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Linguistics and Education 22 (2011) 189–191

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Linguistics and Education

journa l homepage: www.e lsev ier .com/ locate / l inged

ook review

he key to a thorough understanding of language teaching

he Handbook of Language Teaching, M. Long, C. Doughty (Eds.). Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex, UK (2009).03 pp., ISBN 1405154896

Once again, Michael Long and Catherine Doughty have compiled a volume with all relevant information and strands oftudy that connect theory with language teaching in the classroom. By doing so, they have filled an enormous informationap that has plagued instructors, language program coordinators, and future teachers for many years. At a time when thessue of interlinking the fields of SLA and pedagogy has fortunately resurfaced and become part of an ongoing discussioncf. Ellis, 2010), this book is indeed timely. The strongest advantage of The Handbook is that it not only draws from SLAxperts and their empirical research but also from prominent experts in the fields of educational psychology, psychology,nthropology, and curriculum design, among others. The breadth in which each camp is examined and the relationships thatre then made to teaching a foreign language (FL) will be of interest to present and future language teachers, SLA researchers,nd teacher educators.

Part I and Chapter 1 comprise an overview of the book’s contents in which Long outlines the structure and objectivesf the book, which represents over two dozen contributing scholars. Part II, “Social, Political, and Educational Contexts ofanguage Teaching,” (Chapters 2–4) touches on the macro political and social contexts in which language teaching andearning reside. Chapter 2 introduces the reader to the various strands of Sociolinguistics study, while Chapter 3 providesnsight into language policy around the world. Chapter 4 is a diachronic, in-detail review of the various traditions andeaching approaches – such as the cognitivist and the nativist views on language learning – that shaped today’s trends. Thisection of the book would make an excellent tool for teacher educators and future language teachers, as it is not possible toe a language instructor without awareness of the importance of language teaching in today’s globalized society, its impactn language and education policy, or knowledge of its evolution throughout the years.

Part III, “Psycholinguistic Underpinnings of Language Learning,” is comprised of five chapters in which attention is shiftedo FL learners and their cognitive processes when learning a new language (Chapters 5, 6, and 8). Chapter 7 presents thessue of cross-linguistic similarities as a tool to ease the initial stages of FL learning, while Chapter 9 details research-basedpproaches to present new input. Almost all chapters end with a section on implications for teaching that are functional andring theory back to its application in the foreign language classroom.

After having looked at the role of internal factors to learning, the book moves logically to the contexts in which theseearners are exposed to a second language (L2). Part IV “Program Design,” introduces the different educational contexts in

hich language learning is framed and presents an exhaustive list of learning contexts, all of which are discussed in greatetail in each chapter. The first, Chapter 10, includes a clear description of different bilingual and immersion programs.hapter 11 then offers an invaluable insight into what already occupies a large part of many curricula in the US – heritagepeakers and heritage learners (HL). In Chapter 12, Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) programs are discussed. With moretudents trying to learn a new language for instrumental reasons, this strand of teaching has expanded its reach and hasts very own and specific needs, objectives, materials and approaches – all of which are discussed here. Chapter 13 is aompilation of theoretical and practical issues as well as latest research concerning the design of effective study abroadrograms. Less-commonly-taught languages (LCTL) have come under fire lately due to the economic crisis that has hitntire language departments. Chapter 14 describes the unique characteristics of LCTLs and closes with a reminder of why allnvolved in language teaching should be strong supporters of programs and departments that house them. As multilingualisms becoming more and more frequent, the issue of learning a third language (L3) has risen. Chapter 15 examines L3 acquisitiony focusing on unique aspects, drawing from work done in the areas of SLA and psycholinguistics and closes with directions

or future research.

Part V, “Course Design and Materials Writing,” is useful for those in charge of creating new language programs or makinghanges to existing ones. The obvious point of departure is needs analysis (NA) (Chapter 16), moving on to syllabus designChapter 17), and materials design (Chapter 18). These three chapters are highly relevant for teacher education programs

898-5898/$ – see front matteroi:10.1016/j.linged.2011.02.014

190 Book review

for their holistic view on each issue; together, they make up a thorough introductory pack for new instructors and programdirectors. Chapter 19 (Corpora in Language Teaching) discusses the applications of corpus linguistics – a relatively new topicwhen discussing language teaching. The next chapter deals with technology-enhanced materials (20), which are the newauthentic materials in the twenty-first century language class. Although not all schools are equipped to implement suchtasks and materials, this chapter gives instructors an overview of how far computer-assisted language learning (CALL) hascome and how fast it has evolved.

Part VI, “Teaching and Testing” is the longest section in The Handbook, with good reason as it touches on one of the mostimportant yet most difficult aspects to master in language teaching: testing. This section is made up of 13 chapters, eachof which attempts to address guiding principles to effective and valid testing as well as when to test and how to assessspecific skills (Chapters 21–26). Other chapters in this section begin with a fundamental guiding theoretical framework andaddress pedagogical concerns and challenges surrounding assessment of different skills, including grammar, vocabulary, andpragmatics as well as testing frameworks like task-based language teaching (TBLT), radical language teaching, diagnosticfeedback, and technology-enabled assessment.

Part VII, Teacher Education, consists of only two chapters, which could be regarded as one of the few downsidesof this handbook. Chapter 34 defines teaching and presents various models for teacher education. Then, Chapter 35,“Diffusion and Implementation Innovations,” discusses who implements innovations in language programs and whatthese innovations can be. The main educational context for this section seems to be middle or high school, which isan important sector where a large part of language teaching and learning takes place. However, another chapter ortwo would have been helpful to address the challenges and objectives for teacher education students at the Master’slevel, who are getting their feet wet as teaching assistants (TAs) in L2 classes. What is their role in a university lan-guage program? How well are TAs prepared to teach in the real world, considering that their first job may be a ruralschool where the FL program is barely surviving and where the resources are limited? Are they enabled to take on thechallenge of defending their profession, the language program, and the inclusion of a foreign language in the school’scurriculum? Finally, how are doctoral students prepared, in cases when their specialization is in the literature or cul-tural studies of a specific L2, who are not required to serve as TAs at their programs or receive only weak teachertraining: what are the consequences of such faulty training programs when they find that as brand new Assistant Pro-fessors, they will not only have to teach basic language courses, but in many cases, direct basic course programs? TheHandbook lacks a through discussion of these issues, which are of enormous interest to a large percentage of its reader-ship.

The last section, Part VIII, “Assessing and Evaluation Instruction,” consists of four chapters. Chapter 36 discusses L2 class-room research with a useful review of various strands of language acquisition (e.g., interaction, negotiation of meaning,different types of feedback, input/output, focus-on-form, and sociocultural aspects of classroom learning and teaching).While this section is of reasonable length, some parts seem to be discussed in extreme brevity. The next chapter, “Issuesin Language Teacher Evaluation,” presents the dilemma that many program coordinators or directors must face: studentteacher evaluation. Chapter 38 deals with assessment at a more macro-level and poses the prescient question: does L2instruction really foster L2 acquisition? Through a wealth of empirical research on SLA, this chapter examines the effects ofseveral instructional procedures and ultimately their enabling capacity of allocating learners’ attentional resources to targetstructures in the L2. However, the chapter does not discuss an issue that has resurfaced in the last few years, namely theongoing debate of where attention is allocated – meaning versus form (cf. Greenslade, Bouden, & Sanz, 1999; Leow, Hsieh,& Moreno, 2008; VanPatten, 1990; Wong, 2001). The chapter also only briefly mentions the various forms of measure-ments of the effects of instruction, its advantages and weaknesses (p. 745). The Handbook closes with Chapter 39, “ProgramEvaluation,” which discusses different evaluation models and designs, past and present (e.g., qualitative, a hybrid of quan-titative and qualitative, comparative, and process-oriented). This chapter would be a useful tool for program stakeholders,such as “funding agencies, the participants, administrators, and any special interest groups in the wider community” (p.758).

The Handbook of Language Teaching is a monumental and unique source of information on the “behind the scenes” oflanguage teaching that outlines the theoretical underpinnings that sustain language teaching. The combination of the-ory, results of empirical studies, and practical suggestions make this an effective point of departure for those alreadyinvolved in or those interested in pursuing a career in language teaching, be it as instructors, administrators or researchers.While the sections seem to be very diverse in length and depth, it is clear that each author, chosen for his/her exper-tise, succeeded in filling the pages with fundamental yet thorough detail on their particular issue. As mentioned before,more attention might have been devoted to the topic of teacher education and its specific tribulations and possiblesolutions, seeing how teacher educators might be a likely audience for this handbook. Nonetheless, even without thatinformation, this handbook makes an ideal introductory reading for many other topics pertinent to language teach-ing.

References

Ellis, R. (2010). Second language acquisition, teacher education and language pedagogy. Language Teaching, 43(2), 182–201.Greenslade, T., Bouden, L., & Sanz, C. (1999). Attending to form and content in processing L2 reading texts. Spanish Applied Linguistics, 3, 65–90.Leow, R. P., Hsieh, H.-C., & Moreno, N. (2008). Attention to form and meaning revisited. Language Learning, 58(3), 665–695.

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anPatten, B. (1990). Attending to form and content in the input: An experiment in consciousness. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12, 287–301.ong, W. (2001). Modality and attention to meaning and form in the input. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23, 345–368.

Nina Moreno ∗

701 Welsh Humanities Building, Department of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures, University of South Carolina,Columbia, SC 29208, United States

∗ Tel.: +1 803 777 4884x2640; fax: +1 803 777 0454.E-mail address: MorenoN@mailbox.sc.edu

Available online 17 April 2011