Customer Reviews

Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Fourth Edition

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Language learning and language teaching are complex and difficult subjects. H. Douglas Brown provides a good summary of key elements in the field in his newest (4th) edition of "Principles of Language Learning and Teaching".

This book provides a good introduction to current theories of language teaching, including critical evaluations of such popular theories as Krashen's Input Hypothesis. Brown couches each discussion in an overall view of the bevaviorist / cognitivist debate and refers to these larger theories regularly.

As a classroom textbook, this edition provides discussion questions and case studies for analysis.

The bibliography is extensive and up to date and the index points to all major topics covered.

I recommend this book to university students and to language teachers who want to refresh their understanding of the field.

I found this book very helpful in my ESL classroom. Brown does an excellent job in chapter 3 comparing and contrasting first and second language acquisition. I believe this book is a must not only for ESL teachers, but all teachers. As our country becomes more diverse, it is important to know how to teach English to students of all ages. This would also be a good book for businesses who are struggling with employees with limited English. This book could also be useful for English teachers of all grades because it does go into great detail about how the first language is acquired. One important chapters for educators is chapter 10 on language testing. I would definately recommend this book and I will keep it for years to come as I have already referred back to it several times in my classroom.

Mr. "Berlitz pro-teacher['s]" review is a perfect example of why students who want to go into language teaching/education need to have at least a solid working knowledge of theory and research in second language acquisition. As I tell my graduate students, intuition and "experience" are certainly important things but effective teaching can only happen if instructors are able to make sound informed decisions that are based on what we know about how languages are acquired in the first place. As a university professor and researcher of SLA, I believe H. Douglas Brown's text is one of the good places to start to get this knowledge. The book is accessible, easy to read, and does a good job of bringing theory and classroom practice together. I show my students Mr. Berlitz pro-teacher's review at the beginning of my seminars and this review has been very effective in showing graduate students why a working knowledge of SLA theory and research is so important for language teachers. A teacher who has no understanding of how languages are acquired is like a doctor who practices medicine without any idea of how the human body works. My students have also pointed out that Mr. pro-teacher probably did not learn English with the best approach or method when you see all the spelling and grammatical mistakes in his review. See what all those drills and "repeatition" did for him?!!!

Addendum of Oct 28, 2005 - My students noticed that Mr. Pro Teacher has now corrected his spelling of "repeatition."

A very good textbook like Brown's other textbook for TESOL students. The book is comprehensive and still easy to understand.

It's not the latest edition, but the content is almost the same (I think about 70%-80% of it is the same as the 5th edition).

"First, I am a professional educationalist at the world reknowned Berlitz Langauge Schools. I teach Emglish for a living."
I am an educator so the requirements for an educationalist may be different.
Well, it is clear from this review that this individual does not hold an MA in TESOL. Aside from the fact that renowned is spelled wrong, the concepts of affective filters, operant conditioning and interference are the basic concepts that even Berlitz has utilized in their courses.
These ideas are worth knowing and are the basic lingo of the profession.