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Reviews    marjumbodeh   ddik43@yahoo.com. emang semua kejadian itu asalny dari pikiran masing-masing. kalo mikir positif ya dapetnya juga positif kalo negatif ya tau lah. ngerasa ga dingertiin ya karena kita sendiri juga yang ga ngerti orang lain. kadang lebih baik buta daripada ngeliat yang buat sakit. sempat merasa pantas buat jadi segalanya tapi 0 besar, itu rasanya kesulut api yang gatau darimana datengnya.

ELT Journal Volume 57/4  October 2003  © Oxford University Press  401

The Practice of English Language Teaching

J. Harmer

First Edition Longman 1983, 252 pp.

isbn: 0 582 74612 4

Second Edition Longman 1991, 296 pp.

isbn: 0 582 04656 4

Third Edition Pearson Education 2001, 370 pp.,

£16.95

isbn: 0 582 40385 5

1. Revisiting the first and second editions

The first edition of Harmer’s The Practice of English

Language Teaching was published 20 years ago. It

quickly and deservedly became a much-used and

popular teacher training text on pre-service

courses, and a training guide for tutors. Its virtues

included comprehensiveness of content, clarity of

explanation, a wealth of illustration in the author’s

own examples and those taken for analysis from

contemporary coursebooks and, not least, a

confidence of style deriving from the author’s rich

experience as a teacher trainer.

The Preface to the first edition implied as audience

‘the teacher in training or the teacher recently

embarked on a career in ELT’ and it aimed, for

these categories of teacher, to ‘draw together many

of the theoretical insights of recent years’ and to

put these ‘at the service of a broad theoretical

approach, the balanced activities approach’. The

book did admirably through a three-part

discussion. Part A made accessible to novice

teachers key aspects of theory, looking in turn at

learners, at language, at curriculum, and at

language learning. Part B looked at the practice of

teaching, focusing largely on grammar and skills,

using the traditional division into receptive and

productive skills. Part C looked at the planning and

management of learning with sections on the

teacher’s roles, student groupings, discipline, and

lesson planning. There was no more

comprehensive book at the time which integrated

principle and practice in such useful and

appropriate ways for pre-service teachers. It

became an acclaimed and invaluable resource for

teachers and teacher trainers, and with a second

edition, a classic in the field. A younger colleague of

mine describes it as his introduction to TEFL, and

this must be true for many.

The second edition was published in 1991, with

audience and aims unchanged, and essentially the

same structure, but 44 pages longer. The additional

length allowed for inclusion of content which

reflected developing concerns within the previous

decade. Discourse and vocabulary found a place in

the consideration of language and in aspects of

curriculum design. Task-based learning,

humanistic approaches, and self-direction were

given space in the consideration of learning. A new

chapter was devoted to the teaching of vocabulary,

and readers also benefited from the appropriate, if

brief, mention of learner training, experiential

learning through projects, and discovery

techniques in teaching grammar.

2. Reviewing the third edition

The new edition is introduced as completely

revised and updated, and the Preface presents

several reasons for this, which predictably link to

changes within the field of ELT and, in e¤ect,

constitute the aims of the book. They thereby

provide a framework for review. It seems to be a

seven-point framework, and can be set out as:

1. changes in technology: the use of computers

and the Internet, and the development of

computer corpora

2. new areas of research and innovation

3. modifications in attitudes to language study,

with serious attempts to improve classroom

procedures

4. a growing realization that methodology needs to

be culture-specific

5. debate on the role of English in the modern

world6. acknowledgement that teacher development is a

key to the quality of student experience

7. the need to update and look with a fresh eye at

familiar topics.

2.1 Meeting the challenge of internal aims

In order to address these challenges, the third

edition follows a new format comprising nine parts,

in contrast to the three parts of the earlier editions.

In Part 1 the first chapter addresses point 5 above,

and gives an account of where English fits into the

world, dealing succinctly with issues of cultural

imperialism, language variety, and appropriate

models. These key issues of globalization provide

an appropriate precursor to a second chapter on

describing language which addresses points 1 and

2 above. New sections here introduce the grammar

of spoken English, the role of corpora in extending

our understanding of vocabulary, and recent

research on lexical phrases. The chapter provides

an up-to-date, refined, summary of exactly what it is

that learners need to learn when they set out on the

task of learning the English language.

Part 2 describes learners and teachers, the former

receiving more attention than previously,

particularly with regard to our growing knowledge

of learning styles, the e¤ect of individual

di¤erences, and di¤erent motivations. I would have

hoped for a little more on task motivation, given

that teachers can make a di¤erence there. Chapter

4, ‘Describing Teachers’, is a useful introduction to

those who have not experimented with a wide

range of roles in their classrooms, though I have to

confess to some disappointment that the author’s

style, which though fluent, lucid, and accessible as

always, slips into the modal verbs of prescription.

The rest of the book keeps to a style which is more

neutral, objective, and analytical.

Part 3 moves into theories, methods, and

techniques, starting with some key background

issues such as noticing and discovery learning,

reviewing a range of approaches and procedures

for the classroom, and ending with issues of

feedback in accuracy and fluency work. Points 2, 3,

and 4 in the framework above are admirably

confronted here, though I will take up some

reservations later.

Part 4 reviews key principles and issues in the

management of students and equipment—an odd

mixture, given that video is treated separately later

in the ‘skills’ section. Discussion of classroom

management is where I felt that familiar topics

were being treated with a fresh eye (point 7 above).

Di¤erent student groupings are handled

systematically with lists of advantages and

disadvantages of pair work, group work, etc.,

though some reflections from students and

teachers on their own experiences would have

provided lively illustration. The expanded section

on problem behaviour is especially welcome. Even

very experienced teachers often want to discuss

this aspect of classroom management. It is an area

in which ELT seems to isolate itself from

mainstream education where discussion on

disruptive behaviour exists, and could provide

bridges into ELT literature. The management of

equipment is handled in an equally systematic way,

and discussion of the role of computers is followed

by very useful references to literature on computer

technology, and how teachers can make use of it.

Parts 5, 6, and 7 cover the traditional content of a

handbook, teaching grammar, vocabulary, receptive

skills, and productive skills, and the planning of

learning in lessons and courses. All of these

contain a judicious selection of information and

discussion on matters of current concern, for

example, the management of interaction and the

role of extensive reading/listening. A new chapter

on researching language brings together ideas for

encouraging students to exploit a range of

resources, including language corpora, and will

provide teachers with interesting ideas for

innovation. Part 8 is an accessible introduction to

testing students. There are several positive features

about these chapters. They include a focus on what

learners bring with them to the process of learning,

and how teachers can build on their existing skills

and knowledge. This will certainly help teachers to

be more aware of what they are asking their

students to do. The link between learner needs and

teacher response in the sequencing of activities is

powerfully made. And there is material in these

chapters for more recently qualified students

through to the more experienced, even in the

chapter on lesson planning.

Part 9, entitled ‘Looking Further’, which includes

discussion of learner autonomy and teacher

development, deals with point 6 in the framework

above. This, unfortunately, is the only part of the

book about which I had serious reservations.

Teacher development is a diªcult subject to

condense into a few well-chosen principles and

examples. Action research, for example, deserves a

consideration of the tension experienced by the

teacher–researcher (Baumann 1996) and the need

for some training in procedures such as interviews

and questionnaire design for these to be e¤ective.

402 ReviewsThe space might have been better devoted to

greater depth of explanation or illustration in other

chapters.

It also struck an odd note with me that I should

come to learner autonomy at the end of the book,

when earlier chapters made reference to

procedures which aim to develop it, such as

discovery learning, researching language, and

extensive listening. Perhaps the fourth edition

could put something more substantial near the

beginning of the book, and create an ongoing

theme throughout the chapters on learner training

and the development of autonomy.

However, reading the new edition was a hugely

enjoyable experience, and I have few reservations.

It will give teachers the reassuring sense that they

are being taken through the key issues by a

supportive colleague. It has the strengths of the

earlier editions, i.e. principled common sense in its

advice, clarity of explanation, a reader-friendly style,

a contemporary position with careful selection of

content, a well-ordered structure, and an

impressive comprehensiveness. I chose 20 topics

to look up, and found clear and concise

information on all but one—critical language

pedagogy. So there will be something to look

forward to in the fourth edition. There is ample

evidence that the book addresses the points it sets

out to confront in the Preface, and meets the

challenges of new ideas, new technology, and new

concerns. This is done within a coherent framework

which allows for discussion of the existing body of

knowledge within ELT, the received wisdom of the

profession, an important element in what

Widdowson (1990) has called ‘the principled

development of pedagogic thinking’. However, in

making interesting links within that framework,

such as the use of music, or student use of

language corpora, the book also encourages

creativity.

2.2 Meeting the needs of in-service teachers

Oddly, it is not until the end of the Preface that the

reader is given the intended audience for the book,

and discovers that this has changed radically from

that of the earlier editions. This third edition is

aimed at ‘practising teachers and those studying on

in-service programmes and postgraduate courses’.

So I found myself reading with quite a di¤erent set

of expectations from those with which I

approached the earlier versions. In fact, I was, and

remain grateful to the author for the opportunity to

revisit a long-standing internal dialogue and

recurrent discussion with colleagues about the

ideal characteristics of a handbook for in-service

teacher education. It is a debate complicated by the

diªculty of defining the ‘practising, in-service

teacher’. This is a loose category which covers

widely di¤ering cultural backgrounds, institutions,

systems, and career experiences. Needs can di¤er