Reviews

How to Teach English Jeremy Harmer Addison Wesley Longman ISBN 0582 19796 6 reader to where the chapter contents will be taken up later. These are followed by a 41-page, chapter-related Task File, which according to the introduction (p.ix) 'comprises a large number of exercises and activities designed to predict and/or build on the information in the chapters of the main book. These are intended to be photocopied for use on training courses or to be used by individual teachers working on their own'. The book ends with three appendices and an index.

1998 198 pp 12.95

A closer examination of the chapters shows that they have been designed in a very user-friendly way. All except for the long Chapter 5 answer a set of around six questions related to the topic Knowing what Harmer has produced of this kind under scrutiny. For example, Chapter 8 ('How to in the past ('the highly acclaimed and ever popular teach writing') has sections headed: 'Why teach The Practice of English Teaching' (TPOET), also writing?'; 'What kind of writing should students Longman (1983, revised 1991)), a book which this do?'; 'What do writing sequences look like?'; reviewer has frequently recommended to teachers 'How should teachers correct writing?', and so on. as a valuable basic reference resource to have on Most of these sections are around one page long, one's ELT shelf, I approached the new book written in a very clear style, often with subrather less circumspectly than I might otherwise headings, and with plenty of well-described have done. practical examples. The descriptive framework adopted is an ESA (Engage-Study-Activate) What are we getting here, and how is it different from TPOET? As far as the intended readership is sequence. concerned, the back cover blurb tells us that How Harmer describes this sequence (p. 32) as 'the to Teach English is for teachers at an early stage in basic building blocks for successful language their careers, and for teachers preparing for teaching and learning'. In its 'straight-line' format, examinations such as The Certificate in English esa is like the classic Present-Practice-Production Language Teaching to Adults or The Certificate in TESOL'. The Introduction (p. ix) adds that the (PPP) (or Scrivener's Clarification and Focusbook 'is written for people who teach mostly Restricted Use-Authentic Use (CRA) (Scrivener adults of whatever age'. This sounds as if its 1994: 133-8)). Unlike PPP, Harmer suggests, and aimdespite UCLES/RSA and Trinity College's later exemplifies, that the 'S-A' parts of his best efforts at opening up their qualification formula can be modified as appropriate once the courses to all-comersis slanted towards those students are emotionally engaged, and he offers native-speaker teachers working in private lan- an EAASASEA 'patchwork' lesson plan (p. 29). guage schools. Whereas TPOET, according to the Whilst appreciating that the 'E' always comes first, Longman catalogue, is 'a complete reference work and that this is a very student-centred model, ESA is patently a much broader lesson-planning device for all teachers of English'. than Scrivener's ARC descriptions. As such, it is How to Teach English has 13 chapters, of from 6 safer and more easily applicable for beginner to 33 pages in length. The first 12 all begin with teachers, although rather less useful in practical 'How to . . . ' (e.g. 'How to teach reading' (7); terms. 'How to plan lessons' (12), while Chapter 13, which answers seven fundamental FAQS (fre- ESA is introduced in Chapter 4 ('How to describe quently asked questions) in eight pages, is called teaching and learning') and used thereafter to 'What if?' Each chapter is followed by a short demonstrate how lessons might work for reading 'Conclusions' section that rounds up the main (Chapter 7), writing (Chapter 8), speaking (Chappoints made, and all but the last chapter have a ter 9), and listening (Chapter 10). Examples are shorter 'Looking ahead' section which points the laid out most specifically on pp. 64-6.
ELT Journal Volume 54/3 July 2000 Oxford University Press 2000

This is one of the new, and for me, rather unfortunately titled books in the Longman 'How to . . . ' series (a stable-mate to How to Use the Internet in ELT and How to Teach Grammar). In an ELT world which is able to embrace everything from Berlitz and the other widespread method schools, to Suggestopedia and Community Language Learning, the idea that one book can provide all the answers seems to expressly negate the wealth of successful possibilities that exist.

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Chapter 5 is different from the others, not only in its length (at 33 pages it is well over twice as long as most of the other chapters), but in its content. Here we are shown 'How to describe language'. Harmer tells us (pp. 34-5) that this chapter 'will look at some fairly basic language descriptions and issues', before warning the reader that 'it is important to realize that a short chapter can only scratch the surface of an extremely complex and challenging collection of different language issues. It is intended only as a basic introduction to some of the terms and issues which teachers and students may need.' The book then goes on to work through short sections on noun types, verb types, verb forms, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and so on. Sixteen sections in all. Much is organized by means of tables, and I have to say that the chapter does what it sets out to do. It is a very useful handy reference document, particularly for native-speaker CELTA and CertTESOL candidates (part of the intended readership), who very frequently have only the haziest notions of English grammar. At the end of the book there are three Appendices: Appendix A offers eight pages on equipment in the classroom, with cursory glances at the board, the computer, the dictionary, pictures and cards, the tape recorder, the video playback machine, and the video camera. This is perhaps the least successful section of the book, since it tries to cram too much that is important to modern classroom teaching into too little space. Appendix B (Notes and further reading) gives a six-page, chapter-by-chapter list of reading suggestions. These are largely predictable and sensible, with just two surprises: the inclusion of Faneslow's Breaking Rules and the absence of Mario Rinvolucri (present only as the co-author of Dictation and Video)\ This is indicative of the important ingredient which is missing here: any reference to the 'humanistic' approaches to language learning. There surely need to be details of how to access other lines that can be taken in ELTsomething by Stevick, such as A Way and Ways, perhaps, or Dufeu's Teaching Myself,

or even Richards and Rogers' overview Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. This is another example of the 'safeness' which I referred to above. Appendix C gives the phonetic symbols on one page. The book is rounded off with a seven-page Index; this is very thorough and impressive, and an extremely helpful tool for the reader. In conclusion, I feel that this book achieves the aims it sets itself. It is clear, well-organized, and probably as open-ended as many RSA/UCLES and Trinity College Certificate trainers feel learner-teachers at this level need it to be. My own doubts centre around the 'safe' nature of the content. Surely beginner teachers need to know that there are other ways of teaching than the one which Jeremy Harmer shows them 'How to' do? Which leads to me back to my initial worries about the title. References Cooper, R., M. Lavery, and M. Rinvolucri. 1991. Video. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Davis, P. and M. Rinvolucri. 1988. Dictation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dufeu, B. 1994. Teaching Myself. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Faneslow, J. 1987. Breaking Rules. New York: Longman. Harmer, J. 1983; 1991. The Practice of English Teaching. Harlow: Longman. Richards, J. C. and T. S. Rogers. 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Scrivener, J. 1994. Learning Teaching. Oxford: Heinemann. Stevick, E. W. 1980. A Way and Ways. Rowley: Newbury House. The reviewer David A. Hill is a freelance teacher, teacher trainer, and materials writer, based in Budapest, where he is Training Manager of his own company, FUTUR-ED Bt.

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Reviews