Are there any books on the history of English teaching?
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Are there any books on the history of English teaching?
Mr. Fluff mentioned Howatt's A History of ELT, but looking at the table of contents for this book, it is too extensive for my current interests. I'd rather get a more general, user-friendly book that gives a gentler overview. Is Richards and Rogers such a book? If not, please give me a title I can hunt down. Something that gets into the history of how English has been taught as a foreign language throughout the world.
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Yup, that's the title. Make sure you get the Second edition (2001?) though, as it expands substantially upon the original (which was published way back in 1986 IIRC, and therefore a bit out of date). I made some comments about it on your "Berlitz immerision" thread.
As for history, sure, there is enough, a fair bit (indeed, there has to be some) in the book in order for it to be able to introduce and contextualize (i.e. locate in its historical context) each method, and the "falling away" in the Second edition of, for want of a better word, "fringe" methods means that the essential nature of ELT surfaces more clearly (not that it is nowadays entirely monolithic, but still), so this can at a pinch substitute for Howatt (though Howatt is still interesting for anyone wanting to know that bit more about even halfway empirical influences such as the 'vocabulary control movement').
Oh, and for a potted yet still reasonably interesting read with a useful list of References and Further Reading, perhaps check out Adamson's chapter ('24: Fashions in Language Teaching Methodology') on pages 604-622 of the Blackwell Handbook of Applied Linguistics (this chapter is however unfortunately not entirely previewable on Google Books at the moment of typing).
As for history, sure, there is enough, a fair bit (indeed, there has to be some) in the book in order for it to be able to introduce and contextualize (i.e. locate in its historical context) each method, and the "falling away" in the Second edition of, for want of a better word, "fringe" methods means that the essential nature of ELT surfaces more clearly (not that it is nowadays entirely monolithic, but still), so this can at a pinch substitute for Howatt (though Howatt is still interesting for anyone wanting to know that bit more about even halfway empirical influences such as the 'vocabulary control movement').
Oh, and for a potted yet still reasonably interesting read with a useful list of References and Further Reading, perhaps check out Adamson's chapter ('24: Fashions in Language Teaching Methodology') on pages 604-622 of the Blackwell Handbook of Applied Linguistics (this chapter is however unfortunately not entirely previewable on Google Books at the moment of typing).
Last edited by fluffyhamster on Fri Sep 02, 2011 7:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Scott Thornbury seems to be very interested in the history of ELT at the moment, so you can pick up loads of nice nuggets from his blog and here:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/scott-thornbury
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/scott-thornbury
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The only Orff I've heard of is the composer, so I can't really comment on your other thread, Brad! (I could of course Google away and try to form an opinion, but then I'd only know as much as the next guy, and doubtless less than you. Has it occured to you to start a thread in which you give us your thoughts on a topic, rather than apparently always preferring to ask us ours? ).
By the way, McArthur's Oxford Companion to the English Language has little histories of ELT in (entries for) specific countries e.g. China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia etc.
By the way, McArthur's Oxford Companion to the English Language has little histories of ELT in (entries for) specific countries e.g. China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia etc.
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