analitical language

Part 3 moves into theories, methods, and

techniques, starting with some key background

issues such as noticing and discovery learning,

reviewing a range of approaches and procedures

for the classroom, and ending with issues of

feedback in accuracy and fluency work. Points 2, 3,

and 4 in the framework above are admirably

confronted here, though I will take up some

reservations later.

Part 4 reviews key principles and issues in the

management of students and equipment—an odd

mixture, given that video is treated separately later

in the ‘skills’ section. Discussion of classroom

management is where I felt that familiar topics

were being treated with a fresh eye (point 7 above).

Di¤erent student groupings are handled

systematically with lists of advantages and

disadvantages of pair work, group work, etc.,

though some reflections from students and

teachers on their own experiences would have

provided lively illustration. The expanded section

on problem behaviour is especially welcome. Even

very experienced teachers often want to discuss

this aspect of classroom management. It is an area

in which ELT seems to isolate itself from

mainstream education where discussion on

disruptive behaviour exists, and could provide

bridges into ELT literature. The management of

equipment is handled in an equally systematic way,

and discussion of the role of computers is followed

by very useful references to literature on computer

technology, and how teachers can make use of it.

Parts 5, 6, and 7 cover the traditional content of a

handbook, teaching grammar, vocabulary, receptive

skills, and productive skills, and the planning of

learning in lessons and courses. All of these

contain a judicious selection of information and

discussion on matters of current concern, for

example, the management of interaction and the

role of extensive reading/listening. A new chapter

on researching language brings together ideas for

encouraging students to exploit a range of

resources, including language corpora, and will

provide teachers with interesting ideas for

innovation. Part 8 is an accessible introduction to

testing students. There are several positive features

about these chapters. They include a focus on what

learners bring with them to the process of learning,

and how teachers can build on their existing skills

and knowledge. This will certainly help teachers to

be more aware of what they are asking their

students to do. The link between learner needs and

teacher response in the sequencing of activities is

powerfully made. And there is material in these

chapters for more recently qualified students

through to the more experienced, even in the

chapter on lesson planning.

Part 9, entitled ‘Looking Further’, which includes

discussion of learner autonomy and teacher

development, deals with point 6 in the framework

above. This, unfortunately, is the only part of the

book about which I had serious reservations.

Teacher development is a diªcult subject to

condense into a few well-chosen principles and

examples. Action research, for example, deserves a

consideration of the tension experienced by the

teacher–researcher (Baumann 1996) and the need

for some training in procedures such as interviews

and questionnaire design for these to be e¤ective.

402 ReviewsThe space might have been better devoted to

greater depth of explanation or illustration in other

chapters.

It also struck an odd note with me that I should

come to learner autonomy at the end of the book,

when earlier chapters made reference to

procedures which aim to develop it, such as

discovery learning, researching language, and

extensive listening. Perhaps the fourth edition

could put something more substantial near the

beginning of the book, and create an ongoing

theme throughout the chapters on learner training

and the development of autonomy.

However, reading the new edition was a hugely

enjoyable experience, and I have few reservations.

It will give teachers the reassuring sense that they

are being taken through the key issues by a

supportive colleague. It has the strengths of the

earlier editions, i.e. principled common sense in its

advice, clarity of explanation, a reader-friendly style,

a contemporary position with careful selection of

content, a well-ordered structure, and an

impressive comprehensiveness. I chose 20 topics

to look up, and found clear and concise

information on all but one—critical language

pedagogy. So there will be something to look

forward to in the fourth edition. There is ample

evidence that the book addresses the points it sets

out to confront in the Preface, and meets the

challenges of new ideas, new technology, and new

concerns. This is done within a coherent framework

which allows for discussion of the existing body of

knowledge within ELT, the received wisdom of the

profession, an important element in what

Widdowson (1990) has called ‘the principled

development of pedagogic thinking’. However, in

making interesting links within that framework,

such as the use of music, or student use of

language corpora, the book also encourages

creativity.

2.2 Meeting the needs of in-service teachers

Oddly, it is not until the end of the Preface that the

reader is given the intended audience for the book,

and discovers that this has changed radically from

that of the earlier editions. This third edition is

aimed at ‘practising teachers and those studying on

in-service programmes and postgraduate courses’.

So I found myself reading with quite a di¤erent set

of expectations from those with which I

approached the earlier versions. In fact, I was, and

remain grateful to the author for the opportunity to

revisit a long-standing internal dialogue and

recurrent discussion with colleagues about the

ideal characteristics of a handbook for in-service

teacher education. It is a debate complicated by the

diªculty of defining the ‘practising, in-service

teacher’. This is a loose category which covers

widely di¤ering cultural backgrounds, institutions,

systems, and career experiences. Needs can di¤er

from purely self-generated development to

institutionally funded academic study on long

courses. As I read I found myself slipping into the

shoes of one or another in-service teacher with

whom I currently work, trying to view the content

through their eyes.

So, having reviewed some aspects of the book in

terms of its own implied aims, it would also be

useful to consider what characteristics a teacher

educator would be looking for in a book to

recommend for individual reading, to serve as a

reference for the working teacher’s bookshelf or to

use as a class text on in-service courses. I would

like to take five possible principles which could

usefully provide appropriate review criteria, and

judge the book against these.

A key principle one might look for is that the author

moves from the ‘approach’ of the earlier editions to

a broader perspective of ‘approaches’. This is not

to suggest that the style of the earlier versions was

dogmatic, but that the content was judiciously

selected to present a unified view of what

constitutes e¤ective practice. In contrast, a book

for working professionals or teacher education

courses would hopefully view ELT as a field in which

competing paradigms exist, and would raise

awareness of various solutions available for ‘the

sorts of problems that the professional may be

asked to solve’ (Kuhn 1963). The third edition

certainly holds to this principle in important

respects. Chapter 6 contains good examples. The

PPP procedure is carefully contrasted with others;