Modern English Teacher January 1994 [antikvár]

A FANTASTIC AND USEFUL BOOK FROM PRENTICE HALL CONVERSATION AND DIALOGUES IN ACTION Zoltán Dömyei-Sarah ThurrellConversation and Dialogues in Action is a unique teachers' resource book entirely based on the latest results of oral discourse theory and conversation analysis. In 37 units, it contains over 80 practical communicative tasks that successfully enhance conversational skills and fluency. Drawing on their experience of applied linguistics research, teacher training and EFL instruction, the authors have designed lively classroom activities to concentrate on all the major components of "conversational grammar". By translating linguistic theory into teaching practice, the book manages to bridge the gap between textbook-bound classroom talk and real-life conversation. A special feature is the rich and systematic collection of conversational phrases that accompany the activities to serve as input material. In 31 tables there are well over 1,000 such routines and expressions throughout the book - making it also an invaluable reference for EFL teachers at any level.Conversational issues presented and practiced involve conversational starters and closers, changing the subject and interrupting, turn-taking methods, conversational strategies, narrative techniques, conversation specific language functions, direct and indirect speech acts, conversational maxims, social contextual factors; participant and situational variables, politeness strategies and degrees of formality, crosscultural strategies and blunders, etc."Conversation and Dialogues in Action delivers what it promises, a very useful book." Practical English TeachingThe book can be bought at or ordered from':Magyar Macmillan Könyvkiadó Budapest 1117 Móricz Zs. krt. 3/b. Tel/Fax: 186-8951EditorialHappy New Year to all MET readers. And welcome to the third volume of the 'new' MET. I hope we have plenty here to stimulate, inform and entertain you -maybe even to provoke you.A teachers'journal, especially one whose readership spans the globe, should be interactive, providing a forum for dialogue. I am glad that MET does this. As you will see, several readers have contributed articles and letters prompted by previous issues. And, of course, the more the merrier.In About Language, Edward Hounslow responds to George Woolard's article on intonation in Vol 2 No 2. In It Made Me Think, Ian Jasper takes up Mario Rinvolucri's theme {Concepts That Warp Me, Vol 2 Nol) in his article In Praise of the Low, while David Maule's article Beyond Belief (Vol 1 No 3) struck a chord with Graham Wood, who describes his own experience of student disbelief in Do You Know Alvar Aalto?As well as these three Feedback articles, we have received feedback in the shape of two letters (in About Language: Notice Board) which show that you really do read MET very carefully The major theme in this issue of MET is Business English. Did you know that the word pidgin, as in Pidgin English, is generally thought to come from the Chinese pronunciation of business? The original Pidgin English arose in Asia in the 17th century; since then, many other pidgin languages have come to be used in Asia, Africa and the Americas. The word pidgin now describes any hybrid, simplified language evolved amongst traders. Today, the teaching of Business English - or, ratherEnglish for business people - is as much concerned with social English as with the actual language of trading or of business, since it is argued that much of what business students need is actually social English of one sort or another. For this reason, those of you who are not involved in teaching English to business students will find plenty that is relevant in the Keynote article and in the articles in Classroom Ideas.One of the themes in Ian Badger's Keynote article. The Business World of the 1990s, is the need for students to leam to work on their own. This certainly seems to be the way things are going in many areas of ELT and teachers are increasingly having to consider how they can help their students to take responsibility for their own learning, both inside and outside the classroom. Apart from the Keynote article, there are contributions to this debate in the two articles in Current Issues, The Benefits of Counselling Students and But We Don't Know What We Need!, and there is a practical suggestion in Remedial Listening by Radio in Tips and Hints.I hope that something in this issue of MET will prompt you to pick up your pen and write to us.Thérese TobinPlease send letters and articles to: Modern English Teacher Macmillan ELT, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hants RG21 2XS