Communication in the Language Classroom

Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers

by Tony Lynch

A book about classroom interaction and how to teach communication skills to language students.

In this book, Tony Lynch sets out to explain how classroom communication works. He explains ways of understanding why people succeed or fail in getting their meaning across. He then shows how you can use this knowledge to make students better at communicating in a new language.

The book is divided into two parts:

Part One looks at the features and characteristics of natural communication that we need to be aware of as language teachers. It contains chapters on:
- Communicating inside and outside the classroom
- Simplicity and accessibility
- Teacher Talk
- Modification research (research into what happens when teachers try to change the way they speak when talking to learners, and whether this actually aids comprehension)

Each of these more theoretical chapters includes a concluding section on 'Implications for classroom practice': these sections tie in the research presented in the chapter with practical ideas that can be applied to the classroom.

Part Two sets out a variety of ways of encouraging communication through language tasks. There is a chapter on each of the four traditional language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Each chapter ends with a summary and suggestions for further reading, and there is a glossary and full bibliography at the end of the book.

Genres: Teaching, Linguistics

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 1996

About the author

Tony Lynch is Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Applied Language Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. There he directs and teaches pre-session and in-session academic English courses for international students, works in teacher education and supervises research students. Among his research interests are task recycling, listener autonomy, and ways of helping learners notice features of their own second language speech.