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The Language Teacher Toolkit
The Language Teacher Toolkit is designed with both practising and trainee (pre-service) teachers in mind and uniquely bridges the gap between research and classroom practice. It is a comprehensive and clearly written handbook, particularly useful for teachers of modern foreign languages (world languages) who work in high schools (secondary education). Written by two highly-experienced teachers with an interest in research and theory, it offers a reflective approach along with many practical classroom activities which can immediately be applied in daily teaching. The book closes with sample lessons for French, German and Spanish. Chapters include: - methods - classroom oral techniques - teaching in the target language - developing spontaneous talk - teaching grammar and vocabulary - listening, reading and writing - subject knowledge - using song, drama and games - assessment - using pictures - teaching advanced level students - technology - behaviour and motivation - evaluating and writing resources - translation - lesson planning - example lesson plans The busy languages teacher can quickly find ideas for enhancing practice, while insightful consideration of research helps create a basis for personal development in the field. The authors are two internationally well-known bloggers in the field of language teaching and applied linguistics: Steve Smith is a former Head of Languages, taught languages for over 30 years, holds an MA in applied linguistics, writes the very popular resources site frenchteacher.net and the widely-read blog frenchteachernet.com Dr Gianfranco Conti has taught languages for over twenty years, holds a PhD in applied linguistics, is as award-winning blogger and resource writer for TES and runs the popular interactive website language-gym.com
340 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2016
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92 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 4, 2021
The authors have some interesting ideas that can easily be picked out and applied straight to a classroom. The issue is; however, all of the examples use European languages, mainly French. It is hard to call it 'The Language Teacher Toolkit' when a lot of the ideas cannot be used across all languages. A more appropriate title would be, 'The Western European Language Teacher Toolkit.' As a Japanese teacher it is hard to see how some of his ideas or strategies for teaching could be used in a Japanese classroom. But nonetheless there are some good ideas so that's why I give it 3 stars.
July 17, 2019
In eighteen years of teaching English as a foreign language (ELT), I have read a lot of books about language and education, but this I feel is the one that best reflects my own professional experience and concerns. It is not for English teachers as such, but for teachers of Modern Foreign Languages in the UK - primarily French, German and Spanish. That I found it so useful as an ELT teacher suggests that the institutional environment teachers work in is of more significance than the content they teach, or the methodologies they deploy. As a consequence, I feel the ELT publishing-research complex caters particularly poorly for teachers like me, and my non-native colleagues. Messrs Smith and Conti do a far better job, but not having access to the the resources of the publishing-research complex their book suffers a little: it really would have benefitted from professional editing, formatting and proof-reading.
English is by far the most widely taught language in the world, and mostly it is taught in private language schools outside of public education systems of the countries in which they operate. These schools are empowered as providers of English language certification that is internationally recognised by universities and employers. The certification is administered by the publishing research complex, it is financed directly by fees for sitting examinations, and indirectly - and more significantly - by the sales of textbooks and auxiliary materials focused on examination preparation. The language schools are primarily staffed by a cadre of native English speakers who have been themselves trained to teach in ways supported by the publishing-research complex. The 'nativeness' of these teachers' speech is certified by holding a passport of an English speaking country - which introduces a significant element of anglosphere racism into the whole system. Research goals - Educational and Applied linguistic - are set to serve by the needs of this self-financing set of institutions. Unfortunately I work in the public education system, so don't directly benefit from any of this affluence and activity, nor do my colleagues. My professional world has much more in common with Smith's and Contis than the ELT world.
One of the surprising things about the ELT world is that it is dominated in the main by monoglots, teachers of a foreign language who have not actually successfully learned a foreign language. As a result their teaching methodology is dominated by theoretical recommendations and text book examples rather than personal experience. At school I failed to learn French largely through audiolingualism, and scraped by in Latin through grammar-translation. When I qualified as an ELT teacher, these methodologies were mocked as hopelessly outdated, CLT - communicative language teaching - was the thing. Smith and Conti call their take on methodology 'principled eclecticism', and argue that a good teacher using grammar translation can be more effective than a weak one using CLT. I could quibble about what kind of results particular methodologies are likely to produce - I have a Latin O level, but I can't order a meal in Latin. But experience teaches me that audiolingualism (drilling) and grammar-translation still thrive in my workplace and often seem more effective and relevant than the CLT exercises in the textbooks that dominate the market here. The emphasis of teacher efficacy oven methodological purity is refreshing.
A particular aspect on CLT ideology that has great personal relevance to me - teaching in the target language - is gone into early, and in depth. It's an indication of how deep the ELT industry has got into my soul that when I saw Smith and Conti's example lesson plans I was shocked that the instructions on the handouts were in English. 'Shocked' because all the instructions I give in class are in English, either my own or on published materials. On reflection, it makes little sense to present the instructions in this book in anything other than English, written as it is for MFL teachers in the UK who may not be current in the particular language of the lesson. But the whole issue of being restricted to English in classroom where Hungarian is the first language has made issues of classroom management much more difficult for me than they would otherwise have been. Smith and Conti offer a detailed account of when and how to switch code to maintain effective teaching. The discussion is extended into the issue of teacher competence in L2, and how teachers can effectively teach what they know without knowing everything. I found this fascinating but not directly relevant to my experience because I am likely to make an idiot of myself in Hungarian rather than in English (but it has happened). The whole discussion is something I have never seen in ELT publications, so represents a huge step ahead.
This could be said for other issues that Smith and Conti raise such the impact of the gender balance in a classroom on management issues, or how to get teaching, testing and grading to support each other. But ultimately the teaching book for my professional position - the native speaking language teacher working outside the anglosphere has not yet come to my attention - perhaps I'll have to write it myself.
English is by far the most widely taught language in the world, and mostly it is taught in private language schools outside of public education systems of the countries in which they operate. These schools are empowered as providers of English language certification that is internationally recognised by universities and employers. The certification is administered by the publishing research complex, it is financed directly by fees for sitting examinations, and indirectly - and more significantly - by the sales of textbooks and auxiliary materials focused on examination preparation. The language schools are primarily staffed by a cadre of native English speakers who have been themselves trained to teach in ways supported by the publishing-research complex. The 'nativeness' of these teachers' speech is certified by holding a passport of an English speaking country - which introduces a significant element of anglosphere racism into the whole system. Research goals - Educational and Applied linguistic - are set to serve by the needs of this self-financing set of institutions. Unfortunately I work in the public education system, so don't directly benefit from any of this affluence and activity, nor do my colleagues. My professional world has much more in common with Smith's and Contis than the ELT world.
One of the surprising things about the ELT world is that it is dominated in the main by monoglots, teachers of a foreign language who have not actually successfully learned a foreign language. As a result their teaching methodology is dominated by theoretical recommendations and text book examples rather than personal experience. At school I failed to learn French largely through audiolingualism, and scraped by in Latin through grammar-translation. When I qualified as an ELT teacher, these methodologies were mocked as hopelessly outdated, CLT - communicative language teaching - was the thing. Smith and Conti call their take on methodology 'principled eclecticism', and argue that a good teacher using grammar translation can be more effective than a weak one using CLT. I could quibble about what kind of results particular methodologies are likely to produce - I have a Latin O level, but I can't order a meal in Latin. But experience teaches me that audiolingualism (drilling) and grammar-translation still thrive in my workplace and often seem more effective and relevant than the CLT exercises in the textbooks that dominate the market here. The emphasis of teacher efficacy oven methodological purity is refreshing.
A particular aspect on CLT ideology that has great personal relevance to me - teaching in the target language - is gone into early, and in depth. It's an indication of how deep the ELT industry has got into my soul that when I saw Smith and Conti's example lesson plans I was shocked that the instructions on the handouts were in English. 'Shocked' because all the instructions I give in class are in English, either my own or on published materials. On reflection, it makes little sense to present the instructions in this book in anything other than English, written as it is for MFL teachers in the UK who may not be current in the particular language of the lesson. But the whole issue of being restricted to English in classroom where Hungarian is the first language has made issues of classroom management much more difficult for me than they would otherwise have been. Smith and Conti offer a detailed account of when and how to switch code to maintain effective teaching. The discussion is extended into the issue of teacher competence in L2, and how teachers can effectively teach what they know without knowing everything. I found this fascinating but not directly relevant to my experience because I am likely to make an idiot of myself in Hungarian rather than in English (but it has happened). The whole discussion is something I have never seen in ELT publications, so represents a huge step ahead.
This could be said for other issues that Smith and Conti raise such the impact of the gender balance in a classroom on management issues, or how to get teaching, testing and grading to support each other. But ultimately the teaching book for my professional position - the native speaking language teacher working outside the anglosphere has not yet come to my attention - perhaps I'll have to write it myself.
March 7, 2016
Having recently been accepted onto a Secondary MFL PGCE, followed Steve and Gianfranco on Twitter and read through most of their posts I Initially planned to read this book cover to cover. I have a few other books which I pick up every now and again but The Language Teacher Toolkit has replaced them all. I had been waiting for the release of this book for a month or so and it hasn't disappointed. Although I haven't been able to read it from cover to cover I find myself picking it up everyday and checking the contents, finding something I want to learn more about, reading it and picking it up again to check something else. For me, it contains just about everything I think I need to know. One big thing I've taken from it that sticks out is that I can now explain how I teach the way I teach, why I don't use the Grammar/Translation method too much, the book has given me an introduction to the theories of my pedagogical choices which I was non the wise of before hand.
I do also like the chapter towards the end of the book which includes some games/activities for the MFL classroom, it's always nice to have a few more activities in the bank. On a similar note, I also like that rounding off most (if not all) chapters are tips and hints from Steve and Gianfranco related to the chapter that has just been read. This book will surely be on every MFL PGCE reading list.
I do also like the chapter towards the end of the book which includes some games/activities for the MFL classroom, it's always nice to have a few more activities in the bank. On a similar note, I also like that rounding off most (if not all) chapters are tips and hints from Steve and Gianfranco related to the chapter that has just been read. This book will surely be on every MFL PGCE reading list.
August 10, 2022
A comprehensive resource book that might be a bit overwhelming for new teachers. I would advise them to pick a few focus areas rather than reading from start to finish.
For more experienced teachers like myself it is a great refreshing read with a plethora of ideas to consider.
For more experienced teachers like myself it is a great refreshing read with a plethora of ideas to consider.
November 16, 2017
Great tips and thoroughly researched. I loved that the authors were very even-handed in their writing, giving pros and cons of all methods rather than just saying that one method is the right one.
May 16, 2021
This is clearly written with practical tools to use in the classroom. Worth the time!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews