Teaching
 ReCALL The world of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is an area which is growing in momentum at a very quick pace. There are numerous books available to instruct EFL/ ESL teachers in the basics of CALL, but what may be of even greater assistance are journals, especially if you are interested in CALL itself and not just setting tasks for your students to do in word processing! If you are like me and relatively new to the wonders of CALL, then I advise you to look at as many research articles as you can and journals are a great place to find ideas. ReCALL (The Journal of EUROCALL [European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning]) is one of the most well-known and esteemed international CALL journals whose self-stated aim is to include “…the use of technologies for language learning and teaching, including all relevant aspects of research and development”. It is a refereed journal published by Cambridge and it is released three times a year in January, May and September, with the May issue containing papers from the EUROCALL conference.
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When I heard that Cambridge was bringing out a new book in their Handbooks for Language Teachers series entitled Learning One-to-One I was keen to get my hands on a copy. The series is a favourite of mine and over the past few years I’ve found an increasing number of one-to-one lessons on my timetable. I prefer teaching groups as I find one-to-one teaching less dynamic and more tiring, so I was hoping that Ingrid Wisniewska’s book would give me some new ideas and stop one-to-one lessons being such a chore.
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 Perspectives on Language Learning Materials Development One of the most interesting things about this book is the breadth of its scope. It is divided into three sections: Materials Development and Naturally Occurring Discourse (four chapters); Technology and Materials Development (two chapters); and Tailoring Materials for Learner Groups (four chapters). Six of the ten chapters were originally given as papers at the MATSDA (Materials Development Association) conference held in Ireland in 2008. The second section is entirely composed of new articles (one by the co-editor of the book) and there is one new article in each of the other two sections. The authors work in many different environments, with learners from a wide range of ages and backgrounds, using many different types of material, and in countries as far apart as Japan, Pakistan, Tunisia and Venezuela.
One of the postulates here is that every language teacher is a materials developer, and it is for this reason that the book is a must-read for those of us who want to take things just that little bit further. Naturally occurring discourse is far more readily available now, in the age of internet, than it was in the past. The problem now is one of knowing how best to use the vast quantities of material available. The first chapter shows how the authors McCarthy and McCarten, well-known in the field of ELT publishing, used the Cambridge International Corpus to build a conversation management syllabus. The four macro-functions identified are: organising your own talk; taking account of the other speaker(s); listenership; and managing the conversation as a whole. Part of the problem of using a corpus of naturally occurring speech is that such conversations rarely fit the ideal textbook format of 50-word snippets. The authors suggest strategies for overcoming these problems, illustrating them with examples taken from their Touchstone series.
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 Using Corpora in the Language Classroom From the same collection as From Corpus to Classroom, Reppen’s book is the perfect introduction to corpus linguistics from the classroom viewpoint. One possible quibble could be that the book is quite short, but even that can be seen as an advantage: it leaves the reader hungry for more.
The book follows the popular American textbook format: there are grey “Your turn” boxes at regular intervals to encourage active reading; and each chapter starts with an outline in the form of questions and ends with a brief recap of what has been learnt. This makes navigation easy, and the index is also quite useful, although sometimes frustrating: Word Pilot sounds fascinating but, alas, the only mention of it is to be found in the index, whereas Voice Walker is mentioned in the text, but is absent from both the index and the software list in Appendix B.
The book is divided into five chapters. The first provides a rapid review of what a corpus is, and what different types of corpora there are. From the beginning, the text is easy to read and abundantly illustrated, with examples of word frequency lists, KWIC (key word in context) concordance lines, screen shots of online corpora, and concrete examples of exercises based on corpus data or using corpora.
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 English Language Teaching Materials: Theory and Practice
English Language Teaching Materials: Theory and Practice is a very useful book for all teachers of English as a foreign language, and especially for experienced teachers looking for more specialised help with lesson planning or understanding course content. In addition, it is a great tool for those involved with (or considering involvement with) materials writing. The teaching materials covered in the book are wide-ranging and not just limited to textbooks. Of course, textbooks are covered, but so are realia, worksheets, specific exercises, and the methodology for using these materials. The book also covers the production and publication of materials.
The book is divided into chapters, in this case each written by a different author or group of authors. All the contributors to this work are practising teachers or academics from university departments, covering a range of English-speaking countries. Some names will also be familiar to those readers who often read research papers about EFL.
This last point is significant because the content of the book is very academic. The chapters are written more like journal articles than book chapters. Because of this, I would say that while the book is of use to all teachers of EFL, for those who are newer to the profession or those who do not have so much academic knowledge of language and language teaching, it may be quite heavy-going.
At the end of each chapter, there are points for discussion and other such tasks designed to enable the reader to reflect upon what they have just read and to give the reader a chance to put into practice the ideas and content of the chapter.
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 The TKT Course CLIL Module The TKT (the Teaching Knowledge Test) is a Cambridge ESOL test about teaching English to speakers of other languages and aims to provide teachers, both experienced and less experienced, with the tools and confidence to develop their knowledge and skills. No formal qualifications or preparation courses are required to take the test, but Cambridge recommend an intermediate or B1 (CEFR) level of English.
The TKT consists of three core modules, each of which is tested separately, on language and background to language learning and teaching (Module 1), planning lessons and use of resources for language teaching (Module 2) and managing the teaching and learning process (Module 3). In addition, there are three other optional modules, TKT Practical, TKT Knowledge About Language, and TKT Content And Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).
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 Learning One-to-One My favorite kind of professional text is books of practical techniques that are full of thoughtful, creative and interactive language tasks and activities. These kinds of books can range greatly in quality and usefulness, however. The most notable exception is the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series, guided by Scott Thornbury. Like all the other valuable contributions to teachers’ professional libraries that Cambridge has produced, Wisniewska’s Learning One-to-One does not disappoint. As the title succinctly indicates, this is a book for ESL/EFL instructors who work individually with learners, in person or at a distance. It fills a gaping hole in the field today, as many teachers have been trained to teach classes of English language learners (ELLs) but are being asked to pull learners out of mainstream courses for one-on-one support or to teach an individual online. This text orients teachers to both of those two types of environments, as well as the intellectual shifts necessary to teach one individual well.
After a brief introduction to this instructional format and its challenges, the book has two large sections entitled “Basic Principles” and “Activities”. These are followed by references and a slightly annotated list of useful websites. The text also includes a CD-ROM of photocopiable worksheets.
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 Teaching English Language Learners through Technology The number of books on computer-assisted language learning or technology-based language learning has increased dramatically in the last two or three years. It seems like everyone now working in teaching methodology or preparing books for teachers has to complete or reshape the topic just a bit and “computerize” or “technologize” their titles. I have to say that by the time I received this book I had already reviewed many similar ones, at least in title and contents, so when I first opened this volume I was wondering whether I would really find anything new here. One heading that immediately caught my attention was “Not all ELLs [English Language Learners] are the same” (p. 32), about when and how to teach with technology. That was indeed new! In a way, I feel the same about the rest of this volume – it is not only another book on the topic, but also very versatile and adaptable to each individual’s needs.
The book is divided into three main sections. The first part (titled “Your English Language Learner”) consists of eight chapters, and each addresses different aspects of teaching needs or realities of different students such as the process of second language learning and teaching, the features of the best TESOL programs, how to orientate bilingual education, adjustment to different kinds of learners (one of my favorite parts of the book), technology-based language
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 Teaching and Researching Computer-Assisted Language Learning Teaching and Researching Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) was first released in 2003 but it has been revised and the second edition has just been released. For anyone who wants to conduct research or just has an interest in CALL, then this book is definitely a must have. There are so many CALL books out there and a large number of them are bogged down with large amounts of technological terminology that only the tech-savvy can actually understand. Thankfully this edition is not like that. Tech terms are explained in a very clear and easy-to-understand manner, and it is very interesting even if you know nothing about the world of CALL.
The book opens with a very detailed Table of Contents which enables you to find specific information and makes it possible for you to find what you are looking for very quickly. You don’t need to skim through every chapter as the contents are well set out and clearly labeled. Following the Contents is the Introduction, which I recommend reading as it contains a brief look into the world of CALL and outlines the book’s contents.
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 CLIL At first glance I thought this book would be another book about the recent TEFL buzzword “CLIL” that left me with more questions than answers. Luckily I was wrong. The book answered and resolved many of the doubts that I was harboring about Content and Language Integrated Learning.
The book CLIL draws on the extensive knowledge and experience of the authors to give a comprehensive overview of Content and Language Integrated Learning. It is divided broadly into three sections: the background to CLIL, classroom practice and, ways of sustaining and critically assessing CLIL.
It is written with Pre-school, Primary, Secondary and Vocational levels in mind and is divided into eight chapters. Each chapter deals with a relevant theme in CLIL, from an introduction to CLIL in the first chapter, to the last chapter on future directions.
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 The Developing Teacher Although I already have a thousand things I know I should be doing to develop my teaching (reading those books stacked up in my bedroom might be a start, and volunteering to be observed is always valuable torture), I was so intrigued by the idea of a whole book full of ideas on how to keep developing that I picked this title out of all the interesting-looking ones that Delta Publishing were offering in 2009. My main questions when I read through it were how much it would affect my development, what other kinds of people the book might be interesting for, and whether anyone would really want to read a whole book on the topic.
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 Provoking Thought Provoking Thought is a resource book for ESL/EFL teachers. The book is divided into 5 chapters – Thinking, Memory, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Organizing Ideas on Paper. The unique aspect of the activities in this book is that the author, Hall Houston, hasn’t just created activities to get the students to use new language. The activities he has chosen also make the students think about how they use language in general while teaching them ways to make the language learning process easier. The exercises How We Learn New Words and Learning Phrases in the memory chapter of the book are particularly helpful for the latter.
Every chapters starts with a brief explanation to why the particular topic is important to language learning. The author however only gives essential information. It’s not too detailed and heavy, but is enough to raise awareness and get you interested. Should you then want to read more into the topic, you can revert to the extensive bibliography and recommended websites sections at the back of the book.
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 ELT Journal (ELTJ) is probably the most respected English language teaching publication, with often quoted pieces on the important or neglected issues of the day from academics and well known writers So well respected is it, in fact, that I believe many of my fellow four week cert/ non MA teachers are put off even picking it up, as I once was. Alternatively, when they do so perhaps they are scared off by the long lists of references or research stats that some articles have. Alternatively, the price (160 pounds for corporate subscribers, 139 pounds for institutional subscribers, 51 pounds for personal subscribers and 26 pounds for students for just four editions of the paper version, with some discounts available) could mean that they never even get to see a copy. It would be a shame if people are being stopped from even looking at it like I was because
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Teacher Training Through Video is a classic remake. While this 2 DVD series was originally recorded on good old fashioned VHS in the early 1990s, the teaching techniques and principles it demonstrates are absolutely timeless. Once you accept that fashion has moved on somewhat, you are left with an impressive range and depth of material for teachers, trainers and trainees at all levels of experience to tap into.
The DVDs are broken down into 12 sections, each featuring key teaching approaches and techniques. They are Lesson Planning, Total Physical Response, Early Production, Language Experience, Beginning Literacy, Dialogue/Drilling, Information Gap, Focused Listening, Role Play, Problem Solving, Life
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 Advanced Learners
Advanced Learners by Alan Maley is part of the Oxford University Press series Resource Books For Teachers. It is designed to give teachers ideas on how they can enable advanced learners to move to the next level of proficiency. As the author points out, this is an area rarely dealt with in ELT material, and as such occupies a spot in an underappreciated, undervalued and yet important element of the student ability spectrum.
The book consists of nine chapters, each concentrating on a particular area of study, such as grammar, the tools of the trade (dictionaries, thesauruses etc) and the four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). Maley’s best work is in the
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 English as a Lingua Franca If I told you that the number of non-native English speakers worldwide outnumber native speakers I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised. You may, yourself, be a teacher of English who speaks a different mother tongue- the vast majority of English teachers across the world are. Most transactions in English now involve no native speakers at all. Why then, asks Jennifer Jenkins, do we persist in demanding that all English speakers meet standards based on native speaker norms?
Jenkins’ previous book (part of the consistently worthwhile ‘Oxford Applied Linguistics’ collection) addressed ‘English as an International Language’ (EIL) from a background in phonology, and through research she developed a ‘Lingua Franca Core’ (LFC) of phonological features as a basis for international
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This creative resource provides activities and scene performances, which relate to real-life issues, to help students get in touch with emotions and build self-confidence as they fine-tune the craft of acting. Mr. Almond writes that this book is, “designed more with the secondary school or adult learner in mind, although most
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Teachers new to one-to-one teaching, whether they are new to the profession or have years of classroom experience, are often unprepared to deal with the particular nature of student-teacher dynamics that come into play when the teacher and student must spend hours alone together. In her book, Teaching English One-to-One, Osborne makes it very clear that establishing a working relationship with the student is the most essential element in ensuring the success of the class and that fostering these good interpersonal dynamics is the responsibility of the teacher. That is, no matter how great a teacher you are, if you and the student don’t get on
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It’s the last thing you need isn’t it? You’ve done your teaching qualification, learned all you think you can about the Communicative Approach and strive to make your lessons as interesting as possible, and all of a sudden a bunch of upstarts tell you that CLT is so nineties – nowadays we should be ‘teaching unplugged’, producing lessons that are materials-light, conversation-driven and focused on the English students need to learn rather than what the coursebook deems we should be teaching them today. I was ready to give Dogme short shrift, but
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 The skills in question, as presented on the front cover, are of course the traditional four: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Inside the book, these skills are presented in the same order, in forty separate units, which means that each skill gets equal attention and is the focus of ten units. A closer examination of the two-page units reveals that each one is organized in a similar way, starting with a “Lead in”, then an optional “Word work” section, in 30 of the units. This generally precedes the central section-Talk about it, Listen, Read about it, Write about it-but is sometimes integrated into that section, in which case it is
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