Individual Freedom in Language Teaching
Christopher Brumfit
Oxford Applied Linguistics
The book draws upon linguistic, psychological, philosophical, and sociolinguistic principles and uses practical examples from second, foreign, and mother tongue teaching. It attempts to integrate theoretical and empirical work with the practical needs of institutions and of teachers without losing sight of learners' needs for free personal choice combined with effective communication.
Christopher Brumfit
Individual Freedom in Language Teaching
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
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ISBN-13: 978 0 19 4421744
Printed in China
For F, R, and S
Published in this series:
Bachman: Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing
Bachman and Palmer: Language Testing in Practice
Brumfit and Carter (eds): Literature and Language Teaching
Canagarajah: Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in Language Teaching
Cook: Discourse and Literature
Cook: Language Play, Language Learning
Cook and Seidlhofer (eds.): Principle and Practice in Applied Linguistics
Ellis: SLA Research and Language Teaching
Ellis: The Study of Second Language Acquisition
Ellis: Understanding Second Language Acquisition
Howatt: A History of English Language Teaching
Jenkins: The Phonology of English as an International Language
Kern: Literacy and Language Teaching
Kramsch: Context and Culture in Language Teaching
Lantolf (ed.): Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning
Nattinger and DeCarrico: Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching
Phillipson: Linguistic Imperialism
Seliger and Shohamy: Second Language Research Methods
Skehan: A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning
Stern: Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching
Widdowson: Aspects of Language Teaching
Widdowson: Practical Stylistics
Widdowson: Teaching Language as Communication
Preface
Two of my research students, both practising teachers, are partly responsible for the shape and form of this book. They both remarked on the consistency of my ideas over the years, and I felt slightly hurt, as if I had been accused of failing to learn from experience.
But when I read papers I had written over the past 20 years, and when I examined the theses written by my students, I realized that there is a pretty consistent view of language in the world struggling to emerge. Articulating this in full theoretical detail is a task which will require