What Is English Teaching? - Softcover

Davis, Chris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0335231349 ISBN 13: 9780335231348

Publisher: Open University Press, 1996

Synopsis

• Is it the role of English teachers to teach basic literacy skills?
• If not, what do English teachers think they should be doing?
• How should basic literacy be taught in schools?

These are important questions which have recently attracted significant political, media and parental debate. In addressing them, this book explores the question What is English Teaching? from a variety of perspectives, including teachers' beliefs about what they should be teaching, the views of the government, and the reality of young people's experiences in the 1990s. In particular, it explores the question of how - and even whether - the English subject area is capable of meeting its own, and the outside world's, expectations for teaching not only its specialist concerns, but also general literacy. The book explores ways in which the teaching of English might develop - for instance, by balancing its efforts evenly between literature study, media study and knowledge about language - and how it might contribute to wider literacy teaching, by sharing its distinctive teaching strategies with teachers of other subjects.

About this title

About the Author:

Janina Brutt-Griffler is Associate Professor of Foreign and Second Language Acquisition and Director of Polish Studies at The State University of New York, Buffalo. Prior to taking up her current position, she taught on the graduate faculty at the University of York, England. At the time of the symposium from which the current volume is drawn, she was Associate Professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Alabama. She is the author of "World English: A Study of Its Development," winner of the Modern Language Association's 2004 "Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize," Her other publications include "Bilingualism and Language Pedagogy,"
Catherine Evans Davies is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English at the University of Alabama. At the time of the symposium from which the current volume is drawn, she was director of the graduate programs in applied linguistics. Her work on cross-cultural interaction has appeared in "World Englishes, English for Specific Purposes, Text, Multilingua, the Journal of Pragmatics," and elsewhere.She served as president of the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics in 2003-2004. Co-organizer of the NSF-funded decennial symposium on "Language Variety in the South" in 2004, she is currently co-editing the resulting volume under an NEH grant.

Review:

"In a climate where the baldly practical approach has prevailed, it is refreshing to have someone asking the big questions - and coming up with some answers." - NATE Magazine "...an approachable and readable book:it would enable servingEnglish teachers to clarify and update their thinking and would be a first rate introduction for student teachers." - Speech and Drama "PGCE students of English would do well to buy a copy, and English departments to discuss it." - Mentoring andTutoring

About this edition

• Publisher: Open University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0335231349
• ISBN 13: 9780335231348
• Binding: Paperback