Debates in Second Language Education provides an up-to-date account of the key debates and areas of controversy in the field of second language learning and teaching. Adopting a broad and comparative perspective and emphasising the importance of considering a variety of learning contexts, it encourages students and practising teachers to engage with contemporary issues and developments in learning and teaching.Chapters are designed to stimulate thinking and understanding i...

Improving Foreign Language Teaching provides teachers and teacher trainers with a research-based structure for the effective teaching and assessment of second languages. As well as outlining a model for teacher development, the book identifies and exemplifies eight key principles for effective language learning, which can be used to guide curriculum design and decisions about classroom pedagogy. Improving Foreign Language Teaching also presents practical activities, related materials, and ...

Teachers are often told that new teaching methods and materials are 'based on the latest research'. But what does this mean in practice? This book introduces you to some of the language acquisition research that will help you not just to evaluate existing materials, but also to adapt and use them in a way that fits what we currently understand about how languages are learned.

`It′s not often that you′ll find an article or book that explains what you need to know in such plain, simple terms. Treasure it′ - Andrew Farrell, Doctoral Researcher, Loughborough University`Entertaining and authoritative without being patronising′ - Professor Chris Hackley, Royal Holloway, University of London`This is a gem of a book from two of the outstanding management researchers of their generation. Easy to read and entertaining, yet rigoro...

Teaching is changing. It is no longer simply about passing on knowledge to the next generation. Teachers in the twenty-first century, in all educational sectors, have to cope with an ever-changing cultural and technological environment. Teaching is now a design science. Like other design professionals – architects, engineers, programmers – teachers have to work out creative and evidence-based ways of improving what they do. Yet teaching is not treated as a design profession.Every d...

For two years now I've been regularly blogging about ELT-related issues that have caught my attention. The topics have been loosely organized around the format of an encyclopaedic dictionary I'd published previously, called An A-Z of ELT. I've since clocked up over a hundred posts that in turn have attracted thousands of comments comprising I don't know how many tens of thousands of words.A couple of things that have emerged from this 'long conversation' are: (1) the same issues com...

Whether we grow up with one, two, or several languages during our early years of life, many of us will learn a second, foreign, or heritage language in later years. The field of Second language acquisition (SLA, for short) investigates the human capacity to learn additional languages in late childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, after the first language --in the case of monolinguals-- or languages --in the case of bilinguals-- have already been acquired. Understanding Second Language A...

This is a concise introduction to the richness and scope of interviewing in social science research, teaching the craft of interview research with practical, hands-on guidance. Incorporating discussion of the wide variety of methods in interview-based research and the different approaches to reading the data, this book will help you to navigate the broad field of qualitative research with confidence and get out there and start collecting your data.

This book challenges the orthodox approach to the teaching of second language listening, which is based upon the asking and answering of comprehension questions. The book's central argument is that a preoccupation with the notion of 'comprehension' has led teachers to focus upon the product of listening, in the form of answers to questions, ignoring the listening process itself. The author provides an informed account of the psychological processes which make up the skill of listening, and...

This book traces the historical development of major language teaching methods in terms of theoretical principles and classroom procedures, and provides a critical evaluation of each. Drawing from seminal, foundational texts and from critical commentaries made by various scholars, Kumaravadivelu examines the profession's current transition from method to postmethod and, in the process, elucidates the relationship between theory, research, and practice. The chief objective is to help reader...

This volume is devoted to the fascinating topic of social communication - fascinating because communication is ubiquitous, in that one cannot not communicate. And yet, the art of effective communication can be extremely demanding and elusive, because a tricky trade-off problem has to be solved. For communication to be successful, it must be at once informative - somehow indicating an intended direction of thought or action - as well as subtle - somehow concealing intentions and in...

How can you analyse narratives, interviews, field notes, or focus group data?Qualitative text analysis is ideal for these types of data and this textbook provides a hands-on introduction to the method and its theoretical underpinnings. It offers step-by-step instructions for implementing the three principal types of qualitative text analysis: thematic, evaluative, and type-building. Special attention is paid to how to present your results and use qualitative data analysis software ...