English Teaching Today
This is a series of five titles (ebooks and print) written by Jeremy Harmer, a methodologist with a store of accumulated classroom and writing wisdom and experience, and a facility for explaining theory and practice in a way that is accessible to all.
Over five titles, English Teaching Today explains current good practice, theoretical understanding, and classroom examples, taking into account changes that have occurred and are occurring in teaching and learning. These include online teaching and artificial intelligence, to take just two examples.
Being an English Teacher has chapters on who and what a teacher is, how teachers develop, managing lessons and how to make them more success-orientated and problem-preventative (but also what to do when things go wrong), using classroom aids, using AI, and caring for the teacher’s voice. There are further reading suggestions, a detailed glossary, and a bibliography.
Learning English has chapters on who learns English, where they do it, and in what kinds of situations. It examines first and second language acquisition, including the theories that underpin them, highlighting both their similarities and their key differences. The chapter on methodologies discusses popular methods that have had–and continue to have-a profound effect on teaching today.
Teaching Language Systems suggests how to model, introduce and teach new items in the language before leading on to separate chapters on teaching and practising grammar, teaching and practising lexis and vocabulary, and teaching pronunciation. Examples of both presenting and practising are given in all three areas.
Teaching Language Skills looks at teaching speaking, listening, reading, and writing. An introductory chapter discusses how skill teaching interacts with language systems teaching, and how multi-skill lesson plans interweave activities within all four areas. Examples and explanations are given together with suggestions for teaching procedures.
Planning and Assessment discusses the principles behind lesson and course planning and shows how teachers can design their own plans using AI, for example, and many other sources. In the Assessment section, there are discussions about how to approach the need to evaluate our students and the difference between various assessment types, including public exams and more localised varieties. There are chapters on preparing students for exams, writing our own tests, and on how to involve students in the testing process.
Publish with Us
In the first three years Betterlate Publishing will publish works by Jeremy Harmer on the methodology of English teaching and ideas for how to teach different aspects of the language and language skills. Future plans are likely to include other authors.