette of sample files, through text types such as word -processed documents, spreadsheets, email, presentations, Encarta and the world wide web. Aims to get you more confident at working professionally on-line. Not for zero beginners. Based on Word 6.0 or 7.0, you need Windows 3.1 or '95 on your PC.
The Effective Use Uf Role Play by Morry van Ments (1999) ISBN 07494-2799-X. Kogan Page. Role play is used as an experiential method to help students to understand real life problems and human behaviour. This book discusses the place of role play, different types and their strengths and weaknesses, allocation of roles, briefing, running role play sessions and the all-important de-briefing stage. A flat, straight forward style but thorough with useful practical tips.
Reinventing Ourselves As Teachers by C. Mitchell & S.Weber (1999) ISBN 0-7507-0626-0. Falmer Press. This book by Canadian authors explores the use of photography, written memoirs, movies and video and invites pre- and in-service teachers to explore their professional identity. Using practical examples from workshops and daily life, chapters deal with memories of our own school days, school photos, teachers' bodies and images of teachers in popular culture.
Target Language, Collaborative Learning and Autonomy by Ernesto Macaro (1997) ISBN 1-85359-368-0. Multilingual Matters. The concept of teaching exclusively through the target language is explored and related to two current pedagogical issues: peer collaboration and learner autonomy. Critical discussion is supported by analysis of empirical research (The Tarclindy Project).Views and experiences of teachers and pupils are woven into the commentary along with short lists of practical ideas to try out.
A Guide to Learning Independently by L. Marshall & F. Rowland (1998) ISBN 0-335-20366-3. Open University Press. Pocket-sized. Small type. Helps you to: understand how you learn and study, plan your study, adapt to independent study within a formal institution such as a university, formulate memory strategies, use and evaluate research material, use libraries and lectures well, participate in discussion groups, improve your writing. Very sensible, workable ideas throughout.
Languages and Work by Tony Giovanazzi (1997) ISBN 1-874016-85-2. An occasional paper of some 45 pages produced by CILT. Considers foreign language learning policies in the UK, USA and Australia since neither school leavers nor employers have confidence in young people's communicative competence in foreign languages despite modern methods.
Thinking Through the Curriculum Eds. R.Burden & M.Williams (1998) ISBN 0-415-17202-0. Eleven contributions on approaches to developing cognitive skills specific to different subjects taught at schools. Includes one on teaching thinking through a foreign language which refers to Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment Program.
Spoken Language and Applied Linguistics by M.McCarthy (1998) ISBN 0-521-59769. CUP. Brings together a number of studies by the author, all based on the Cambridge Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English (CANCODE) spoken corpus. The book is about using everyday spoken language as a model for language teaching, classifying different types of spoken language and the status of spoken language as an object for study within applied linguistics. Corpus examples throughout.
