The official website of educator Jack C Richards

Cambridge University Press to Publish Two New Books by Jack C Richards

Dr. Richards has written a book called 50 Tips for Teacher Development, to be published in 2017. The tips in the book contain a wide variety of activities that teachers can use to plan and manage aspects of their own professional development. They draw on Dr. Richards’ many years of experience in working with teachers at different stages in their professional development. The tips address core aspects of teacher development, including such issues as assessing needs and goals, researching teaching and learning, extending knowledge and skills, and expanding professional knowledge.

The table of contents of the book are:

Review Your Professional Development

  1. Plan goals for your professional development
  2. Review your professional development
  3. Review changes in your teaching

Find Out How You Teach

  1. Use lesson reports to monitor your teaching
  2. Watch or listen to yourself teaching
  3. Observe each other teaching
  4. Keep a portfolio
  5. Keep a journal

Observe The Nature Of Lessons

  1. Review designs for lesson plans
  2. Identify the features of an effective lesson
  3. Develop a lesson observation form

Find Out More About Your Learners

  1. Identify your students’ learning needs
  2. Explore understandings of teaching and learning
  3. Study examples of students’ work
  4. Learn from critical incidents

Review The Language You Use In Teaching

  1. Observe how you use questions
  2. Observe how you give feedback
  3. Use lesson transcripts to explore classroom language

Engage In Critical Reflection

  1. Learn how to engage in critical reflection
  2. Take part in group problem solving
  3. Use clips from movies or extracts from fiction to explore teaching
  4. Try doing something differently

Expand Your Knowledge Of The Field

  1. Form a reading group
  2. Learn from an expert
  3. Join a language teachers’ association
  4. Attend a conference

Develop Research Skills

  1. Learn how to review a textbook
  2. Carry out action research
  3. Try a replication study
  4. Take part in lesson study

Expand Your Teaching Skills

  1. Experience classroom activities
  2. Watch videos of teaching
  3. Use Wikis for collaborative teacher development
  4. Take part in micro-teaching
  5. Be creative

Research Your Own Teaching

  1. Use narrative frames to explore teaching
  2. Use narrative writing

Cambridge University Press will also publish The Cambridge Guide to Learning English as a Second Language, edited by Anne Burns and Jack C Richards. This is a comprehensive edited overview of the field of second language learning, with chapters by key specialists from many part of the world. The book will be published in 2018. The table of contents of the book are:

Introduction:

Anne Burns and Jack Richards

Part 1: Learners and learning English

  1. Learning as a child (Yuko Butler)
  2. Learning as an adolescent (Tracey Costley)
  3. Learning as an adult (Carol Griffiths & Adem Soruç)
  4. Learning with learning difficulties (Judit Kormos)
  5. Learning two or more languages (John Witney & Jean-Marc Dewaele)

Part 2: Individual, social and affective dimensions of learning English

  1. Motivation (Stephen Ryan)
  2. Language aptitude (Shaofeng Li)
  3. Language anxiety (Elaine Horwitz & Lama Nassif)
  4. Language learning strategies (Rebecca Oxford)
  5. Identity and language learning (Martha Pennington)

Part 3: Contexts of learning English

  1. Learning through social interaction (Patsy Duff & Victoria Surtees)
  2. Learning in the classroom (Martin East)
  3. Learning beyond the classroom (Alice Chik)

Part 4: Learning English for particular purposes

  1. Learning for academic purposes (Helen Basturkmen)
  2. Learning for specific purposes (Christoph Hafner)
  3. Learning for the workplace (Jane Lockwood)

Part 5: Learning the systems of English

  1. Learning pronunciation (Ee-Ling Low)
  2. Learning vocabulary (David Hirsh)
  3. Learning lexical phrases (Frank Boers)
  4. Learning grammar (Scott Thornbury)

Part 6: Learning the four skills of English

  1. Learning listening (Joseph Siegel)
  2. Learning speaking (Christine Goh)
  3. Learning reading (Lawrence Zhang)
  4. Learning writing (Neomy Storch)

Part 7: Learning the social uses of English

  1. Learning genres (Susan Feez & Zuocheng Zhang)
  2. Learning literacy (Marie Stevenson)
  3. Learning pragmatics (Naoko Taguchi)
  4. Learning intercultural competence (Farzad Sharifian)

Part 8:  Approaches to learning English

  1. Learning through tasks (Ali Shehadeh)
  2. Learning through content (John Macalister)
  3. Learning through translation (Guy Cook)
  4. Learning through textbooks (Gregory Hadley)
  5. Learning through a corpus (Averil Coxhead & Oliver Ballance)

Part 9: Technology and learning English

  1. Learning through technology (Rodney Jones)
  2. Learning online (Nicky Hockly & Gavin Dudeney)
  3. 36. Learning through social media (Christopher Jenks)