As you might imagine from its title, this book is a handbook for practising teachers and students on teacher-training courses who intend working in the field of foreign- or second-language teaching. The author, Rolf Kreyer, is a professor of modern English linguistics at the University of Marburg in Germany and wrote the book with his students in mind. In an earlier survey he conducted on students' attitudes to linguistics as a component of EFL teacher training, he discovered that many of them didn't feel it was as important as other subjects like cultural studies or literature (p. 17; Kreyer/Güldenring 2016). The aim of this book is to show just how useful a sound understanding of linguistics can be to language teachers.
Unlike guides on practical teaching techniques, which could easily be referred to as "toolkits" to draw from, this book aims to provide its readers with a thorough grounding in key areas of modern linguistics that are relevant for teaching and learning a language. The "tools" in this kit can be used to build up a learner's knowledge of a new language and hone their skill in using it over time.
The "parts" of the toolkit discussed here include the sounds of a particular language and how they are combined (chapters 3 and 4), its vocabulary, i.e. words, phrases and sense relations used in (and out of) context (chapters 5, 6 and 7), language corpora and their analysis (chapter 8), how sentences and texts are structured (chapters 9 and 10), situational language and politeness (chapter 11), and how information can be "packaged" and (mis)understood (chapters 12 and 13).
It's quite an achievement to compress these core aspects of linguistics into 300 pages, but Rolf Kreyer has done a good job of it in my opinion. On top of that, he has included lots of practical examples, diagrams and tables to help readers grasp the concepts better and has incorporated practical exercises in each chapter as well to get the reader thinking. The margins even contain brief notes in blue indicating what a section is about.
Tips for further reading are provided at the end of each chapter for those who want to find out more about a subject the author discusses. All the works he refers to are listed in the bibliography at the end of the book, followed by a glossary of technical terms and an index of key terms with page references to help you find the information you need quickly.
This is a well-designed book that is written in a readily accessible style, making it a good read for any language teacher, regardless of what language they choose to focus on; the principles he explains apply to all kinds of languages, not just English.
Some sections are easier to follow than others because they go into considerable detail, but the contents are always outlined clearly and the short exercises make you think about the topics and apply what you have just read to specific cases. Some supplementary material is also provided on the publisher's website and can be downloaded for free using a special code included in each copy of the textbook. You can even get a free digital copy of the book there to read on-screen if you want to.
I only have two slight niggles about this very user-friendly, well-intentioned book. First of all, I would have liked to have proofread it for the author before it got published as I kept on spotting minor mistakes in the wording as I read it, which a native speaker would have picked up, and secondly, there is no mention of translation whatsoever, despite it being directly linked to cognitive processing and error production (i.e. erroneous "interlanguage"; see pp. 30–35). You could argue that translation is just another teaching technique, of course, but how we mentally translate sentences or ideas into another language is actually an aspect of cognitive or psycholinguistics.
Anyhow, see for yourself. You can click on this link to view the full table of contents and order a copy online.
Publisher/year: narr/francke/attempto, 2023
ISBN: 978-3-8233-8611-7 (printed version), 978-3-8233-9611-8 (ePDF)
Obtainable directly from the publisher or through your local bookshop.
Carl
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