Hey, Great Grade Teachers! 

We're ready to tell you more about the books every ESL teacher must read. We covered the first part of the list in our previous letter. If you missed it, just follow this link to catch up on some handy information. And now, let's learn more!  

Methodology

• 'A course in English Language Teaching'

Author: Penny Ur

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to English language teaching, and is suitable for teachers in a variety of educational settings, including compulsory education. It has been completely revised and updated to include essential new topics for the modern English language teacher, including English as an international language, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and using digital materials. It is ideal for initial teacher training and as a reference guide for practising teachers. The book combines theory and practice, with each unit containing tasks that encourage reflection and discussion, plus action tasks such as classroom observation and practice.

• 'How to Teach English'

Author: Jeremy Harmer

This book is an introduction to the teaching of English. It focuses on practical issues. It is an appropriate resource for self-study. The first chapters are related to topics such as “how can we be good teachers?”, “what makes a good learner?” and “how can teachers make classes better?” In the next chapters, the book looks at specific practical teaching methods, particularly in relation to the four skills, as well as offering ideas on textbook use, lesson planning and coping with the unpredictable events in the classroom. For each chapter, a range of tasks is provided to stimulate debate and further thought.

• 'The Practice of English Language Teaching'

Author: Jeremy Harmer

It is a complete reference resource for teachers of English as a second or foreign language. Both practical and theoretical, this comprehensive and highly acclaimed book examines the most recent ideas in methodology and language theory. The fifth edition reflects new developments in language teaching. The book introduces current pedagogy to teachers who want to access the most relevant ELT practices and incorporate them into their lessons.

• 'Learning Teaching'

Author: Jim Scrivener

It’s a comprehensive "how to" resource for methodology in TESOL and an excellent resource for those who are learning to teach ESL or for those teachers who need new ideas and professional development. Suitable for self-study.

Its practical aspect has made it a superb teaching tool for initial training courses, and also an important handbook for experienced ELT teachers. The third edition has been extensively revised and restructured to take recent developments in ELT into account and now includes a DVD featuring a full lesson being taught as well as demonstrations of practical teaching techniques.

 Skills and Systems

• 'How to Teach Writing'

Author: Jeremy Harmer

The book analyses the nature of writing, particularly in terms of process, product and genre. It discusses the practical implications of teaching the theory of writing and describes a broad spread of writing tasks, simple and extended, to help teachers select those that will be most effective in developing their students’ writing skills.

• 'How to Teach Pronunciation'

Author: Kelly Gerald

A straightforward primer on the theory and teaching of pronunciation, this text offers detailed analysis and teaching techniques for vowels, consonants, stress and intonation, and the features of fluent speech. 

• 'How to Teach Listening'

Author: J J Wilson

The book provides a practical guide to the theory and the practice of teaching listening in the language classroom. This book discusses key topics such as authenticity, testing and technology. 

Key Features:

1. an explanation of the main principles behind listening in the classroom
2. practical ideas for conducting an effective listening lesson
3. strategies to ensure the long-term development of students’ listening skills
4. a task file of photocopiable training activities.

• 'How to Teach Speaking'

Author: Scott Thornbury

This book provides both structured activities to get students speaking and ideas for developing confidence in using English outside the classroom. Essentially, this book:

1. examines the different approaches and activities that can be used for teaching and testing speaking.
2. covers areas of speech such as articulation, fluency and register.
3. looks at classroom approaches such as drilling, discussions, drama, dialogues and conversation.

Teacher Development

• 'About Language - Tasks for Teachers of English'

Author: Scott Thornbury

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 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.

Of course, the list of books we recommend reading cannot be limited to fifteen. The world is changing together with the needs of the students we teach and our own needs. Therefore, each decent course for teachers offers its own reading lists so that your knowledge meets the demands of the modern world. And in our centre you can not only deepen the knowledge of teaching methods, but also apply them in the real classroom under the supervision of experienced CELTA, DELTA, CELT-P or CELT-S trainers.

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