Language education is most often defined as “the teaching and learning of a first, second, or foreign language.” It is a branch of applied linguistics, the scientific study of human language. A Wikipedia article on linguistics divides the field into three main areas of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context.”
English-language teachers and other educators may instruct and otherwise assist either native or non-native speakers of English, or both. Many adhere to, adapt, and/or go beyond accepted language-teaching theory, which is based on research about how people learn language. Others focus their efforts on methodology, specific ways of applying theory to the teaching of grammar (sentence structure), vocabulary, and the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
According to the American National Council of Teachers of English, the five strands of a traditional Language Arts curriculum in schools where courses are taught in English are listening, speaking, viewing (visual literacy), reading, and writing.
Effective listening begins with sound awareness and proceeds to hearing, understanding, evaluating, and giving feedback on perceived oral messages.
Speaking requires comprehensible articulation of sounds in speech, the vocalized form of human communication.
Visual literacy is the ability to get meaning from pictures and other information presented in the form of images.
To read, students need to comprehend the meaning of printed characters, words, and text.
Writing involves forming the letters of an alphabet or other symbols representing speech sounds in meaningful sequences: words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and (eventually) messages, compositions, essays, and more.
The creators of Authors & Editors have been around since the days of the earliest (twentieth century) language-teaching theories and methodologies: “Grammar Translation,” the “Direct, or Natural, Method,” Noam Chomsky’s “Transformational Grammar,” the behaviorist “Audio-Lingual/Oral Method,” “Communicative Competence” approaches, “Competency-Based Language-Skills” instruction, syllabi based on “Notions and Functions,” Steve Krashen’s “Silent Sustained Reading” techniques, and others through the decades. We have always managed to survive—and draw from—the latest, currently popular ideas, such as the “Silent Approach,” “Total Physical Response,” “Suggestopedia,” “Input and Output Hypotheses,” “Situational Reinforcement,” “Lowering the Affective Filter,” and many more.
One of A & E’s main goals has always been to connect classic (as well as experimental) theory to practice, using methods and materials that fulfill teachers’ and learners’ needs and appeal to their interests in specific situations at any given time. We have been amazingly successful in “putting it all together” in proven yet innovative, practical yet exciting, down-to-earth yet creative, and comfortable yet productive ways.
Especially useful overviews of pedagogical concepts for teachers and educators can be found in the A to Z Everything to Know (Now) About . . . resources entitled Alphabet Answers and PhonicSpelling. The classic How-to Resource Books Doing Without the Photocopier and Still Doing Without the Photocopier offer comparable delights.
For a summary of what is available now, see our Alphabetized Authors & Editors Product List. For detailed information and printable Try-Before-You-Buy samples, go to the Authors & Editors Online Store. No-cost ready-to-use classroom lessons will be offered through our collection of Teaching Tools, Tips, & Techniques. Copies of long-ago Teacher-Training Workshop Handouts will soon be downloadable.
