Teaching English Today. Contexts and Objectives by Susan Holden and Vinicius Nobre

Back in 2019, Teaching English Today. Contexts and Objectives landed in my mailbox, a lovely present from Susan Holden, who wrote it with Vinicius Nobre. Susan has a long experience as a teacher, teacher trainer, magazine editor (Modern English Teacher), author and publisher for both international and regional markets. She currently runs a publishing company, Swan Communication. Vinicius Norbre is based in Brazil and has worked as a teacher, teacher educator, academic coordinator, international examiner, education manager and content developer in a range of contexts. They have joined forces to produce this book aimed at, but not exclusively, teachers in training or teachers at the beginning of their career. A few days ago, after re-reading some chapters, I decided to re-post this review I wrote back then as I think this book should be on every teacher’s library.

Teaching English Today. Contexts and Objectives, was originally published in 2018 as an edition for Latin America. The European edition with slightly different references came out in 2019.

The book is divided into 4 parts: The context, The core content, Enriching the content and Organising and updating with 17 chapters, which touch on various aspects. In Part A the focus is on the teacher, the learners, what it means to learn a foreign language these days and the impact of technology. What I particularly liked about this first part was the section about native and non-native teachers and how the non-native teacher is valued as a ‘model for success’ and the opportunities for reflection, particularly regarding assessing teachers’ perceived strengths and weaknesses.

Part B deals with the development of reading, writing, listening, speaking skills for today´s world, integrating grammar and vocabulary as well as the relationship between testing and assessment and students’ self-assessment. In this section, I would have welcomed the inclusion of assessment for learning and formative assessment.

Part C of the book is made up of chapters that enrich the content, such as project work, using music, role-play and drama and literature, including poetry. Part D is on evaluation of materials – textbooks, supplementary material, online material, and on teacher´s professional development.

The book is very user-friendly. A walkthrough in section 1.5 explains how the book is organised and how to make the most of it. The What about you? questions displayed in the margins and the Thinking and Discussion sections provide opportunities for self-reflection and group discussion encouraging teachers to think critically about their teaching practice. The Focus points that open each chapter are excellent for brainstorming and provide the trainer with useful information as to the background and experiences of teachers. In the Discovering more, teachers will find suggestions for further reading, an excellent selection which may constitute the basis of a personal professional library.

Teaching English Today. Contexts and Objectives is the kind of book both teachers and trainers will find useful and one I would have loved to have when I started my teaching career.