ESL theory/teacher training texts?

scot · Post by **scot** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:49 am

hey guys. ive been teaching for a few years now and am curious to know what i dont know. what is the benchmark text of esl teaching theories/models? what are your favorites? im not looking for class texts or grammar reference, just the layout of teaching methods. i dont want to reinvent any perfectly good wheels.
i dont want to take a class but i'd like to know why im doing what im doing more clearly. so thanks from me and any future students for your guidance.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:57 am

I once gave 'woodcutter' a list of (admittedly) EFL-y tomes. Although his dad was new to teaching, very few of the books I mentioned were total "idiots' " guides for clueless or uncaring newbies (which you certainly aren't!), so you might get something out of them also:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... 2619#12619

I've mentioned the above link also towards the end of the ESL Management's 'DELTA' thread (in relation to syllabus design and implementation).

You can also find some interesting books if you do a search for 'Lewis' (look especially for the 'Finding Lewis's "The English Verb"' thread in the search results). I also like Seidlhofer's 'Controversies in Applied Linguistics' (again, do a search). Then, there's the AL forum's 'Brian Browser's book-filled trousers' thread...

I'm not so much interested in individual methods or techniques, but rather the thinking and philosophy behind them (that is, more in 'approaches'), basically anything that gets teachers away from patronizing students with often too-limited/limiting dollops of practice-like or supposedly "communicative" English (all interspersed with those awful large doses of 'classroom' English, which is mainly just instructions and signposting - 'Do as I say and listen dammit').

If you haven't read it already, the 2nd edition of the Richards and Rodgers book is a good (re)starting point; I also really like Howatt (also now in a 2nd edition).

At the moment I'm reading Jordan's book (mentioned near the start of the 'Brian Browser' thread); SLA research and theorizing is kind of required reading, and it will hopefully help me to get back into it somewhat.

moonchild7903 · Post by **moonchild7903** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 2:06 pm

I really like Celce-Murcia's books on ESL. Another author to try would be Rod Ellis' books on Second Language Acquisition

joshua2004 · Post by **joshua2004** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 7:06 pm

I live by Stephen Krashen. He has one of his books online for reading. I read the same book in print and they were different. I suggest reading both to get all the material. On his website he also provides tons of articles he has written.
http://www.sdkrashen.com/main.php3

scot · Post by **scot** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:48 am

hey thanks for the pointers guys. I'll check it all out. seems the other threads have a lot of options already so sorry for the redundancy.
and fluffy, you said it exactly as i'm lookin for, i've got enough classroom management techniques and the like, i want to read about the philosophical schools and draw relivance from them.

merry christmas to all
scot

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 7:03 am

Merry Xmas and a Happy New year to you too, Scot (and everyone else here on Dave's)!

Just thought I should post the following link cos it doesn't show up with a search just for 'Seidlhofer' (I needed to remember to type 'Seidlhofer's!):
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... 4617#14617 (Actually the specific post linked draws upon Malmkjaer, but Seidlhofer('s book!) is mentioned a bit later)

The above expands (on) the scope of 'AL' somewhat, as does the following (about linguistics proper, the "philosophy" behind linguistics etc):
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewt ... 970#331970

It's a shame that that Job Discussion forum thread got locked down, 'cos it could've gotten interesting. Ah well...

Superhal · Post by **Superhal** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:54 am

There are lots of theories. If you are looking for a respectable, readable overview, Rod Ellis has an entire series of books that aren't too hard for the average person. Once you locate a theory or two you would like to know more about, he points in the right direction.