Principles of Language Learning and Teaching

by H. Douglas Brown

How do people learn a second language? For almost two decades, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching has been recognized as an exceptional guide to the theoretical foundations of language teaching. This new fourth edition offers an overview of the study of Second Language Acquisition, while acting as a reference for the growing storehouse of research, subfields, and specialization of SLA.

Genres: Linguistics, Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Academic, Language, Textbooks

352 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

Reviews

[Hossein Sharifi · Rating 1 out of 5]

one of the most awful books about bloody principle of language learning which is ever written.
I'm going to vomit over all pages and words ! :D

the author has done nothing, but asking questions without even bothering to answer one of them!
its academic language and diction is bloody difficult and knackering.

[Budi Kurniawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished. This is probably the most thorough book about language learning and teaching. Every aspects, factors that influence SLA are discussed. What's interesting is how the book concludes with a form of theory of SLA, but in the end it also states that language teaching is a journey, which often relies on our intuition.

[Adam Tervort · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like many others, I read this book in connection with a TESOL/EFL class. The writing style is easy to read, Brown has a delightful tone, and he plows through mountains of research so that it is easy to digest and (hopefully) use in your teaching. Highly recommended!

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I give it 3 stars, that does not mean that it was great reading, in this case, it is because I found it useful for teaching.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the second of two text books for my Theories of Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language (TESL/TEFL) class at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) during the fall of 2011. This was really a text book While it was clear, it wasn't deep and it read like a text trying to summarize things. I'd recommend it for one who wanted to gain a general idea about things.

The author of the text is a faculty member at San Francisco State University. I actually applied for a job there in their psychology department. They gave the position to Chuck Tate, who went to Loyola for undergraduate and who made the "Stαtz 4 Life" video that so many of my statistics students have watched. In fact, my good friend, Dan Kruger, actually had Chuck for statistics class. It's interesting to me that I'm again thinking about applying for a job in SF -- now at the University of San Francisco. They need someone who specializes in teaching research methods and who does research on emotion, so that's pretty much me in a nut shell (it would be nice if they wanted statistics teaching, too, but maybe I can negotiate that with them, if I can get at interview). I really would like to stay in Chicago, but I can't seem to get a tenure track job here and San Francisco has been wonderful to me every time I've been there.

[Hessam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers almost a comprehenive aspect of language teaching from Language teaching methods to the learner's individual differences. Brown in this book has taken a down to earth strategy and the concepts are easy to grasp. I recommend this book to those who would like to take a Language teaching career in the future.

[Sahar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am starting to like Douglas Brown! ;))

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this to take the ESL MTEL and passed.

[Faeze · Rating 3 out of 5]

unique in approach & necessary to read!

[Ariel]

great

[Angelytha Tata]

good book

[Paras2 · Rating 1 out of 5]

difficult language and concepts to follow.
honestly, I'd burn this book if I could...

[Stephanie]

Every word of this book is essential...and understandable:-) it is a must-read for anyone going in to education

[Patricia Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this once, but I figured since I have comps this Dec., I should re-read again-- still boring as hell

[Kitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of information but written in a thoroughly dry and boring manner

[Wanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a class. Not very exciting, but informative.

[Said Nazari · Rating 5 out of 5]

great ! The best book for language teachers

[marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has been helpful with classes for understanding how teaching and learning language works, but it is a bit hard to understand sometimes.

[A James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learning a book of principles is exciting for those who like to study principles, like philosophically or psychologically minded students.

You don't have to be one of these things to enjoy this book, but it helps.

The topics I was interested in: The affective (or emotional) domain of TESL. In one sentence, language has to create an atmosphere of shared feelings, goodwill or sociability, rather than to impart information.

Language anxiety; fear of negative social evaluation arising from a learner's need to make a positive social impression on others.

Communication apprehension arising from learners' inability to adequately express mature thoughts

Overall it's sort of encyclopedic which is great for skimming or scanning.

Recommended.

.

[Keith Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know it sounds nerdy of me to say, but I really loved how this book was organized. Dr. H. Douglas Brown does a great job of pulling together all the different threads of research in the field of Language Learning/Teaching, and organizing it in a way that makes it user-friendly for the reader. He presents the various different trends, paradigm shifts, and insights in the field in an objective way, which allows teachers like myself to cull the wisdom of the past and present to create one's own theory of language learning and teaching. My only criticism of the book is that it was pretty dry and academic, aside from the occasional anecdote given to support a point. That being said, overall, I think this book was great, and a must-have resource for all ESL teachers.

[Wafa K · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is useful for second language teaching. It consists of so many studies and methods used in a teaching environment. I would say that I enjoyed reading the first 7 chapters, but not so much the last three. I do not consider this a light read, you can't finish this in on sitting. With a fresh mind you will enjoy the first three chapters then After that it gets too heavy for the brain to follow.

This is a review a non-English native speaker.

[armin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a really great read in theory of language teaching and it covers theory and practice to a great extent. I think you can find it in EFL syllabus anywhere in the world which of course is quite telling!

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've actually also read a previous edition of this book, which was very good, but this 6th edition is even better. It's hard to imagine a more thorough-yet-concise introduction to theory and principles of second language acquisition.

PS- File under "Read for Grad School."

[Hossein Kaviani]

Oh my! This book is a necessary one, UNFORTUNATELY!

[Betsy]

Actually a pretty easy read, for a textbook. Nice examples and real world classroom applications.

[Lukluk Mufattahah · Rating 1 out of 5]

i need this book for my paper.. ^_^

[Ramy Hasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an essential book for any language teacher to better understand the language teaching paradox.

[Ken]

i need explanation about speaking

[Magdalena Golden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely understand the people who get annoyed at so many unanswered questions posed in this book. I guess they make sense when the book is used in a classroom setting where group discussions are possible, but as this was a set reading for my distance-learning degree and I was to peruse it at my own pace, I also found them irritating.

On the other hand, I do appreciate the author's reasoning - he does mention at the beginning that one of the most difficult things in research is learning how to pose the right questions and he aims at teaching this valuable skill.

Overall, it's definitely interesting, I like the author's conversational style and his ability to present various facets of a complex field in a systematic way. The book is definitely better suited for classroom- rather than self-study, though.

[Toofan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Useless chunks of text are filling the pages whilst there isn't enough information about the important stuff. It's more like a badly edited list of topics that should be found in a reference book on language learning and teaching. However this book, itself doesn't serve as a reference book. The brief descriptions of various concepts are simply too inadequate. It isn't of much use without reading other books or articles on each mentioned item, in parallel and on the other hand reading the related literature by itself, even with ought this book, will do the trick pretty nicely. So I'm not quite sure what to make of this one.