| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £6.25
Trade in About Language - Tasks for Teachers of English (Cambridge Teacher Training and Development) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £6.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Scott Thornbury's book is a major contribution to this understanding, process and strategy. About Language is definitely a book worth recommending to all teachers, both those with considerable experience and novices.' Folia Linguistica Anglica, Poland, 1999
'The book provides a great wealth of ideas and strategies, for use in teacher development programs … The author and the publisher are to be congratulated on the production of such a useful book, which will be a valuable addition to the professional libraries of teachers and teacher educators.' VATME Newsletter, 1997
'I would have given my right arm for this book when I first entered the world of EFL. There are plenty of books that discuss what and how we should teach, and we seem to be swimming in books on grammar . What we don't have, however, are books designed to ease the novice teacher into the intimidating world of EFL 'grammarese'. About Language fill this gap. It is about the tools of our job: syllabuses, rules, functions, notions texts, phonology, morphology, sentences, grammar, cohesion, conversation and more.' BBC English, 1997
'I really felt that I was reading a book that has been written by somebody actively involved in the profession.' BBC English, 1997
'The book targets teacher trainees - indeed has been extensively trialled with classes of student teachers - but is also of value to teachers in any developmental program, native and non-native speakers, senior staff preparing inservice seminars and teachers in self-study. I have used it in a 'grammar clinic' context and found it both lucid and effective.' ' … this is probably not a book that one would slavishly follow from Unit One onwards, but rather one that allows a dip-into-according-to-current-need approach. Recognising this, the organisation of the book facilitates the reference process; it is a model of clarity, and its index is a welcome addition.' 'Thornbury knows as much about how people learn about their language as he does about the language of English.' EA Journal Volume 15 no 2
'The book provides a great wealth of ideas and strategies, for use in teacher development programs … The author and the publisher are to be congratulated on the production of such a useful book, which will be a valuable addition to the professional libraries of teachers and teacher educators.' VATME Newsletter, 1997
'I would have given my right arm for this book when I first entered the world of EFL. There are plenty of books that discuss what and how we should teach, and we seem to be swimming in books on grammar . What we don't have, however, are books designed to ease the novice teacher into the intimidating world of EFL 'grammarese'. About Language fill this gap. It is about the tools of our job: syllabuses, rules, functions, notions texts, phonology, morphology, sentences, grammar, cohesion, conversation and more.' BBC English, 1997
'I really felt that I was reading a book that has been written by somebody actively involved in the profession.' BBC English, 1997
'The book targets teacher trainees - indeed has been extensively trialled with classes of student teachers - but is also of value to teachers in any developmental program, native and non-native speakers, senior staff preparing inservice seminars and teachers in self-study. I have used it in a 'grammar clinic' context and found it both lucid and effective.' ' … this is probably not a book that one would slavishly follow from Unit One onwards, but rather one that allows a dip-into-according-to-current-need approach. Recognising this, the organisation of the book facilitates the reference process; it is a model of clarity, and its index is a welcome addition.' 'Thornbury knows as much about how people learn about their language as he does about the language of English.' EA Journal Volume 15 no 2
Product Description
Teachers of English need not only to have a good productive command of the language; they also need to know a good deal about the way the language works. This book asks: 'What is it that a teacher needs to know about English in order to teach it effectively?' It leads teachers to awareness of the language through a wide range of tasks which involve them in analysing English to discover its underlying system. The book consists of 28 units, each containing around ten tasks, plus a diagnostic introductory unit. Units start at phoneme level and progress through words, phrases and sentences on to complete texts. Task-types include recognition, categorisation, matching, explanation, and application tasks. Throughout the book, the language is illustrated wherever possible from authentic sources, so that the teacher can be sure that the English being studied represents current usage.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
This unit is designed to get you started, and invites you to consider some key issues related to the teaching of language - language being the operative word here - since the focus of this book is less on methodology than on the nature of language itself. Read the first page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
This unit is designed to get you started, and invites you to consider some key issues related to the teaching of language - language being the operative word here - since the focus of this book is less on methodology than on the nature of language itself. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For those involved in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages, this book is easily the most reader-friendly, comprehensive and balanced introduction to undertsanding a) how the English language works and b) the related pedagogical implications!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If, like me, you want this book for self study, then whether it will be useful for you depends on your preferred style of study. For me, the book was dissapointing when it arrived because it felt like it was not really suitable for self study. The introduction to the book made it very clear that the primary aim of the book was for it to be used in teacher training classrooms, with usefulness for self study as a secondary aim.
The book doesn't contain chunks of information 'about language'. Rather it has a list of 'tasks' for each unit and then, in the back, answers for the tasks. For example, in the tasks section one task will ask you to match terms and thier definitions, and the 'answers' section in the back will have a completed table. This can make it cumbersome to use for self study if you don't already know most of the terms, because you end up studying the answers page and then returning to the tasks page. So, you end up flicking endlessly between the back and front, compiling information by finding answers to questions rather than just reading it. For some people this may be a useful method, but for me it just felt awkward. Evidently, the tasks are designed primarily for classroom use (although all can be completed alone).
'About Language' does cover a lot of key elements of the language though and, after I did wade through it, it did help me understand the language a lot better. Now I know, for example, what a bilabial fricative consonant is, and where it is on the phonemic chart!
In summary - this can be a useful text but bear in mind that the approach is 100% task based which (if like me you didn't pick up on the hint in the subtitle!) may not be exactly what you thought it would be.
The book doesn't contain chunks of information 'about language'. Rather it has a list of 'tasks' for each unit and then, in the back, answers for the tasks. For example, in the tasks section one task will ask you to match terms and thier definitions, and the 'answers' section in the back will have a completed table. This can make it cumbersome to use for self study if you don't already know most of the terms, because you end up studying the answers page and then returning to the tasks page. So, you end up flicking endlessly between the back and front, compiling information by finding answers to questions rather than just reading it. For some people this may be a useful method, but for me it just felt awkward. Evidently, the tasks are designed primarily for classroom use (although all can be completed alone).
'About Language' does cover a lot of key elements of the language though and, after I did wade through it, it did help me understand the language a lot better. Now I know, for example, what a bilabial fricative consonant is, and where it is on the phonemic chart!
In summary - this can be a useful text but bear in mind that the approach is 100% task based which (if like me you didn't pick up on the hint in the subtitle!) may not be exactly what you thought it would be.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Of the four grammar books recommended for my upcoming CELTA course, this is probably the best in terms of teaching me something and telling me things I need to know. In general the explanations are clear, the exercises are challenging and feel worthwhile, and Scott Thornbury has not shied away from tackling some thorny issues I perceived, not least in the field of Tenses, where he includes a thoughtful and lucid discussion of the many issues in English, and Parts of Speech.
I can't help, though, imagining the author at school, as one of those pupils who never stray too far away from an escape route. He's sometimes a little too smart with his questions, asking the reader to characterise items according to, say, a list of five terms, and then in the answers doing a Gotcha! by dropping a sixth or even a seventh term in there. It's not the tough kids who want to get him, it's the studious ones who know just a little less than he does. Also, the inductive approach he has adopted sometimes seems to be an excuse not to explain some things at all.
Overall, though, well worth sticking with.
I can't help, though, imagining the author at school, as one of those pupils who never stray too far away from an escape route. He's sometimes a little too smart with his questions, asking the reader to characterise items according to, say, a list of five terms, and then in the answers doing a Gotcha! by dropping a sixth or even a seventh term in there. It's not the tough kids who want to get him, it's the studious ones who know just a little less than he does. Also, the inductive approach he has adopted sometimes seems to be an excuse not to explain some things at all.
Overall, though, well worth sticking with.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent
This book proved to be extremely useful and interesting to read. It explains various parts of English Language Teaching in understandable language as well as using exercises which... Read more
Published 3 months ago by emmapookie
English teacher
I got this book for my daughter who works in a school in Bari Italy teaching english she say is a very helpfull book
Published 5 months ago by Gerard P. Campbell
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
