Customer Reviews

Memory, Meaning, and Method: Some Psychological Perspectives on Language Learning

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This is not the best book on memory. This is not the best book on Language Teaching. This is however one of the best first attempts (I am aware of) to seal in a book the badly needed interdisciplinary linking of Language Teaching and the Cognitive Sciences.

The book looks at the pacing, spacing, and repetition of instruction that learning theorists address in looking at acquisition. Unfortunately the Language Teaching world, especially TESOL, is often caught up in either structuralist or functionalist curricular frameworks that evoke nothing more than the working memory system. Stevick himself is not so direct with such assertions, but very academically and diplomatically presents various kinds of memory than a language/TESOL instructor would benefit in being aware of.

He makes comments on six traditional methods that will be familiar to any experienced TESOL instructor: Grammar Translation, The Reading Method, ALM, Silent Way, and Community Language Learning. This makes the book quite unique and interesting.

If you have an interest in cognition and learning as a TESOL this will be a great read. But be honest, if this is not a deep interest to you - the book will be a slog.