Second edition of "Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching" in 190 pages, by Dian Larsen-Freeman presents many diverse teaching methods in a compacted and attractive manner. The author, Ms.Larsen-Freeman is Professor of Education; Professor of Linguistics; Research Scientist at the English Language Institute and MA, Ph.D. in Linguistics, teaching in University of Michigan now.
In comparison with the old version, in this new edition of book information on some methods has been brought up to date and also both the introduction and final summary into full chapters have been lengthened. The introduction of book, chapter one, provides goals of the books, arrangement of chapters, a coherent set and also some other key points.
Larsen-freeman observes and investigates 14 methods and approaches generally following historical order in which they were developed. Grammar Translation Method, the Direct Method, the Audio-Lingual Method, the Silent Way, Desuggestopedia (the name of this method changed from Suggestopedia to Desuggestopedia), Community Language Learning, Total Physical Response, and Communicative Language Teaching each in separate chapter. However, in two chapters, we witness introducing 3 methods apiece(totally six other approaches).As a matter of course she considers the terms 'method', 'approach' and 'technique' in the same as Anthony (1963) defined them.
Each chapter consists of a brief introduction to the method, the real experiment of applying the method in a classroom, and then a section entitled "Thinking about the Experience" seeks to realize observations of teaching techniques in order to establish a set of principles and the real sample of them in class as observations. Afterwards in "Reviewing the Principles" part she answers to 10 very significant questions about the method to summarize and clarify that and subsequently she moves forward to "Reviewing the Techniques" section, the techniques which a teacher could choose from and adopt these techniques of the method. Last part before listing the" References and Additional Resources", Larsen-freeman confronts us with some questions in "Activities" section so that we ponder about the method and evolve our perceptions, then gives assignments to implement techniques from the method.
I think the target of this book is explaining and clarifying different consequential aspects of various methods for teachers and emphasizing the worth of learning .it exposes different roles that a teacher must accept and actually fulfill in order to achieve optimum learning outcomes. Despite the fact that this book is written for language teachers, undoubtedly is a well-known in other educational communities on account for its comprehensibility and impartiality. In fact when I realized my interest in teaching, this book was the first one that I could understand without difficulty or bewilderment and because of that I picked up it to write a book review. The book is quick and pleasing to read and encourages you to explore precise analytical discussions of options for English teaching with very professional classification of methods.
At first glance, perhaps you find this book merely a review of what a teacher already knew. Although, with more extensive analysis, as Writer walks you through her process step by step, you realize that it is a useful tool for evaluating teaching approach, and a practical way to appoint class procedures and syllabus regarding to objectives of the course and also teaching philosophies Larsen-freeman doesn't aim to determine a best method and actually doesn't make any comparison or set priority between methods and just introduce and present them for teachers.
I believe that the clear categorization of methods and approaches and then depicting them through a table at the last pages of the book is the most useful portion of this book which provides teachers with language culture, language learning and language teaching attitudes and perspectives of methods in an explicit way. The practices in class called "experiment part "of each chapter which describes a real class that a method is utilized by teacher there, also is one of the informative and tangible parts of book. Even though I'm of the opinion that since the sample classes are in different levels, in different countries and different cultures, making comparison between them in order to evaluate the methods and decide upon opting them is kind of difficult.
On the other hand, I think this book could contain some defects or weakness points of each method. It is understood that each method has some advantages over others concerning with context of teaching, goals of course and whom the method is for. For students respecting their levels of second language learning, their first or mother language and other different factors in language teaching and learning, some methods have more privileges. If the readers are presented with the drawbacks of each method or generally more depth information about it, their judgment and consequently their choice will me more thoughtful and logical and in addition they can comprehend the reasons of popularity or on the other hand extinction of each method. To conclude, undoubtedly I acknowledge that Diane Larson freeman book "Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching" is eminently comfortable and persuasive and I believe these features are the most important traits of a book.
