Teaching English Worldwide

The article critically reports on the volume Teaching English Worldwide written by Paul Lindsay. Designed as a comprehensive introduction to the field of teaching English as a second or foreign language, it is a helpful instrument for both those who need a basic self-training in teaching English and those who are planning to take a pre-service training course in the profession. Not only does the book provide the main points of the theoretical knowledge that would-be teachers need, but it constantly supports theory with procedures, techniques, and activities useful for the teaching of all aspects of the English language. On the whole the book serves as a practical guide suitable for providing would-be teachers with the basic knowledge and techniques needed for the teaching of most aspects of foreign language. I would no doubt suggest this book to my teacher trainees. What I would like to find, even in a book which explicitly claims to be practical, is a wider discussion of the different cognitive styles and cognitive plus meta-cognitive strategies that students put into use in their learning (Rubin & Wenden, 1997; Ellis & Sinclair, 1989). The teaching of a language is comparable to a re-shaping of mental processes as far as communication is concerned. And this cannot be done, in my opinion, without a constant reflection on the way in which the mind of each student attending our classes works and on the preferential cognitive paths he or she follows. This profound familiarity with all students' cognitive resources enables us to choose among techniques and procedures suitable for each of them individually, and to group students in a way that proves helpful for better and more complete learning. It goes without saying that the author does know very well how important the recognition of cognitive styles in language teaching is. What I want to say is that a constant correlation between activities and cognition is essential even in practical guides, so that would-be teachers are always encouraged to reflect on the particularity that their difficult profession involves