New publications

Teaching, Learning and Researching in an ESL Context is for instructors who are interested in improving their teaching practice through teacher-research. The first part of the book investigates a number of ESL issues, such as communicative competence, teacher as researcher, errors in language learning, and ESOL teaching approaches and methods. The second part of the book puts the theory into practice, with an example of recent teacher-research conducted in an International School in Thailand. The text extends the teacher-researcher the opportunity to examine various approaches to teaching ESL. Available via DA Information Services.

The field of task-based language teaching has developed considerably since the publication of Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom (Nunan, 1989), a book which outlined research in teaching methodology for the following decade. While Designing Tasks underpins this new title, the material has been  updated and includes four completely new chapters.

The education of second language teachers takes place across diverse contexts, levels, settings, and geographic regions. By bringing together research, theory, and best practices from a variety of contexts including ESL, foreign language, bilingual and immersion education, this book contributes to building meaningful professional dialogue among second-language teacher educators. The volume is comprised of 18 chapters organised in four thematic sections: the knowledge base of second language teacher education; second language teacher education contexts; collaborations in second language teacher education; and second language teacher education in practice.

As opportunities for distance language learning expand, language teachers and learners are presented with a new set of issues, challenges and practical realities. By taking a learner-centred approach to issues and developments within the field, this book provides an overview of distance language learning and explores the ways in which participants are adapting their practices in response to the new learning environments. Key themes include the initial experience of distance language learning and the need to develop a practical knowledge of distance learners, as well as learner support, learner autonomy, innovation and the emergence of new constraints associated with distance learning environments.

This book is the first in a series which offers an inclusive approach to developing children's language and thinking skills, and their emotional literacy, in three core areas of the curriculum. It asserts that by participating in small, practical group sessions, involving games and activities, children can gradually build their confidence.

The 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) is the latest in a series of such surveys. Ten-year-old (Year 5) and 14-year-old (Year 9) pupils participated in the study in England. England's performance is compared with both the international average for the survey, representing all participating countries, and with the average for a comparable group composed of 12 developed countries that have participated in all, or most of, the recent TIMSS surveys. The latter consists of England, Australia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, USA, Belgium (Flemish), Italy, The Netherlands and Scotland.