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Provoking Thought: Memory and Thinking in ELT
Provoking Thought is a collection of activities that emphasize using students' thoughts as a resource for language learning. The book's chapters cover five main thinking, memory, creativity, critical thinking, and expressing thought in writing. Each chapter opens up numerous opportunities for language practice through role play, discussion, kinesthetic learning, guessing games, brainstorming, and project work. The activities are easy-to-use, require little or no preparation, and are highly adaptable to a communicative or task-based approach.
Provoking Thought also contains helpful tips for using thinking in the language classroom, as well as practical advice on error correction and getting students to use English more in class. Another highlight of the book is a selection of interviews with experts on memory, creativity and critical thinking, including Vincent Ryan Ruggiero (author of The Art of Thinking) and Alane Jordan Starko (author of Creativity in the Classroom).
Provoking Thought also contains helpful tips for using thinking in the language classroom, as well as practical advice on error correction and getting students to use English more in class. Another highlight of the book is a selection of interviews with experts on memory, creativity and critical thinking, including Vincent Ryan Ruggiero (author of The Art of Thinking) and Alane Jordan Starko (author of Creativity in the Classroom).
222 pages, Paperback
First published November 23, 2009
15 people want to read
About the author
Hall Houston
7 books7 followersHall Houston currently teaches English in Taiwan. He is the author of several books about teaching ESL/EFL. He has a Master’s degree in Foreign Language Education from The University of Texas at Austin. His practical articles on language teaching have appeared in publications such as IH Journal, TESOL Connections, Modern English Teacher, and IATEFL Voices. He is a teacher trainer and presenter for Cambridge English and British Council.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 23, 2010
This book is a very useful tool for esl teachers. It is full of fun and practical methods for engaging esl students. It's obvious that the author is an actual teacher and knows what is needed when facing the classroom each day.
November 8, 2010
Provoking Thought: Memory and Thinking in ELT
Hall Houston, Cambridge, UK: Anthimeria Press, 2009.
Reviewed by Michael Lesser, (Masters in Applied Linguistics)
Junior and Senior High School Teacher
Australian International School
Jakarta, Indonesia
Email: eslmichael@gmail.com
Provoking Thought: Memory and Thinking in ELT, by Hall Houston is a unique book, because the author does not dwell on theory, he provides the teacher in the classroom with practical activities to use. Most ESL books concentrate on theory, which are good when one is trying to get published or work on a Masters of Doctorate degree, but they serve teachers little use in the real world and in our classrooms. This is where Provoking Thought: Memory and Thinking in ELT, becomes a much more useful book.
In chapter one, Memory, Houston only wrote two pages of theory, and then wrote over 30 pages of in classroom activities regarding memory. The writer of this review used several of the classroom activities, such as activity 1.16 Great Thinkers, which was met with great success, in an adult ESL class. Ironically, some of the activities, such as activity 15 Lateral Thinking Puzzles were also useful in senior high school Mathematics classes, as well as in ESL classes.
Each successive chapter was met with the same, only a page or two devoted to theory, and dozens of pages devoted to practical classroom activities. At the end of each chapter, as well as at the end of the book, Houston provided the reader with a bibliography of further reading, and also did so through out the chapters.
Hall Houston, Cambridge, UK: Anthimeria Press, 2009.
Reviewed by Michael Lesser, (Masters in Applied Linguistics)
Junior and Senior High School Teacher
Australian International School
Jakarta, Indonesia
Email: eslmichael@gmail.com
Provoking Thought: Memory and Thinking in ELT, by Hall Houston is a unique book, because the author does not dwell on theory, he provides the teacher in the classroom with practical activities to use. Most ESL books concentrate on theory, which are good when one is trying to get published or work on a Masters of Doctorate degree, but they serve teachers little use in the real world and in our classrooms. This is where Provoking Thought: Memory and Thinking in ELT, becomes a much more useful book.
In chapter one, Memory, Houston only wrote two pages of theory, and then wrote over 30 pages of in classroom activities regarding memory. The writer of this review used several of the classroom activities, such as activity 1.16 Great Thinkers, which was met with great success, in an adult ESL class. Ironically, some of the activities, such as activity 15 Lateral Thinking Puzzles were also useful in senior high school Mathematics classes, as well as in ESL classes.
Each successive chapter was met with the same, only a page or two devoted to theory, and dozens of pages devoted to practical classroom activities. At the end of each chapter, as well as at the end of the book, Houston provided the reader with a bibliography of further reading, and also did so through out the chapters.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews