Becoming a Language Teacher: A Practical Guide to Second Language Learning and Teaching - Softcover

Horwitz, Elaine

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9780132489980: Becoming a Language Teacher: A Practical Guide to Second Language Learning and Teaching

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0132489988 ISBN 13: 9780132489980

Publisher: Pearson, 2012

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Becoming a Language Teacher, by respected author and experienced language teacher Elaine K. Horwitz, gives pre- and in-service teachers the skills they need to meet the needs of all language learners in today’s diverse classrooms―while encouraging them to develop a personal approach to language teaching. Using a warm, supportive tone, the author clearly explains the fundamental concepts of second language acquisition and language teaching. A much-needed resource at a time when it is critical for all mainstream teachers to focus on language, this guide describes how to develop language for academic needs as well as for communication purpose and addresses the latest trends in language teaching.

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From the Back Cover:

How do I plan a lesson?

How will I know if my students are learning?

How do I teach language while also teaching content material?

How do I effectively use technology in language teaching?

How can I ensure the academic success of my students?

How can I help my students have more contact with the new language?

These are the practical questions language and mainstream teachers struggle with as they enter today’s diverse classrooms in an era when they must focus not only on their everyday teaching, but also on students’ second language development. The answers to these questions and more are here, in this much-needed, comprehensive, practical guide to language teaching in second foreign, and content-based settings.

In a warm, supportive tone, respected author and experienced language teacher Elaine K. Horwitz clearly explains the fundamental concepts of second language acquisition and language teaching, using actual classroom situations that help students learn to make instructional decisions in their own future teaching settings. Unique among other methods texts that emphasize language for communication purposes only, Becoming a Language Teacher also focuses on language for academic needs, while addressing the latest trends in language teaching as well as effective approaches for teaching language in content classes. The perfect choice for ESL and Foreign Language methods courses, this guide helps teachers develop a personal approach to language teaching, suited to their own unique teaching situations.

Major additions to the text are related to socio-cultural approaches to second language acquisition and teaching. The Second Edition also includes:

Expanded coverage oflanguage development and content teaching
Coverage of The Output Hypothesis, Sociocultural Theories of SLA, the SIOP Method and the CALLA Approach
Publication of the long-awaited revision of theBeliefs about Language Learning Inventory, BALLI
An Assessment for Learning approach to student testing added to Chapter 8
Suggestions for using new technologies and digital media incorporated throughout
Added explanations of Emergent Bilingual, Heritage Learners, Dual Language programs, World Languages, Sheltered English, Newcomer Centers, Self-Access Language Learning Centers, Willingness to Communicate, and Language Learner Autonomy

About the Author:

Elaine Horwitz is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Director of the Graduate Program in Foreign Language Education at the University of Texas at Austin. She was born in Washington, DC, and attended the Montgomery County, MD, public schools where she studied French and Spanish. She began her language teaching career in seventh grade when other students would ask her to explain what her teacher was saying.

Professor Horwitz earned her BA at the University of Maryland at College Park and her MA and PhD in Second Language Learning and Teaching at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While there, she was a Title VII Bilingual Education Fellow and supervised foreign language, ESL, and bilingual student teachers.

She first taught French, Spanish, and English in the Prince George’s County, MD, public schools and later went on to teach at University High School in Urbana, IL, and as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Illinois. Before moving to the University of Texas, she taught courses in French, language teaching methodology, and bilingual education at the State University College of New York at Buffalo.

At the University of Texas, Professor Horwitz is Director of the Graduate Program in Foreign Language Education and teaches courses in language teaching methodology, second language acquisition, language testing, and second language research methods. She is well known for her research on language anxiety and student and teacher beliefs about language learning. In addition to numerous scholarly articles and chapters, she is the co-editor with Dolly Young of Language Anxiety: From Theory and Practice to Classroom Implications. Her assessment tools, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale and the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory, are widely used to help teachers and researchers better understand the needs of second language learners. She has been an invited lecturer and consultant on improving language teaching throughout the world.

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