(Book Review)
Started: September 13, 2018
Finished: October 18, 2018
Scott Thornbury is probably the most prolific writer in ELT (English Language Teaching.) I've previously read (and reviewed on this blog) Teaching Unplugged, About Language, Uncovering Grammar, and Beyond the Sentence. (I've reviewed Beyond the Sentence twice actually).
Background
First of all, some disambiguation.
Scott Thornbury has multiple versions of "An A-Z of ELT" across several platforms. It was first published as a book in 2006. It then became Scott Thornbury's blog. The purpose of the blog was, in Thornbury's words:
In 2006 Macmillan published my dictionary-encyclopedia of English language teaching called An A-Z of ELT. On the off-chance that there might be a second edition of that book, I am using this blog to revisit some of the key entries, and discuss, critique and update them where necessary, while at the same time inviting comments from interested practitioners. I will be choosing items in no particular order, and in line with the issues that happen to interest me at the moment. Your comments and suggestions are very welcome.Despite Thornbury's modesty, the blog was much more than just a placeholder waiting for the second edition. The entries that Thornbury blogged about were like full essays in themselves, and the blog was very popular among language teachers, (I've mentioned it on this blog myself in the past--see here and here), and perhaps the blog is even more popular than the book. The long-awaited second edition of this book came out last year: The New A-Z of ELT.
The book I read, and am reviewing, is the 2006 first edition. Because that's the version that was in my school library.
My History with this Book/ Why I Read this Book
This book has sat on my shelves ever since 2014, when I did the DELTA Module 1 by distance. It was recommended that we use a copy of either Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics by Jack C. Richards and Richard Schmidt or An A-Z of ELT by Scott Thornbury. Our school had both, so I had copies made of both books.
Both of them are reference books. Neither of them are intended to be read straight through.
Of the two, Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics is written more like a dictionary with a formal style and short brief entries on 2,800 topics. An A-Z of ELT is more conversational in tone and has longer more discursive entries on only 376 topics.
When I attempted to use Quizlet to memorize these terms a couple years ago, it was obvious that the short dictionary definitions of Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics would be suitable, whereas An A-Z of ELT would not be. But if you wanted a more interesting informal read, you would go to An A-Z of ELT.
The past couple years I've been leading a book club for professional development at work based off of the DELTA reading list (HERE). And this book frequently gets suggested by the other members. And I've always shot it down. "An A-Z of ELT? No, that's a reference book. We wouldn't want to read it for book club. There'd be nothing to discuss."
But then about a month ago, I found myself flipping through the book. Initially I think I picked it up to look up something, but then I got so engaged by Scott Thornbury's conversational style that I started looking up stuff randomly.
And then, I thought, "Well why not just read the thing?"
The Review
This will be a short review, since there's not much to talk about with a reference book.
A book like this isn't meant to be read cover to cover. (If it was, a much more logical way to organize it would have been thematically instead of alphabetically.) And yet, I suspect I'm not the first person out there who has read it cover to cover.
In all my reviews of Scott Thornbury's books, I've always praised his readable style. And, despite being a reference book, this book is readable.
You wouldn't want to read too much of it in one sitting, of course. A few entries a day are probably good. But if you just nip away at this book slowly during your lunch breaks, there are all sorts of interesting little tidbits here and there.
I'm at the point in my career now where a lot of this is review instead of new information. (If that sounds like I'm bragging--it shouldn't. After teaching English for 16 years, doing a Masters, a CELTA, and the DELTA Module 1.... I should at least be at the point right now where I'm familiar with the basic terminology of the field.) But I did also pick up a lot of new information.
We'll see how much of this I'll remember in 5 years. I'm slightly worried that reading straight through a reference book isn't the best way to retain information, but we'll see I guess. At any rate, regularly revisiting all of this stuff is the best way to learn it in the long term. So it's good to keep hitting these basic ELT primers. I think the information gets a little bit more into my long term memory with each book.
There's no point going too much into the content of this book. It is, after all, a reference book. The content is anything and everything.
There were a few spots were I wish Scott Thornbury would have expanded more on some point, but there's no point in going into those nitpicks. For most of the entries, I was satisfied that Thornbury had covered the key points.
The exception is the entries on some of the more "new-age" or pseudo-science aspects of ELT: multiple intelligences, learning styles, and neuro-linguistic programming. I've been reading a lot of stuff critical of this recently (Russ Mayne, for example), and I was hoping Scott Thornbury would get into the controversy more. He didn't.
This may be, however, because the edition I read was in 2006. And I think 2006 was back before the backlash and against multiple intelligences and learning styles fully took hold.
In fact, in his blog in 2010, Scott Thornbury talks about recent articles on learning styles he's read, admits that he was wrong not to be more critical or learning styles in An A-Z of ELT.
Video Review
Video Review HERE and embedded below:
Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky 2018 – What Principles And Values Rule The World
This will be a short review, since there's not much to talk about with a reference book.
A book like this isn't meant to be read cover to cover. (If it was, a much more logical way to organize it would have been thematically instead of alphabetically.) And yet, I suspect I'm not the first person out there who has read it cover to cover.
In all my reviews of Scott Thornbury's books, I've always praised his readable style. And, despite being a reference book, this book is readable.
You wouldn't want to read too much of it in one sitting, of course. A few entries a day are probably good. But if you just nip away at this book slowly during your lunch breaks, there are all sorts of interesting little tidbits here and there.
I'm at the point in my career now where a lot of this is review instead of new information. (If that sounds like I'm bragging--it shouldn't. After teaching English for 16 years, doing a Masters, a CELTA, and the DELTA Module 1.... I should at least be at the point right now where I'm familiar with the basic terminology of the field.) But I did also pick up a lot of new information.
We'll see how much of this I'll remember in 5 years. I'm slightly worried that reading straight through a reference book isn't the best way to retain information, but we'll see I guess. At any rate, regularly revisiting all of this stuff is the best way to learn it in the long term. So it's good to keep hitting these basic ELT primers. I think the information gets a little bit more into my long term memory with each book.
There's no point going too much into the content of this book. It is, after all, a reference book. The content is anything and everything.
There were a few spots were I wish Scott Thornbury would have expanded more on some point, but there's no point in going into those nitpicks. For most of the entries, I was satisfied that Thornbury had covered the key points.
The exception is the entries on some of the more "new-age" or pseudo-science aspects of ELT: multiple intelligences, learning styles, and neuro-linguistic programming. I've been reading a lot of stuff critical of this recently (Russ Mayne, for example), and I was hoping Scott Thornbury would get into the controversy more. He didn't.
This may be, however, because the edition I read was in 2006. And I think 2006 was back before the backlash and against multiple intelligences and learning styles fully took hold.
In fact, in his blog in 2010, Scott Thornbury talks about recent articles on learning styles he's read, admits that he was wrong not to be more critical or learning styles in An A-Z of ELT.
Video Review
Video Review HERE and embedded below:
Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky 2018 – What Principles And Values Rule The World
No comments:
Post a Comment