Language and Language Teaching, Issue 2 - Azim Premji Foundation

in following the lectures. There are severalmethods of language teaching, and in the pastdecades, various materials and methods havebeen developed. But the role of folk tales inteaching a language remains unbeatable. Ibelieve that teaching through folk tales willdefinitely be fruitful. Therefore, this kind of abook can be really important for children sincethe stories are interesting, and they can be easilyunderstood. Further, it will also improve thevocabulary and usage of different words/phrases. The exercises provided are good, andwill definitely help children improve their English.Also, since most of the stories are known topeople, it becomes easy to understand thelanguage.The stories selected in this book are good andinteresting too for children. It would have beenbetter if the level of these stories had beentaken into consideration. The elementary natureof some of the stories may have an adverseeffect on the total impact of this book. Further,the exercises provided are not consistent. Forexample, all the chapters do not have only fourtasks (as mentioned above), some chapters alsoinclude critical appreciation, written skills, etc.;and some chapters do not include language skills.Therefore, these exercises should have beenmade more systematic. These points candefinitely be improved in the future editions. Thebook fills a gap in pedagogical materials availablefor teaching a language.Kamal Kumar Choudhary (PhD, Leipzig) is anAssistant Professor in the Department of Humanitiesand Social Sciences at the Indian Institute ofTechnology Ropar, Panjab. Dr Chaudhary works andteaches courses in the areas of Neuro/Psycholinguistics, Syntax, Cognitive Science, andNatural Language Processing.kchoudhary1@googlemail.comTeaching Other Subjectsthrough Englishby Sheelagh Deller andChristine Price, 2007.London: OUP, 168 pages,paperbackISBN: 978-0-19-442-578-0,pp. 168Reviewed by: RameshKumar MishraThe rise of English as a world language has ledto its increasing acceptance as a medium ofeducation at different levels. The contribution ofBritish imperialism and now globalization towardsthis phenomenon is well documented. SheelaghDeller and Christine Price, in their book “TeachingOther Subjects through English,” emphasize onthe use of English in teaching and learning ofdifferent subjects and in various classroomsituations. The book particularly uses theframework of the “Content and LanguageIntegrated learning” to demonstrate how schoolteachers can use English as a medium ofinstruction to train pupils in different subjects. Incontrast to conventional methodologies of teachinga language, CIIL gives prominence to thecomplete involvement of the learner in theacquisition process where interaction in thelanguage is considered pivotal. This means, onemust be able to think and conceptualizesuccessfully in English while indulging in theteaching of different subjects. Most teacherswhose native language is not English, find itdifficult to teach subjects in English, for they lackproficiency in the language. This booksystematically introduces several teachingstrategies across a range of subjects that suchteachers can use while interacting with students.Thus, this is a resource book for those teacherswho teach in an English medium school, and whowould like to enhance their teaching proficiencyLanguage and Language Teaching Volume 1 Number 2 July 2012 50