Job Discussion Forums

[SuppaTime]

Hello,

Can anyone tell me the names of some of the main theorists of ESL teaching? I know of Krashen but I don't really know of any others. I hope my ignorance doesn't make too bad of an impression; I'm trying to improve myself, anyway.

Thanks .... SuppaTime

[MELEE]

Maybe this post should be in the general discussion forum? Dave's also has an applied linguistics forum at www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher
I'm also on a very good listserve for this kind of thing called TESL-L you can see how to sign up at http://listserv.cuny.edu

Now I will go ahead and answer your question.

Oh course along with Krashen the other linguistics giant is Noam Chomsky

But there are others, smaller prehaps, but people who really teach ESL, or used to, and whose writtings are much more accessible to the average ESL teacher.

In order that they occured to me

Scott Thornbury
Micheal Swan
Micheal Lewis
Micheal McCarthy
Jack Richards
Penny Ur
Betty Azar
Jenny Jenkins
Adrian Holiday
David Crystal
David Nunan
Diane Larson Freeman
etc.
etc.

There are various good online journals that you can read. The Internet TESL Journal is a good place to start, they have a great teacher's links section that will lead you to other journals.

And there is a good wiki going at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_learning_and_teaching one of the main writers of the wiki is a regular on the TESL-L listserv. Be sure to follow the links at the bottom to the related wikis, the applied linguistics one is great too.

Happy Studying! and good for you!

[SuppaTime]

Excellent, Melee -- exactly what I was hoping for and much more.

You are right, I probably should have posted it on a different forum. That was my mistake. I could re-post it there but I read in some forum guidelines that there are rules against double postings, so maybe I shouldn't.

Is there one of Chomsky's books that is most directly relevant to ESL teaching theory?

Thank you a lot again .... ST

[Justin Trullinger]

Good list, MELEE. The only two that occur to me to add are Bill Van Patten and Donald Finkel-

Van Patten's "From Input to Output" is the most accesible introduction to SLA theory that I know of.

Finkel's "Teaching with your mouth shut" should be read by all teachers, in EFL or other areas. Not really EFL specific, but still shockingly relevant.


Chomsky is really interesting...but to my mind, not really a place to start. Very interesting, as he tells more than was previously known about what language is within the human brain. But honestly, the relevance to teaching is often a stretch. In any case, he deals mostly with first language in the stuff I've read. GOod fun, but NOT a light read.


Best,
Justin

[MELEE]

You could probably post this over in the general forum and no one would no any better, we don't attract a lot of moderator attention in the Latin American forums.

I agree with Justin, Chomsky is facinating, but if anything his influence of the teaching of foreign languages is minimul, trickle down stuff. You can read some other authors interpret his universal grammar theory and what that means to foreign language instruction, I can't think of any names of the top of my head.
For pure language nerd interest, Steven Pinker, who is a cognitive scientist and a student of Chomsky's from MIT has two really interesting books, one called the Language Instict and one called Words and Rules. Again not stuff that will directly effect your teaching. But interesting reads.

For direct teaching info, I'm a Scott Thornbury and Micheal Lewis groupie, and I've even got to play the groupie to both of them at conferences.