The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teacher Education

Abstract

Like other Routledge Handbooks, The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teacher Education aims to provide extensive and comprehensive coverage of the topic named in the title, presenting up-to-date research and discussion of the latest theories and models. It is, however, differentiated from other Handbooks by a focus on certain principled approaches and perspectives explicitly defined by the editors. This review starts by describing the organization of the book, the range of topics covered, and some aspects of chapter content and organization. It continues with a discussion of predominant themes and features, including critical comments on content and style. It ends with my own personal responses to the book as a teacher educator, focusing on chapters that I found particularly interesting. The 39 chapters are grouped into six parts, each representing a key theme. Part 1, ‘Second language teacher education: an overview’, gives general information about the reflective and Vygotskyan approaches to English language teacher education (ELTE), the use of IT, critical teaching, the evaluation of ELTE programmes, and a discussion, presented as a dialogue between a veteran teacher educator (John Fanselow) and a relatively inexperienced one (Takaaki Hiratsuka), on the topic of Fanselow’s professional experiences and related issues. Part 2, ‘Core contexts’, relates to more specific areas: digital and online approaches, the induction of new teachers, reflection within in-service programmes, continuing teacher development, content-based English teaching, and the ‘non-native’ teacher. Part 3, ‘Language perspectives’, includes the teaching of language as discourse rather than as a system, classroom interaction, English as an international language, second language acquisition research, and corpus studies. Part 4 deals with ‘The pedagogic knowledge of second language teacher education’: teaching methods and materials, classroom management, teacher cognition and expertise, collaborative professional development in developing countries, and the principles and practice of teacher development projects and their implementation in a specific context. Part 5, ‘The processes of L2 teacher education’, focuses on assessment and feedback in general, and, more specifically, post-observation feedback, materials use and development, mentoring and mentor development, team teaching, and the use of screen-capture technology, video, and e-portfolios. Part 6, ‘Teacher perspectives’, looks at ELTE methodology texts, teacher motivation, teacher identity, action research, exploratory practice, and leadership. As the editors explain in their Introduction, it was not easy to arrive at these themes, and there could have been other ways of ‘cutting the cake’, as the editors put it (p. 2). Inevitably there are occasional overlaps and some of the chapters could perhaps have been allocated differently. In general, however, the division is reader-friendly, in that it gives shape and structure to the book, and facilitates understanding of the selection and range of topics.