! 3!
Granted, simply counting blog post replies speaks little to the actual substantiveness of
the exchanges transpiring within the author’s blog, but it does indicate which topics
appear to resonate with blog readers most: defining fluency and how to teach it, using
the mother tongue in the English language learning classroom, and learning how many
words English language learners need to know. Interestingly, the chapter question that
received the fewest replies was how to teach reactively; albeit a prevailing topic
concerning teaching roles in ELT, it only received 16 replies in the blog.
The strongest chapters of this book are those where the author provides insight and
possible and practicable solutions. Thornbury cites Wilson Nelson (1991) in advising
English language educators to provide feedback to students when they ask for it, also
referred to as ‘point of need teaching’ (Thornbury, 2013a, Chapter 20, paragraph 10). In
Chapter 12, the author explains the prevalence of a coursebook-as-method system
whereby what teachers teach and how they teach are determined by textbooks. Finally,
in chapter nine, the author offers a list of ideas in how to approach pushing learners by
repeating tasks, applying public performance, among others. Although not generating
many replies in the author’s blog, these three questions speak volumes when it comes
to the role of the English language educator and the kind of relationship that exists
between teacher and English language learner within a community of practice.
Of the 123 references used throughout the book, 26 came from primary research
articles, primarily from two academic journals: Applied Linguistics and ELT Journal. Only
eight of the 26 primary research articles were published between the years 2008-2012
(the book was published in early 2013). For a 91-page book with 21 chapters, 189+
questions with 123 total references, Big Questions in ELT includes plenty of sources that
provide additional reading related to the topics covered. However, assuming that the
most current primary sources were considered for the book, researchers will find an
obvious absence of current empirical studies (i.e., within the last five years), covering a
wide range of topics related to teaching and learning English as an additional language:
lexical approach; teaching roles, methods, and techniques, and interlanguage processes.
The book relies primarily on expert opinion to address title questions with a few
exceptions where the author makes his own suggestions towards practicable solutions.
Ultimately, it is up to the reader to reflect and adopt any “answers” to the many
questions presented, often requiring expert opinion beyond the numerous references
included in the book.
Big Questions in ELT is a collection of blog posts with discussion questions that were
added to each chapter so to provoke deep critical reflection inquiring how the English
language is learned. With a mobile device connected to the Internet, the reader enjoys a
seamless reading experience between an Amazon Kindle eBook and the hundreds to
blog replies that add further perspective to the salient issues that run throughout the
ELT profession. This book is the result of asking more questions than it answers (think
Socratic Method). This can be useful in pre-service programs and in-service workshops
and discussion forums whereby teacher practitioners harness informal pedagogical
dialogues to link teaching practices with empirical research. The shortage of primary
research articles in this book however, serves as an invitation to (participatory action)
researchers to contribute more to current literature by systematically setting out to find
contingent solutions to reoccurring questions (i.e., problems) that emerge across ELT
cultures. Big Questions in ELT lays the framework for cultivating informal pedagogical
dialogues that are shown to now extend across social networks. Indeed, such dialogues
