English Language Teaching Now and How It Could Be

• Michiko Weinmann ^[1]
  1. [1] Deakin University

     Deakin University

     Australia

     
• Localización: ELT journal: An international journal for teachers of English to speakers of other languages, ISSN 0951-0893, Vol. 78, Nº 2, 2024, págs. 237-240
• Idioma: inglés

• Es reseña de:

  • English Language Teaching Now and How It Could Be

    Geoff Jordan, Mike Long

    Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022

• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • English Language Teaching Now and How It Could Be, co-authored by Geoff Jordan and Michael H. Long (1945–2021), is a well-researched and provocative addition to the existing trove of English language teaching (ELT) books. Both authors are renowned in the ELT sphere: Jordan is a prominent ELT practitioner and teacher educator whose blog (https://applingtesol.wordpress.com/) provides commentary and critique on a range of ‘hot topics’ in second language acquisition (SLA) and second language teacher education (SLTE); Long is one of the most important SLA scholars, notably for his introduction of the concept of focus on form and his influential work on age effects, task-based language teaching (TBLT), and incidental learning.

    The book’s premise is that ELT is highly skilled work that requires in-depth knowledge about how languages are learnt for teachers to best facilitate students’ language learning; as ‘experts on their own classrooms’ (p. 3), they are also required to invariably engage their experiences and practice in their pedagogical decision-making. In short, the aim should be ‘not just ELT, but first-rate, SLA-informed ELT’ (p. 5; emphasis added). Accordingly, one of the book’s main goals is to provide ‘an up-to-date summary of SLA research and its implications for ELT, a critical review of current ELT practice, and suggestions for how it might be improved’ (p. xiii). The authors emphasise that while they ‘make many teaching recommendations’, these are presented as ‘options, not recipes’ (p. 3, emphasis in original). The second goal of the book is to examine ‘the often hidden political and economic interests’ (p. 1), e.g., ‘the powerful state interests and vastly profitable commercial enterprises that shape much of what goes on’ (p. 2). While a problematisation of ‘ELT’s dark side’ (p. 2) is not new (see for example, Block et al. 2012; O’Regan 2021), it is the bringing together of ‘a politically and SLA-informed treatment of ELT’ (p. 3, emphasis added) which provides the reader with a unique introduction to ‘pure’ SLA and other areas of Applied Linguistics research. The book seeks to target a broad audience, and is aimed at two main readerships: (1) undergraduate and Master’s students completing qualifications in TESOL or Applied Linguistics, and (2) practising teachers of English as an Additional, Second, or Foreign Language to adults.