Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching

I was very pleased to get a used book in a very good condition. It looks just like new and when I opened it, it had a couple of highlights in it, but they were not bad at all.

This little book is a great introduction to some of the methods in use for teaching ESL. It gives a sample lesson, key features and an overview. It provides a great taste of what it would be like to be in that classroom and why the lesson is structured in that way.

Unlike many texts for educators, Larsen-Freeman's survey of the methodologies that can be used in ESL is concrete and practical. The book devotes a chapter to each technique, from Grammar/Translation to ALM to Communicative Language Learning. In each case the author describes a lesson in minute detail, breaks apart the pieces, and then examines the principles underlying the steps in the lesson. Larsen-Freeman's point, which I think every good teacher instinctively realizes, is that every method has something to recommend it, and the best approach is to have a cookbook of methods at one's disposal. In an individual class, with any individual student, it's hard to predict what the key to learning will be. This book is simple when explaining theory, and detailed when it comes to practice--a good combination for the working teacher.

Excellent book for different methods of teaching.

I am an ESL teacher and I teach Methods and Materials of TESOL at the University Level and I am very pleased with this book. It is clearly written and the methods, from the Audio-Lingual Method to Content Based Instruction, are presented in a format that facilitates pre-service and in-service teachers' understanding of the theoretical background of language teaching, and the book provides relevant follow up activities that promote professional growth and allow the learner to apply what they have just learned. My students have given me very positive feedback about the chioce of this as one of the texts that we use, and they all say that they wish to keep the book on the shelves of their professional libraries.I refer to it frequently as both a professional in the feild and as a teacher educator.