Teaching - General & Miscellaneous, Middle School Education, Elementary Education, Educational Reference

Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning

Name: Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning
Author: Michael Byram
ISBN: 9780415593762

by Michael Byram (Editor), Adelheid Hu (Editor)

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Overview

The Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning is an authoritative reference dealing with all aspects of this increasingly important field of study. Offering a comprehensive range of articles on contemporary language teaching and its history, it has been produced specifically for language teaching professionals and as a reference work for academic studies at postgraduate level.

In this new edition, every single entry has been reviewed and updated with reference to new developments and publications. Coverage has been expanded to reflect new technological, global and academic developments, with particular attention to areas such as online and distance learning, teacher and learner cognition, testing, assessment and evaluation, global English and teacher education.

Themes and disciplines covered include:

Methods and materials, including new technologies and materials development
Contexts and concepts, such as mediation, risk-taking in language learning and intercomprehension
Influential figures from the early days of language teaching to the contemporary
Related disciplines, such as psychology, anthropology and corpus linguistics

It covers the teaching of specific languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and African languages, as well as English, French, German and Spanish.

There are thirty five overview articles dealing with issues such as communicative language teaching, early language learning, teacher education and syllabus and curriculum design. A further 160 entries focus on topics such as bilingualism, language laboratories and study abroad. Numerous shorter items examine language and cultural institutions, professional associations and acronyms. Multiple cross-references enable the user to browse from one entry to another, and there are suggestions for further reading.

Written by an international team of specialists, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning is an invaluable resource and reference manual for anyone with a professional or academic interest in the subject.

About the Author, Michael Byram

Michael Byram is Professor Emeritus in the School of Education at the University of Durham, UK.

Adelheid Hu is Professor for Multilingual Learning and Literacies at the University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

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Editorials

Library Journal

While created primarily for language teachers, this encyclopedia is helpful to anyone interested in language. Entries from just a few lines or up to 3000 words range from acculturation and bilingual education to interpreting and total physical response (a language teaching method). The varying writing styles of contributors offer diversity and international scope. Many entries end with references and further reading lists. Readers who wish to know about a particular language issue may look in the thematic list of contents for the headword, go straight to the alphabetically arranged entries, or check the index. Editor Byram (modern languages, Univ. of Durham, UK) has expertise in this area, having authored Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence and Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective. Recommended for teacher college collections and for academic and public libraries serving language teachers and educators. Leroy Hommerding, Fort Myers Beach P.L. Dist., FL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

A reference for language teachers that analyzes the body of knowledge and skills of the profession and provides information on everyday matters such as the meanings of acronyms and the origins and purposes of professional organizations. Entries cover the teaching of specific languages as well as the teaching of languages in specific countries. The editor, Byram (education, U. of Durham, UK), writes that although the work could not be exhaustive, it does attempt to include traditions other than the Anglo- American. The reference is organized alphabetically and also has a list of contents (showing main entries grouped by theme) and an index of key words. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)