When looking for any reading materials on any ELT aspect, you may face an influx of suggestions, leaving you uncertain of where to start and/or what to choose. While having access to a substantial amount of resources to read from is a positive thing in the field of ELT, it is also hard to have good selections on the first try! Unless you consult a professor in ELT or a researcher who is quite familiar with different publications in the field, you may end up reading irrelevant works! That is why we, at EFL Collective, decided to share with you this list of seminal works every teacher of English should know about. Interestingly enough, these books have been used as manuals and mandatory reading materials in many BA, MA, and ELT programs. I was a student in an MA program in Applied Linguistics and ELT and we pored over all these works. Studying these materials was an eye-opening journey for me as someone who was trying to have a full image of how learning and teaching happen. Therefore, if you are preparing to join an MA program and you do not want to go off half-cocked, these works will be of great help! Good read!
Book Title: Understanding Second Language Acquisition
Author: Rod Ellis
Year of Publication: 2015 (2 Ed)
Book Title: Understanding Second Language Acquisition
Author: Rod Ellis
Year of Publication: 1985 (1 Ed)
In the middle of a conference, I heard the lecturer saying that this book is the "bible" of Second Language Acquisition. It really is owing to the amount of interesting information it includes . As you leaf through this seminal work, you will read:
- an overview of SLA (Second Language Acquistion);
- age and SLA;
- psychological factors in SLA;
- the development of a second language;
- variability in learner language;
- the role of the first language;
- input and interaction: the cognitive-interactionist perspective;
- cognitive aspects of second language acquisition;
- social aspects of second language acquisition;
- the role of explicit instruction;
- the role of implicit instruction;
- understanding and applying second language acquisition.
Book Title: Psychology in Education
Authors: Anita Woolfolk, Malcolm Hughes & Vivienne Walkup
Year of Publication: 2013 (2Ed)
This is one of the best books you could ever read in educational psychology, if not the best of all. Through its 800 pages, it will help understand all the aspects of psychology in education in simple language and with extra illustrations and real-life situations. It also gives you chance to reflect on what you read.
Book Title: Curriculum Development in Language Teaching
Authors: Jack C. Richards
Year of Publication: 2001 (1Ed)
It is another seminal ELT book you should read as it will walk you through all the aspects involved in language curriculum development and evaluation. As an EFL/ESL teacher, the book will help you, in one way or another, know what to consider when using a coursebook or devising your own materials. As you thumb through the book, you will read:
- The origins of language curriculum development;
- From syllabus design to curriculum development;
- Needs analysis;
- Situation analysis;
- Planning goals and learning outcomes;
- Course planning and syllabus design;
- Providing for effective teaching;
- The role and design of instructional materials;
- Approaches to evaluation.
Article Title: 30 Years of TEFL/TESL: A Personal Reflection
Author: Jack C. Richards
Year of Publication: 2002
If you have not ever read anything about English language teaching before, this is for you. Richards sums ELT history up for you in this article. It is written in simple language so that you will not struggle with any hard or strange terminology, and the flow of the ideas is smooth, too. In the article, you will go through different sections explaining:
- goals of teaching English;
- "the best" way to teach a language;
- the role of grammar in language teaching;
- processes involved in second language teaching;
- the role of the learner;
- how the four skills can be taught;
- how students' learning can be assessed;
- how language teachers can be prepared;
- and more...
Book Title: Understanding Language Teaching: From Method to Postmethod
Author: B. Kumaravedivelu
Year of Publication: 2006
Just a look at the table of content will show you how interesting and exhaustive this book is. As you can see in part two, the good thing about the book is that it classifies the teaching methods depending on whether they are language-, learner-, or learning-centered.
PART ONE: LANGUAGE, LEARNING, AND TEACHING
1. Language: Concepts and Precepts
2. Learning: Factors and Processes
3. Teaching: Input and Interaction
PART TWO: LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS
4. Constituents and Categories of Methods
5. Language-Centered Methods
6. Learner-Centered Methods
7. Learning-Centered Methods
PART THREE: POSTMETHOD PERSPECTIVES
8. Postmethod Condition
9. Postmethod Pedagogy
10. Postmethod Predicament
Postscript: The Pattern Which Comforts
With this book, now you are ready to go! Set out your journey in teaching and learning. If read carefully and understood well, these five works will give you a solid background in language learning and teaching. Good read!
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