Psychology for Language Teachers examines the field of educational psychology and considers various ways in which a deeper understanding of this discipline can help language teachers. The first part presents an overview of educational psychology, and discusses how different approaches to psychology have influenced language teaching methodology. Following this, four themes are identified: the learner, the teacher, the task and the learning context. Recent psychological developments in each of these domains are discussed and implications are drawn for language teaching. Areas considered include approaches to learning, motivation, the role of the individual, attribution, mediation, the teaching of thinking, the cognitive demands of tasks and the learning environment. Psychology for Language Teachers does not assume previous knowledge of psychology.
Contents: 1 An introduction to educational psychology: behaviourism and cognitive psychology; 2 Further schools of thought in psychology: humanism and social interactionism; 3 What do teachers bring to the teaching-learning process?; 4 What can teachers do to promote learning?; 5 The contribution of the individual student to the learning process; 6 What makes a person want to learn? Motivation in language learning; 7 How does the learner deal with the process of learning?; 8 The place of tasks in the language classroom; 9 The learning context; 10 Putting it all together
