52 • Issue 79 March 2012 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

Essential Teacher Knowledgeby Jeremy HarmerPearson Education 2012

Reviews

Jeremy Harmer’s new book is about to hitthe bookshops, and the author provideshis own clear overview of it on thePearson website (www.pearsonelt.com/professionaldevelopment/videocasts/),where he claims that it is ‘a new kind ofmethodology book … in which we’vetried to explain basic concepts aboutEnglish language teaching in the mostaccessible and straightforward way’.So does Essential TeacherKnowledge live up to his claims? Ofcourse, the proof is in the eating, butwhat a great-looking book this is! It’scolourful, well-organised, easy to read,provides a wealth of cross-references forkey ideas – and the icing on the cake is aDVD with a large number of videos whichbring life to ideas and methods explainedin the book. The book covers core modules of theCambridge ESOL Teaching Knowledge Test(TKT), such as background to languagelearning, classroom management, teachingskills and assessment, as well as thespecialist modules like CLIL, teachingyoung learners and language awareness.But it is likely to be useful for any teacherswho want to refresh their knowledge ofthe basics and have access to clearteaching models. It also has some usefulappendices: a cross-referenced glossary,useful classroom language and clearexample lesson plans.Here are some of the highlights:• The wide range of topics withinteresting, usable, exciting suggestionsfor teachers to emulate.• The attention to detail in key areas likeplanning and classroom management.• The range of nationalities of theteachers interviewed in the videos. Thiswas a stroke of genius. It brings thetopics to life and provides direct accessto solutions and ideas for teachers.• The two-page unit spreads, whichmight actually seem achievable for busyteachers.• The way the texts in Section A illustratekey language points for teachers, who canthen follow up clearly-marked referencesand explore them in more detail in other

Winner

of the 2011

Ben Warren

Prize!

units. In my experience, a lot ofbeginner teachers feel very insecure abouttheir knowledge of grammar. The grammarunits are pleasingly gentle examples ofhow we can use context to illustrateparts of speech. Colour coding ofgrammar words helps you see at aglance what is covered in the unit.• Explanation of difficult concepts. Takethe section on assessment, for example.It’s often difficult to explain concepts likevalidity and reliability in a simple way, butthe units on assessment make a valiantattempt. And more importantly, itencourages good test-writing practice –such as producing a list of testspecifications for classroom tests.And here are a few qualms:• The follow-up reading list providesuseful references for some of the topics,but misses out a few areas like ICT andassessment, which are also given a lot ofimportance in the book. However, theindications are that the accompanyingwebsite will have further readingsuggestions.• Sometimes the glossary seemssimplistic. For example, a concordance is‘a programme which allows you to getinformation about words’. That makes itsound like a dictionary. And a phoneme isnot ‘an individual unique sound’ as theglossary states. It’s a range of phoneticsounds which constitute the smallestmeaningful unit of sound. The problemhere, of course, is that a more correctdefinition is immediately morecomplicated.

In sum – and I write from theperspective of a teacher trainer whoworks in many different countries – I thinkthis book makes a brilliant attempt atliving up to its claims and should be atreasure trove to many beginningteachers around the world.

Jeff StanfordBerlin, Germany