This edited volume problematizes prescription, efficiency, and technical solutions as orientations to classroom language learning. The ideas that have found most resonance in the contributors' attempts at understanding language classroom life are the inherent complexity and idiosyncrasy of classroom life, the central importance of the participants' own understandings, the relationship between classroom life and teachers' and students' lives, negotiation between teachers and learners, the relationship between the local and the global, and the 'quality' of classroom life. These themes are addressed in the contexts of language learning, adult literacy education and language teacher education.
The starting point for this collection is an original paper by Dick Allwright in which he outlines his view of Six Promising Directions in Applied Linguistics. The other distinguished contributors respond to this discussion with their own interpretations and from their own experience. The contributors are Michael P. Breen, Maria Antonieta Alba Celani, Hywel Coleman, John F. Fanselow and Roger Barnard, Donald Freeman, Simon Gieve and Inés K. Miller, Adrian Holliday, Ming-I Lydia Tseng and Roz Ivanič, Elaine E. Tarone, Tony Wright and Devon Woods. Kathleen Bailey's Foreword sets the scene.
'Once in a while you come across an edited volume that is hard to put down. Understanding the Language Classroom is one such rare volume...you will soon find yourself wanting to read evermore, for the views expressed in this volume are as diverse as the sixteen individuals that contributed to the wealth of information contained in this well-crafted work...it is an important addition to anyone's list of edited volumes on second languages and the complexity of learning, and I recommend it most highly...' - The Reading Matrix
List of Figures
Foreword; K.M.Bailey
Acknowledgements
Notes on the Contributors
Introduction
Six Promising Directions in Applied Linguistics; D.Allwright
What Do We Mean By 'Quality of Classroom Life'?; S.N.Gieve & I.K. Miller
What Happens Between People: Who We Are and What We Do; A.Holliday
Managing Classroom Life; T.Wright
Who Does What In The 'Management of Language Learning'? Planning and the Social Construction of the 'Motivation to Notice'; D.Woods
Darwin and the Large Class; H.Coleman
Recognizing Complexity in Adult Literacy Research and Practice; M.L.Tseng & R.Ivanic
Language Lessons: A Complex, Local Co-Production of all Participants; E.E.Tarone
Take 1, Take 2, Take 3: A Suggested Three-Stage Approach to Exploratory Practice; J.F.Fanselow & R.Barnard
Collegial Development in ELT: The Interface Between Global Processes and Local Understandings; M.P.Breen
Language Teacher Educators in Search of 'Locally Helpful Understandings'; M.A.A.Celani
Teaching and Learning in the Age of 'Reform': The Problem of the Verb; D.Freeman
Index
SIMON GIEVE is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Leicester, UK. He has taught EFL for many years in Japan and later in Britain. His interests are in classroom language learning, teacher education, critical discourse analysis, and the social relationship between first and second language speakers.
INÉS K. MILLER is Assistant Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil. Her research focuses on language teacher education and development. She is a core member of the Lancaster University-based Exploratory Practice Centre (EPCentre) and co-ordinates the Exploratory Practice Group in Rio (EPGroup-Rio).
Description
This edited volume problematizes prescription, efficiency, and technical solutions as orientations to classroom language learning. The ideas that have found most resonance in the contributors' attempts at understanding language classroom life are the inherent complexity and idiosyncrasy of classroom life, the central importance of the participants' own understandings, the relationship between classroom life and teachers' and students' lives, negotiation between teachers and learners, the relationship between the local and the global, and the 'quality' of classroom life. These themes are addressed in the contexts of language learning, adult literacy education and language teacher education.
The starting point for this collection is an original paper by Dick Allwright in which he outlines his view of Six Promising Directions in Applied Linguistics. The other distinguished contributors respond to this discussion with their own interpretations and from their own experience. The contributors are Michael P. Breen, Maria Antonieta Alba Celani, Hywel Coleman, John F. Fanselow and Roger Barnard, Donald Freeman, Simon Gieve and Inés K. Miller, Adrian Holliday, Ming-I Lydia Tseng and Roz Ivanič, Elaine E. Tarone, Tony Wright and Devon Woods. Kathleen Bailey's Foreword sets the scene.
Reviews
'Once in a while you come across an edited volume that is hard to put down. Understanding the Language Classroom is one such rare volume...you will soon find yourself wanting to read evermore, for the views expressed in this volume are as diverse as the sixteen individuals that contributed to the wealth of information contained in this well-crafted work...it is an important addition to anyone's list of edited volumes on second languages and the complexity of learning, and I recommend it most highly...' - The Reading Matrix
Contents
List of Figures
Foreword; K.M.Bailey
Acknowledgements
Notes on the Contributors
Introduction
Six Promising Directions in Applied Linguistics; D.Allwright
What Do We Mean By 'Quality of Classroom Life'?; S.N.Gieve & I.K. Miller
What Happens Between People: Who We Are and What We Do; A.Holliday
Managing Classroom Life; T.Wright
Who Does What In The 'Management of Language Learning'? Planning and the Social Construction of the 'Motivation to Notice'; D.Woods
Darwin and the Large Class; H.Coleman
Recognizing Complexity in Adult Literacy Research and Practice; M.L.Tseng & R.Ivanic
Language Lessons: A Complex, Local Co-Production of all Participants; E.E.Tarone
Take 1, Take 2, Take 3: A Suggested Three-Stage Approach to Exploratory Practice; J.F.Fanselow & R.Barnard
Collegial Development in ELT: The Interface Between Global Processes and Local Understandings; M.P.Breen
Language Teacher Educators in Search of 'Locally Helpful Understandings'; M.A.A.Celani
Teaching and Learning in the Age of 'Reform': The Problem of the Verb; D.Freeman
Index
Authors
SIMON GIEVE is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Leicester, UK. He has taught EFL for many years in Japan and later in Britain. His interests are in classroom language learning, teacher education, critical discourse analysis, and the social relationship between first and second language speakers.
INÉS K. MILLER is Assistant Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil. Her research focuses on language teacher education and development. She is a core member of the Lancaster University-based Exploratory Practice Centre (EPCentre) and co-ordinates the Exploratory Practice Group in Rio (EPGroup-Rio).
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