Publisher's Synopsis
Traditionally, language teaching has to concentrate only on the three levels of the formal language system- pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary and the way in which they function within the sentence. Language in an important tool for effective learning of other subjects. Language teaching came into its own profession in the last century. Central to this phenomenon was the emergences of the concept in language teaching, the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices based on a particular theory of language and langauge learning is a powerful one and the quest for better methods was a preoccupation of teachers and applied linguists throughout the twentieth century. In learning languages, a distinction is usually made between mother tongue, second language and foreign language. A mother tongue is the first language or languages one learns (or acquires) as a child. When the child goes to the school there he/she could learn the second langauge. When immigrants come to a new country and learn the language of that country, they are learning a foreign language. The Elements of Language Teaching is concerned with what happens when a person learns a foreign language with the help of a teacher, i.e., it deals with the nature of the language learning/language teaching process. Language learning takes place by the operation of a learner's mental characteristics and mental processes- "thinking"-upon the flow of language experience that reaches him from the world at large and the language classroom in particular. There is, in addition, a constant tension between those forces or elements or factors that work against learning a language, and those forces or elements or factors that work towards learning a language. Traditionally, language teaching has to concentrate only on the three levels of the formal language system- pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary and the way in which they function within the sentence. Language in an important tool for effective learning of other subjects. Language teaching came into its own profession in the last century. Central to this phenomenon was the emergences of the concept in language teaching, the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices based on a particular theory of language and langauge learning is a powerful one and the quest for better methods was a preoccupation of teachers and applied linguists throughout the twentieth century. In learning languages, a distinction is usually made between mother tongue, second language and foreign language. A mother tongue is the first language or languages one learns (or acquires) as a child. When the child goes to the school there he/she could learn the second langauge. When immigrants come to a new country and learn the language of that country, they are learning a foreign language. The Elements of Language Teaching is concerned with what happens when a person learns a foreign language with the help of a teacher, i.e., it deals with the nature of the language learning/language teaching process. Language learning takes place by the operation of a learner's mental characteristics and mental processes- "thinking"-upon the flow of language experience that reaches him from the world at large and the language classroom in particular. There is, in addition, a constant tension between those forces or elements or factors that work against learning a language, and those forces or elements or factors that work towards learning a language. Traditionally, language teaching has to concentrate only on the three levels of the formal language system- pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary and the way in which they function within the sentence. Language in an important tool for effective learning of other subjects. Language teaching came into its own profession in the last century. Central to this phenomenon was the emergences of the concept in language teaching, the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices based on a particular theory of language and langauge learning is a powerful one and the quest for better methods was a preoccupation of teachers and applied linguists throughout the twentieth century. In learning languages, a distinction is usually made between mother tongue, second language and foreign language. A mother tongue is the first language or languages one learns (or acquires) as a child. When the child goes to the school there he/she could learn the second langauge. When immigrants come to a new country and learn the language of that country, they are learning a foreign language. The Elements of Language Teaching is concerned with what happens when a person learns a foreign language with the help of a teacher, i.e., it deals with the nature of the language learning/language teaching process. Language learning takes place by the operation of a learner's mental characteristics and mental processes- "thinking"-upon the flow of language experience that reaches him from the world at large and the language classroom in particular. There is, in addition, a constant tension between those forces or elements or factors that work against learning a language, and those forces or elements or factors that work towards learning a language. Traditionally, language teaching has to concentrate only on the three levels of the formal language system- pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary and the way in which they function within the sentence. Language in an important tool for effective learning of other subjects. Language teaching came into its own profession in the last century. Central to this phenomenon was the emergences of the concept in language teaching, the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices based on a particular theory of language and langauge learning is a powerful one and the quest for better methods was a preoccupation of teachers and applied linguists throughout the twentieth century. In learning languages, a distinction is usually made between mother tongue, second language and foreign language. A mother tongue is the first language or languages one learns (or acquires) as a child. When the child goes to the school there he/she could learn the second langauge. When immigrants come to a new country and learn the language of that country, they are learning a foreign language. The Elements of Language Teaching is concerned with what happens when a person learns a foreign language with the help of a teacher, i.e., it deals with the nature of the language learning/language teaching process. Language learning takes place by the operation of a learner's mental characteristics and mental processes- "thinking"-upon the flow of language experience that reaches him from the world at large and the language classroom in particular. There is, in addition, a constant tension between those forces or elements or factors that work against learning a language, and those forces or elements or factors that work towards learning a language.