Richards explains how effective language teaching involves a network of
interactions between curriculum, methodology, teachers, learners,
instructional materials. Each chapter discusses and examines the
theoretical and practical dimensions of a central issue in language
teaching. Topics covered include the nature of effective teaching,
self-monitoring in teacher development, language and content, and
teaching listening, speaking, reading and writing. Richards presents key
issues in an accessible and highly readable style, and shows how
teachers and teachers-in-training can be involved in the investigation
of classroom teaching and learning. The emphasis is not on prescriptions
but rather on developing effective teaching through understanding the
various factors that interact in second language learning and in the
second language classroom.