Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Abbreviations
I: Preliminary considerations
1: Preliminary considerations
2: The Role of Focus on Form
II: Communicative Language Teaching: Grammar and Communicative Tasks
3: Communicative Language Teaching
4: The role and practice of grammar teaching: designing communicative grammar
5: Designing Communicative Tasks in teaching Japanese
III: Classroom Research
6: The experimental methodology
7: A classroom experimental study on the effects of grammar instruction in the acquisition of Japanese
Conclusion
References
Index

Promotional Information

A combination of theory and practice, accompanied by an empirical case study, makes this an ideal introductory textbook to the practical aspects of the acquisition of Japanese as a second language.

About the Author

Alessandro G. Benati is Professor in the School of Education, University College Dublin, Ireland. He has held positions in several British and overseas institutions. He is known for his work in second language acquisition, and he published ground-breaking research on the pedagogical framework called processing instruction. His research on processing instruction has been recently driven by the use of new online measurements (e.g., eye tracking, and self-paced reading). Alessandro has coordinated national and international high-impact research projects which have been influential in determining educational policy and had an impact in providing effective language teacher training programs. He is the author and co-author of several research monographs, peer-reviewed articles in high-ranked journals, and editor and co-editor of book series and scientific journals such as Cambridge Elements in SLA and Instructed Second Language Acquisition. He was a member of the sub-panel for Modern Languages and Linguistics for the Research Excellence Framework for England (REF 2021), AHRC Panel, and he is an Honorary Professor at Your SJ University (UK), University of Hong Kong (China), Adjunct Professor at Macquarie University (Australia), and Visiting Professor at Anaheim University (USA)

Reviews

"This is a highly readable work on communicative language teaching, both general and specific. Whilst it focuses on Japanese language teaching, the instructional issues covered are universal. All readers will benefit from Benati's discussion of the role of focus on form in communicative language teaching and his communicative teaching model for grammar instruction. Benati successfully frames the issues for classroom practice with a careful consideration of research and theory. The main implications are clearly and succinctly presented in bullet lists, and appear at the end of sections as the logical conclusions to the discussion of research and theory. Practioners will find this book a valuable addition to their professional libraries. Students will find the list of key terms and their definitions helpful and the end of chapter questions for consideration insightful." - James F. Lee, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia

Reviewed in JALT Journal, 32.1, May 2010 ‘While it is aimed at teachers of Japanese, many language teachers can benefit from the detailed discussions of theories related to second language learning and the design of communicative activities for the classroom'