Summary
Better Language Teaching is a 200 page ebook about how to teach English. It goes over a general lesson plan and the importance of each part of the lesson. Chris also explains the different types of activities in class and gives examples of each. There is even a section on the different kinds of learners you will encounter in the classroom. The last half of the book (100 pages) contains 100 activities that you can do in class along with step-by-step instructions.
In Depth
Chris runs a terrific website called headsupenglish.com and is well-known for creating great free materials for use in class. He also has a monthly newsletter with teaching tips and advice that is available on his website. He has been teaching in Japan now for well over 8 years and is a contributor to numerous chats on Twitter.
You can tell that his new ebook “Better Language Teaching” is written by someone who has day-to-day experience teaching English. It goes over each part of the lessons and thoroughly explains the reason why you must do each part of the lesson. The book also takes you through a few examples of bad lessons and critics what the teacher could have done differently to teach a better lesson.
Another great feature of this ebook is that everything is cross linked. After explaining a particular activity, there are links in the text that can take you to examples in the back of the book. This is very handy and shows that this isn't just a generic ebook. There are also clear illustrations that show different points and the book is well formatted, making it an easy read.
The real power is the nicely laid out activities at the end. These are meant to be a toolkit that teachers can reach into to add something different to their lessons. The activities are organized by level (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and by type (controlled, semi-controlled, free). These are generalized activities that don't focus on a particular grammar point or topic. They can be used with a variety of different lessons which makes them very useful for any teacher.
Overall, this is a worthy addition to any teacher's library. It's a great read for novice teachers that are still unfamiliar with language teaching. For experienced teachers, it is an excellent reference book and a place to find great ideas to implement in future lessons. One of the only things it lacks is a couple of full example lesson plans to help bring it all together, but you can find some of those on Chris's excellent site.
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