Murphy, J. M., and Byrd, H. P. (Eds.). (2001). Understanding the courses we teach: Local perspectives on English language teaching. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.As reviewed by:
Scovel, T. (2002). Book review of “Understanding the courses we teach:
Local perspectives on English language teaching” by John Murphy and
Patricia Byrd (eds.), TESOL Quarterly, 36(4), 635-636.Much has been written and said about the need to relate theoretical principles of language teaching to the practical realities of actual ESL classrooms, and this introductory anthology, carefully compiled by Murphy and Byrd, accomplishes this difficult task remarkably well. The book is a fine choice as text for a graduate seminar for prospective ESL teachers or as a useful reader for treachers who wish to update their knowledge.
Understanding the Courses We Teach begins with five introductory chapters in which the editors take turns defending the need for local classroom perspectives, arguing for a postmethodological perspective on teacher, listing some popular principles of language learning and teaching, and outlining the format and framework of their anthology. The introduction is followed by 19 chapters written by a combination of 28 TESOL professionals, balanced between full-time classroom practitioners and well-known experts in the field who also have active teaching experience. Although the chapters vary enormously among the language skills, student populations, and curricular goals they deal with, each author (or pair of authors) addresses nine pedagogical questions about their class (e.g., What are the objectives for the course? What roles to the students play?). By focusing each chapter on these common points, the editors ensure a degree of continuity among the disprate topics addressed, but they also help the reader keep in mind that teaching ESL, even when it adheres to specific by abstract principles, is a highly contextualized and particularized activity.
Because the book covers such a diversity of topics and settings, different readers will find certain chapters especially relevant. Here I highlight a few in order to show the range of classroom activities covered. Brian Morgan discusses ways in which he has helped his Canadian immigrant class learn both English and citizenship by relying, in part, on his students knowledge of their native language and culture. Tim Murphey describes a complicated but creative way of helping his Japanese university conversation students videotape and evaluate their oral English. May Shih discusses approaches and activities teachers of ESL composition classes can use to help their students edit their writing more vigilantly and accurately. Willian Acton explains an unusual system for teaching Japanese students English prosody by literally choreographing their body movements in his speaking class. And as a final illustration of the range of activities covered, Carol Numrich reviews several theme-based projects her academic ESL class has pursued, including one that takes them to an Indian gambling casino for an integrated skills study of the gaming industry in the United States.
The limitations of this fresh and wide-ranging anthology are few: The EFL contexts ar restricted to East Asia (Japan and Hong Kong), and a chapter or two applying the promising new insights from corpus linguistics and the teaching of vocabulary would have been helpful. But, all in all, Murphy and Byrd's text lives up to its title and will help all teachers better understand the courses they teach.Thomas Scovel
San Francisco State University
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As reviewed by:
Gomes de Matos, F. (Nov./Dec., 2001). Personal stories in English language teaching: A review of "Understanding the Courses We Teach." ESL Magazine, p. 20. Bridge Press: Annapolis, MD.“Personal Stories in English Language Teaching”
The literature on professional development for ESL/EFL teachers keeps growing at a phenomenal pace, as shown by the catalogues of ESL/EFL publishers. Despite this quantitatively impressive increase, very few titles are as innovatively exemplary in conception, production, and potential influence as this volume in the Michigan Teacher Training Series. Not only does Understanding the Courses We Teach join a highly select group of resources, but it does so in quite a unique manner: its approach is largely autobiographical and it is available in two media—both in printed text and on the Internet. There is much to praise in this cooperatively constructed book. Its very title reminds us of the responsibility of teacher educators to understand the who, what, where, when, why and how of teaching and learning. Similarly, its subtitle stresses the need for ESL/EFL teachers to share their “local” experiences as universally as possible by documenting pedagogical similarities and differences in systematically revealing ways. Understanding the Courses We Teach (also referred to by its editors as “The Understanding Collection”) has five parts: Part 1–Background, Part 2–General Purposes Instruction, Part 3–English as a Foreign Language, Part 4–University Courses: Credit Bearing, Part 5–University-Preparatory Courses: Non-Credit Bearing. It includes a 26-page bibliography, a two-page section on the 28 contributors (21 from the United States, three from Japan, two from Canada, and two from Australia), a six-page author index, and a six-page subject index.
In the first chapter, Murphy makes a cogent case for “the importance of local contexts in which ELT courses are offered”(p. 4), and in his second chapter he summarizes 14 principles assumed “to support English language learning and teaching in general,” which may help readers “interpret what contributors have to say about their courses in chapters 6 through 23”(p. 18). In his third chapter, Murphy acknowledges “precursors to the Understanding Collection,” including works by such notables as Jack Richards and Diane Larsen-Freeman. Chapters 4 and 5, co-written by Murphy and Byrd, explain the editors’ decision to adopt a comprehensive, unifying chapter framework that features nine required descriptive categories (setting, conceptual underpinnings, goals and objectives, syllabus design, activity types, learners’ roles, teachers’ roles, instructional materials, and lesson particulars) and four optional categories (affective concerns, culture, assessment, caveats/final thoughts). Such required and optional categories will prove to be of considerable interest to materials writers and evaluators, especially given the candid, realistic evidence provided by chapter contributors. Space limitations prevent me from commenting on all the strengths of the volume. Instead I’ll focus on contributions that had a strong impact on me as a teacher educator. Robert A. De Villar and Binbin Jiang’s “Building a Community of Adult ESL Learners” (Chapter 9) describes interesting and engaging ways of teaching ESL to immigrants in a U.S. context (central California), while enhancing students’ intercultural awareness and understanding. Tim Murphy’s “Videoing Conversations for Self-evaluation in Japan” is a well-argued case for “introducing innovations cautiously, . . . with appropriate cultural sensitivity” (p. 194). Donna Brinton’s “A Theme-Based Literature Course: Focus on the City of Angels” is exemplary of how meticulously descriptive and affective an ESL teacher’s autobiographical story can be. Her account of “Lesson Particulars”(pp. 296-300) is a warm and personal script about teacher performance, a gold mine of interesting material for an analysis of teachers’ and learners’ rights and responsibilities. Brinton’s style is almost cinematographic, a dynamic sharing of the ways she interacted with her students. Her chapter is a veritable gem as it describes both her philosophy of approach and her conviction that “as an instructor, I vastly prefer the sustained-content and theme-based organization of the course to the prior scenario of reading works of literature based on their literary merit and predicted interest level” (p. 300).
In Chapter 24, “Looking forward: Connectivity through the Internet,” the editors tell readers about the Internet site (http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/understanding/) they have created “to provide a forum for interactive discussion between readers, the editors, and other contributors” (p. 446). The dual informational structure of this volume—its print version and its complementary website—gives it a privileged place in the sun of ESL/EFL teacher education literature. I could go on, but suffice it to say that the editors, in consultation with their expert contributors, provide readers with no less than 178 “Prompts for Discussion and Reflection” and 39 suggestions for “Miniprojects.” Highly informative tables abound, among which are “Sources for General ELT Principles” (p. 19) and “Types of Learners’ Strategies”(p. 248). However, to exercise the reviewer’s right to question: the subject index does not do justice to the conceptual and terminological diversity found within the book. Thus, among the conspicuously absent entries are ESL programs (p. 399), composing in ESL (p. 350-351), linguistics (p. 160), research (p. 399). I inquired via e-mail about the absence of contributors from Latin America, Europe, and Africa. Murphy (personal communication, November 25, 2001) replied, “we did our best to contact and get submissions from different parts of the world, but in the end, for the final selections that were included, we were limited to the contributors who responded to our initial call for submissions (done via an Internet site).” Given the importance of learning how teachers on all continents teach and how they characterize the art and science of teaching English, this volume should have sequels, so as to do justice to other locally situated stories, as fully inspired and inspiring as the ones contained in this history-making volume. The editors, contributors, publisher and web hosting university (Georgia State) should all be congratulated. In short, the genre of pedagogical autobiography in ESL is prominently represented by this work, the outcome of fascinatingly inspiring stories from teachers, for teachers.Dr. Francisco Gomes de Matos teaches applied linguistics to EFL teachers at
the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. He is currently president of Associaçao
Brasil America, a binational center in Recife. fcgm@cashnet.com.br
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