English as a Second Language: Experience into Essays/edited R.K. Singh. Jaipur, Book Enclave, 2007, xx, 308 p., ISBN 81-8152-197-2.
Contents: Acknowledgements. Prefatory note. 1. English as an international auxiliary language. 2. Native competence and the bilingual/multilingual speaker. 3. Culture shock: more than words. 4. Rhetorical ethos: a bridge between high-context and low-context cultures. 5. The development of Japanese business communication research. 6. Languages for the professions: linguistic and cultural presuppositions. 7. Intercultural competence in ESL for adults. 8. Representation and making: student production in English. 9. "There's still a long way to go...." An interview with Professor Michael Halliday. 10. The higher-level differences between speech and writing. 11. Age, environment and second language learning. 12. Teaching and assessing spoken language. 13. Teaching listening. 14. Teaching pronunciation communicatively. 15. A communicative orientation for mainstreaming ESL students. 16. Reading and meaning for university level ESL students. 17. Language across the curriculum. 18. ESL/EFL writing: towards an integrative approach. 19. The road not taken: an approach to developing writing effectiveness. 20. Communicative language testing. 21. Second language tests : do they measure up? 22. The teaching of English-Do not make it a "Street Drum".
"Teaching is a very subtle process. No innovation, theory or technique can be effective unless it has been gradually tried out and repeatedly proved. Moreover, most teachers tend to accept what they feel intuitively certain about, even if they are not trained or exposed to various theories and methodologies. The articles in the book should interest them most.
Some of these articles are stimulating and helpful in relating to some broader educational principles as well as future classroom practices. These should help postgraduate students, researchers, teacher-trainers, and ELT professionals reflect with a sense of history on relevant ELT ideas and techniques for teaching to develop language abilities in a fast changing scenario.
The book should also interest English language teachers in professional institutions with limited access to quality teaching ideas rooted in the realities of classroom situations.
It provides a feel of: what has been going on in classrooms around the world, teaching of reading and writing skills which could also generate oral proficiency; teaching English for specific purposes, especially business English and technical English, and communicative testing. The objective is to move forward with a reasoned perspective." (jacket) No. 54214