On Being a Language Teacher: A Personal and Practical Guide to Success

by Norma López-Burton, Denise Minor

Overview

On Being a Language Teacher provides an innovative, personal approach to second-language teaching. Through illustrative personal anecdotes, this text guides new and aspiring language teachers through key pedagogical strategies while encouraging productive reflection by classroom veterans. An ancillary website provides online videos to complement the text by showing an experienced teacher applying the book’s lessons.

In a market dominated by dense theoretical approaches to language pedagogy, this text provides an instantly accessible, practical set of teaching tools for educators at all levels. Its accessible style and affordability give it the flexibility to serve as either a primary or a supplemental text for teaching assistants, students in credential programs, or undergraduates in applied linguistics courses.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300186895
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	03/11/2014
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Norma Lopez-Burton teaches Spanish at the University of California–Davis and has directed its first-year Spanish program since 1994. Denise Minor is assistant professor of Spanish at California State University–Chico.

Table of Contents

To the Reader Denise Minor ix

Introduction: Impressions Left by Teachers Norma Lopez-Burton xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

Part I In The Classroom

1 The First Day of Class and Lesson Planning Norma López-Burton 3

2 Introducing Grammar and Vocabulary Norma López-Burton 21

3 Communicative Tasks Norma López-Burton 39

4 Teaching Culture Norma López-Burton 77

Part II Theory

5 History of Second Language Acquisition Denise Minor 97

6 Standards of Foreign Language Teaching: The Five C's Denise Minor 115

7 Factors Impacting Second Language Acquisition Denise Minor 124

Part III Beyond the Basics

8 Types of Teachers; Dos and Don'ts Norma López-Burton 141

9 The Captain of the Ship: Classroom Management Denise Minor 178

10 Heritage Language Learners Denise Minor 202

11 Including Students with Disabilities and Learning Differences in a Language Classroom Denise Minor 222

12 The Use of Technology Norma López-Burton 236

13 Assessment Norma López-Burton 257

Part IV The Future

14 Hitting the Job Market: Getting a Job at a University Norma López-Burton 297

15 Hitting the Job Market: Getting a Job at a High School Denise Minor 316

16 Surviving the Political Jungle Denise Minor 338

Appendix A Chapter 3 Sample Task Activities 355

Appendix B Chapter 12 Sample Lab Exercises 364

Bibliography 371

Index 377

Illustration Credits 385

Editorial Reviews

"[This book] is a gem that will be extraordinarily useful to language teachers. . . . There is no book like this on the market."—Kim Potowski, University of Illinois at Chicago

Kim Potowski

"I felt like I connected really well with the book and found myself smiling and remembering incidents from my own classes during my reading. The beauty of the writing style is that new and seasoned language teachers will both find it accessible and helpful."—Rajiv Rao, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Rajiv Rao

"The more I read, the more I appreciated the depth of the content."—Orlando Kelm, University of Texas-Austin

Orlando Kelm