Teaching Language in Context

This book is aimed at explaining proficiency oriented language teaching, and has very valuable material on proficiency and its importance. This is something many teachers seem to overlook as too obvious to be of concern, but Hadley shows it to be a central issue in teaching. The criticism made by one reviewer that it's tilted too much toward communicative teaching is mistaken. There's a difference between communicative teaching and proficiency oriented teaching, although they are obviously related. This book, like any other, is not sufficient by itself, but needs to be read an compared to others in order to get a range of viewpoints. It is not of instantaneous practical use to classroom teachers, but rather deals with the ideas behind teaching methods. It is a very valuable addition to a teacher's bookshelf and I have no regrets about buying it.

No book can cover every aspect of language instruction, but by all means Hadley's work would be right up there with Ellis, Richards and Rodgers among others. This is a solid book, jam packed with historical facts and insights, and I feel has caught the full heart of the profession representing the current state of the profession. I could not disagree with the first reviewer more. I am reading this book through and I love this book. This is not a technique-y book at all but a serious treatise and contribution to educators who want to have a broader scope on theory and instruction. In my mind, the author answers the who, what, where, when, how, and why not just of one method but does it with several of the major methods. And this she does in Chapter three! This is a 512 page text and to my mind, the reading is coherent, smart, and digestable. This text is certainly one of the better foundational texts for comprehensive grasp of the field. This book is be a springboard to assist the reader to think through the past and present assumptionan about teaching language; it is an excellent choice! If I were to only have one text to me to read in this area, this would be a top contender. Thank you Alice Omaggio Haddley for the hard work and care you put into this wonderful book.

I think this is an excellent book for foreign language teachers of all levels. Omaggio gives a good overview of the theories driving language teaching--past and present-- and the basics of how second language is acquired. As there is no "magic formula" for creating effective lessons, learning how we learn a foreign language helps teachers to use their time in the classroom more efficiently. Rather than wasting time doing random substitution and grammar drills, the students can actually be learning the language in context.

In this chapter, the author offers me the rational attitude toward error correction and the possible causes of errors from the study of CONTRAST ANALYSIS and ERROR ANALYSIS. I strongly recommend it to all the language teaching practioners

A good text for foreign language teacher preparation or professional development for those who are not current on developments of the last ten years in theory and practice. The chapters are carefully organized and easily accessible. Many examples help the teacher understand how the concepts discussed in the book would "play out" in the classroom. Perhaps some more attention could be given to current trends in performance assessment, though there was a start on this in the second edition.