Delving into critiquing: A critical assessment for a book written by Brown (2000).


In his book “Principles of language learning and teaching”, not only has Brown (2000) displayed the complexity of the phenomenon of second language acquisition (SLA); he has also presented a storehouse of updated findings related to language learning and teaching. Considering issues chapter by chapter, accurate, theoretically supported definitions of key concepts are given first; going through a detailed discussion of the factors that may influence human learning; to conclude with an overall picture of theories of second language acquisition.
Especially noteworthy is the inclusion of end-of-chapter exercises that foster group or pair discussion, as well as individual analysis. Rather more significant are the journal-writing guidelines offered at the end of each chapter since they enhance the reader’s reflection on personal experiences when learning a foreign language. Equally remarkable are Brown’s (2000) suggestions for further reading related to each chapter’s topic allowing for extensive research.
Of greater concern is the provision of vignettes depicting the applications of second language studies and investigations to classroom realities. Such vignettes can be classified into two groups: those describing the historical progression of language teaching methods, and the ones dealing with related classroom implications of each chapter topic. Regarding the former group, they appear to be disseminated randomly within the first chapters. Thus, it turns to be a demanding task on the reader’s part to follow the thread of the evolution of language-teaching methodologies. It would have been better if Brown (2000) had introduced a spare section containing such vignettes arranged in a chronological order.
In this reliable book, solid, theoretical foundations for language-teaching education programs are provided. At the same time, this piece of work proves to be interesting for readers seeking for an overview of current issues in the field of second language acquisition. Despite not offering an organized chronology of the evolution of teaching methods, Brown (2000) succeeds in picturing effectively the changes in the views of the language-teaching process along history. To conclude, this book seems to be recommendable not only for graduate or undergraduate language teachers, but also for any person interested in enriching their knowledge of language acquisition.




























Reference

Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.