Synopses & Reviews
Communicative Language Teaching in Action: Putting principles to work is designed as a basic text that demonstrates principles and practices of communicative language teaching and task-based instruction. Its primary purpose is to serve as a guide for second and foreign language teachers in training or for those who have embarked on a new career as language teachers. In particular, these include pre- and in-service teacher education majors, university teaching assistants, and English as a Second Language (ESL) majors and instructors. Furthermore, it is meant to be a resource for practicing teachers in continuing education programs.
Review
"Far from being an account on theoretical readings and experimental thinking, this texts reflects a considerable amount of teaching experience and live classroom situations, which is the very thing novice teachers need to be exposed to." - Ji-hyun Philippa Kim, Syracuse University
"Overall, I believe it does an outstanding job of providing an accessible overview of research on the various topics and linking insights from the research to practical ways of implementing tasks with numerous examples. It is well grounded in SLA research and communicative language teaching, practical, and quite user-friendly. This book would be an asset to language instructors at both the secondary and post secondary levels." - Michael J. Lesser, Florida State University
"..I would definitely use it because it concentrates consistently in each chapter about sequencing of activities, that is to say, that it focuses on the entire lesson and not only on types of activities." - Stayc DuBravac, University of Kentucky
"The author has done an outstanding job in creating a unique, nearly perfectly comprehensive, and highly useful book for both beginning and experienced language teachers." - Colleen Ryan-Scheutz, Indiana University at Bloomington
"I have worked with beginning teachers for many years, and this book is the best I have seen when it comes to giving them the information they initially need and want to help them teach better." - Brigitte Rossbacher, University of Georgia
Synopsis
Communicative Language Teaching in Action: Putting Principles to Work is designed as a basic text that intends to demonstrate principles and practices of communicative language teaching and task-based instruction. Its primary purpose is to serve as a guide for second and foreign language teachers in training or for those who have embarked on a new career as language teachers.
About the Author
Klaus Brandl, Ph.D., is an applied linguist (University of Texas Austin) and specialist in foreign language pedagogy at the University of Washington, where he directs the language program in the Department of Scandinavian Studies and serves as the Language Pedagogue for the College of Arts and Sciences and College of Education. He is widely known for his research on language teacher training and language learning and technology. His articles have appeared in major journals such as The Modern Language Journal, The Foreign Language Annals, and Language Learning & Instruction, and he has contributed chapters to many books. He is also the author of several computer programs.
Table of Contents
1. Principles of communicative language teaching and task-based instruction
2. Short-term and daily lesson planning
3. Getting started: Introducing vocabulary
4. Grammar and language learning
5. Feedback and error correction in language learning
6. Instructional sequencing and task design
7. Developing listening skills and the use of video
8. Developing oral communication skills
9. Developing reading skills
10. Performance-based assessment