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Evaluating a Textbook
As there is such a collection of coursebooks to choose from, we teachers, responsible for choosing teaching materials, have to be able to make informed judgements about textbooks. Evaluation, however, needs to be done by considering the book in relation to its purpose (Richards 2001). A book might be ideal in one teaching situation but the same book, in a different teaching situation, may turn out to be quite unsuitable. The evaluation that will be explained in this book is a pre-use evaluation following Tomlinson’s (1998) recommended procedure for evaluating materials. It consists of twelve steps.
I
nvestigating our Classroom
I do agree with Nunan (1990) who emphasises “the potential of Action Research to contribute to contribute to Professional Development, particularly in encouraging self-directed teachers, who are capable, through Action Research, of furthering their professional self-development”. The purpose of this book is reflect upon concepts such as Teacher Development, Action Research, collaboration while interacting with you, the reader, who will be working in tasks. 
Translation
From my point of view, translation does have a place in the classroom and its implementation can be beneficial for second or foreign language learners. Besides, as Stoddart (2000) puts it, students do, and always will, translate into their L1, no matter how often we ask them not to - Atkinson (in Harbord, 1992) calls it a "learner-preferred strategy . . . and an inevitable part of second language acquisition". Perhaps we should stop working against this tendency and turn it to our advantage in the classroom. Go on reading this book....
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Fairy Tales
These short tales (Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow Whiteand The Three Little Pigs)were written by my students in Argentina learning English as a Foreign Language at school. They are the result of a process-based cycle in which the purpose was “learning to write”. Hope you read and enjoy them!
14 Poems
These poems were written by my students in Argentina learning English as a Foreign Language at school. They are the result of a process-based cycle in which the purpose was “learning to write”. Enjoy them and let your students learn!
On Knowing 
Our Students
In this book some learners’ self-reports while learning English will be analyzed considering the aspects of their learning they attend to and assess. The analysis will take into account individual factors such as: the type of motivation displayed by the student, his/her learning style or any learning strategies used, and any personality factors which may seem relevant
Tasks & Projects in the English class
As a teacher of English as a Foreign Language, I must admit that keeping learners engaged and motivated at public schools in Argentina is a challenging and demanding task, even for experienced teachers. Fortunately, research shows that there are practices that will encourage students to be more engaged and motivated to learn a foreign language. I consider that Project Work is one of those practices.
Learning Strategies in the English Class
Language learning strategies remain an active area of research. However, recent L2 strategy research offers potentially significant implications for teachers who want to improve their instructional effectiveness. And, as a result, their learners could benefit greatly from strategy instruction. The present book consists of three parts. In Part A, I will explain the meaning of an ancient proverb, and I will also explain the way I approach strategy instruction in my class justifying it with bibliography. In Part B, I will analyze Tyacke and Mendelsohn’s response to the proverb. Finally, in Part C, I will consider the pros and cons in conducting strategy training.
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CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning
I personally believe that an approach as CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) attempts to incorporate new teaching perspectives as a way of responding to the 21st century school claims for renewed pedagogy to new educational environments in and for a globalized information society. Thus, from my point of view, this perspective is intended to help the learners and the teacher as well realize that English as a Lingua Franca will open doors to the whole world and will help learners become intercultural speakers.
English Foreign Language Learners and Native-like Competence
Learners vary hugely in the ultimate level of proficiency they achieve, with most of them failing to reach native target-language competence. Since the process of L2 acquisition is very complex, it is not my intention to simplify it. Thus, I will only give a brief account of possible explanations for the failure of learners to achieve native-like competence in a second language. To account for this phenomenon, I will consider three different perspectives in L2 acquisition: psychological linguistic issues, sociolinguistic issues and discourse issues. Thus, I will analyze several SLA theories, claims and / or hypothesis. I must admit that it is really challenging to gather information from these complex areas since all three aspects are interrelated in a number of ways. Also, some of those relations are more controversial than others. Finally, I will try to reach to a conclusion.
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The WebQuest to teach English as a Foreign Language
Knowing the benefits that the WebQuest as a didactic strategy offers in our educational practice, I consider it an appropriate one to be used with learners, since it challenges them to “learn to learn”. It requires students to take on an active role and adopt a self-directed learning disposition. Furthermore, when used in Foreign Language Acquisition and Learning, the WebQuest offers an approach to teaching in which the following components are easily identified: being exposed to input, processing content, processing form, producing output and using a wide range of strategies.
