Title    :  Teaching of English
Author   :  Prof. Habib Ullah Rather
Pages    : 156
Price    : `120
Year of Publication :  2012
Publisher   :  Kashmir Book Depot Srinagar

The book under review being pedagogical in its orientation gives a comprehensive view of policy, practice, research and theory related to English language. It contains 32 chapters divided in 3 parts, each contributing to learning of pedagogical skills related to the language. It begins with an introduction to communication theory and proceeds with units on oral communication, written communication, reading and listening skills, vocabulary extension, word order, sentence structure – its analysis and synthesis, the study of various parts of speech – both from theoretical and functional point of view, verb patterns, paragraph structure, grammar drills, introduction to linguistics and phonetics and information about the sound system in English. Studies show if you know 1000 words in a language, you can function in about 90% of oral communication.
One section of the book analyses various errors committed in spoken and written English. It gives explanation and guidelines to correct the common and uncommon errors. It contains useful exercise material for pronunciation drills and conversation practice. The book is a great aid to teaching and learning English language. It is designed for self study and can prove to be user friendly. In it there is a handy back up for practicing teachers. There is a treasure of tips for students and teachers many of which, are not traditional. It offers a fresh approach to language learning, pronunciation learning and grammar learning – that invite the students to work out the rules themselves. There is a wealth of grammar games and practice activities - all of them well described and uncomplicated. There is unity and connectivity between the chapters, nice variation in the exercises and units are presented in a user-centric format. However, in the last section of the book, some essays are quite brief as if the author has run out of time, energy, words or space to further develop the cognition. The book is lacking ISBN. In addition to this printer’s devil at some places has crept in.
Over all this is a very useful book both for students as well as teachers, a handy reference which will work like a methodology teaching dictionary. The present volume will really fill the gap in the available literature in the context of B.Ed programmes. The conclusion arrived at and the pedagogical implications should be of much help to teachers and learners of English language. The ease and lucidity of the book will appeal to the students, scholars and teachers at all levels. The present reviewer suggests that if one is looking for a straight forward English language teaching and learning resource that is small enough to keep on ones desk and easy to use, this is a good book to add to ones book shelf.
Prof. Roohi teaches English at S.P College, Srinagar.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST