The English Teacher's Mind

This fun handbook for English teachers offers a new carve-up of grammar to supplement but also to re-energise conventional language teaching. The aim is to put the teacher back into the centre of the language classroom by focusing on our USP: our native (or near-native) speaker input. These days, we need to capitalise on this to ensure our space alongside technology.

This book presents grammar in eight novel terms. The first one is distribution: grammar is interactional. We create structures together. For instance, the conditionals are often taught as solo pronouncements, but this is not really what happens in reality. They are distributed across speakers in context. Another concept is resonance: communication is not only about exchanging semantic content, we also harmonise using the auxiliary system, among other ways. And so on. These new grammar concepts provide us with a way to rethink and be more elastic and resourceful with our material, and to really own it as all craftspeople do.

This book presents English in new ways to keep teaching fresh and stop us from reaching for jaded examples. It will foster independence in teachers as we have to think about and mobilise these notions for ourselves, making us less reliant on coursebooks. This can only improve teaching. Finally, a happy side effect of this approach is that it opens a door to including more authentic English content in the classroom.

This is a hands-on guide to teachers. Much of the book is organised in speech bubble format with instructions to teachers on how to arrange material. Each new grammar concept is presented separately with lots of examples. A final chapter shows how to integrate drawing into the language classroom.