The Practice of English Language Teaching

Jam packed full of extraordinarily interesting and useful ideas whilst maintaining clear links with theory and recent research.

Author: Jeremy Harmer
Publisher: Pearson Longman
Components: Book & DVD

You might be tempted to ask why, or whether, we need yet another edition of this old favourite. I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that this new edition is jam packed full of extraordinarily interesting and useful ideas whilst maintaining clear links with theory and recent research. It also contains a lot more on educational technology than in the previous editions, and an interesting DVD of classroom practice.

Those of you who have followed the evolution of The Practice of English Language Teaching from the first edition will be aware of the way both this weighty volume and the practice of English language teaching have matured and evolved over the years. Those of you who are new to this book, and its author, will be pleased to see how extremely practical and realistic it is.

This new volume will be useful to both new teachers needing guidance in classroom practice, and also more experienced teachers who feel a need for a little extra inspiration from time to time, or who just want to touch base again. This edition sets out, as the title suggests, to provide a meaningful overview and update of the practice of English language teaching. Being one of the most comprehensive books in the field it succeeds admirably in its stated aims. Despite the depth and breadth of its topic this is a very readable book, which lends itself equally well to reading from front to back, or dipping in and out, as the mood, or professional demands, takes you.

The book is divided into ten parts. Part one chronicles the changing world of English, and describes the English language. Part two scrutinises theories, methods and techniques whilst part three takes a close look at learners and teachers. Part four discusses the management of learning, and part five examines the changing world of the classroom. Parts six and seven focus on language and language skills. Parts eight and nine concentrate on planning, syllabuses and evaluation. And finally, in part ten we face the issues of learner autonomy and teacher development.

The chapter notes at the end of each chapter contain suggestions for further reading - an excellent location that avoids the need to hunt through the eight pages of small print that form the bibliography. Another useful feature is that the various topics covered are itemised under the chapter headings in the contents at the front of the book, making it very easy to navigate around the book without having to search through the small print of the index.

I particularly enjoyed the DVD which has great sound quality and really clear pictures. It contains clips of nine teachers in which each teacher introduces themselves, their lessons sequences, and interviews in which they reflect on the lesson sequences shown. The teachers are all really normal teachers – just like you and me, the classes are also nice normal classes with nice normal students, and the interviews had me thinking things like “…when that happened to me…”, and “…that’s not how I would’ve done…”. There’s a short section at the back of the book about the DVD which contains an observation task, and a number of reflection questions – great for self study, or useful for teacher training.

The only thing I wasn’t so keen on was that there was so much of it - I kept forgetting I was supposed to be reviewing it and just kept right on reading it and talking to myself about it!

Overall, a very worthwhile addition to your bookshelf, and a book that would be worth its weight in gold in every staffroom and training centre.