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Teaching Languages
for Communication and Accuracy:
Classroom Techniques and Tactics

With language teaching, as with life, some things change and some things don't. In 1980 we published our first book, Language Teaching Techniques, and now it is recreated, full of time-tested classroom practices, but thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded to include many new activities.
Like the original, Teaching Languages is a clear and practical handbook that describes and illustrates 20 techniques and 17 tactics for teaching and learning any spoken language. In fact, we developed the original teachers' handbook for teaching twelve uncommonly taught languages to Peace Corps volunteers.

The techniques are classroom practices that may take a full 50-minute class. There is typically a beginning (presentation), middle (practice), and end (production) to the full lesson. A sampling of the techniques includes:

Rhythmic Rhymes
Line Ups
Valuations
Surveys
Information Gaps
Reader's Theater
Story Telling
Role Plays
Impromptus

Tactics usually focus on practice, and often require only a few minutes of class time. Frequently they are used spontaneously, as an error or question occurs in a lesson. They usually focus on a pronunciation, vocabulary, or grammar problem. They include:

Stress and Intonation Practice
Transformation Practice
Scrambled Sentences
Spontaneous Pattern Practice
Chain Practice
Pictograms

Although designed for the teacher in training, experienced teachers will often find a new tool for their "toolbox" - a new way to do something or a format they can use and adapt to create their own material.