A Book Review of Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

COOK， VIVIAN. Second Language Learning and Language Teaching （4th ed）. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2011. Pp. xxvi， 306. ?42.00， paper. ISBN 978-7-5135-0476-8.

The book written by Cook （2011） introduced some topics concerning second language acquisition， such as grammar， vocabulary， pronunciation and a new witting system. He taught the readers how to learn and teach them. Also， Cook （2011） showed the items related to the second language acquisition. For example， the author introduced the readers two learning strategies， listening and reading processes. All in all， It is a book both for teachers who teach second language and the students who major in applied linguistics.

As a book written for the teachers and students， it has the following merits in its language use， structure design and content arrangement.

First， the language that the author used. He adopted simple vocabulary and sentence structures so as to make the readers better understand the content of this book. The book is suitable for different levels of learners to use.

Second， the structure of this book designed. At the beginning of this book， the Chinese introduction is presented， which helps the readers to grasp the main contents of each chapter. When a reader meets a new concept， he can refer to the Keywords part. In each section of a chapter， a question box will help the readers to warn up the contents. Also， at the end of each chapter， the three part： Discussion topics， Further reading and Glosses on language teaching methods are presented for the readers to think about and study.

Third， the content arrangement is also reasonable. From the whole book， each chapter is arranged well. It is very logical and it goes from easy to difficult. From each chapter， the author also arranged the contents very well. When he introduced something theoretical， the relationship between it and L2 teaching will also be presented. The author also introduced some tips in L2 teaching and learning.

Although this book written by Cook （2011） has many merits， some shortcomings cannot be ignored by the readers.

From the perspective of the contents in this book， the author presented some concepts which are hard to understand. For example， the Universal Grammar was shown in the Chapter 12. The author said much knowledge about it， however， it is much more difficult to understand than the definitions and explanations in Hus （2011） book， in which Hu （2011） defined the Universal Grammar “a native speaker possesses a kind of linguistic competence” （p. 257）. Cook （2011） directly introduced it from the perspective of principles and parameters， which are the two strange concepts for the readers. Therefore， it will make the readers confused.

Compared with another book by Harmer （2016）， Cooks （2011） book for the foreign teachers was theoretical-based. Although it provided some ideas to the teachers and told them how to do in their class， Harmers （2016） book is more practical for the teachers. We should admit that the book is too simple for its words and it is not beneficial for the linguistics students to learn knowledge， but if someone wants to be a teacher in the future， it is a good book for him to learn. In this book， Harmer （2016） introduced each part clearly on how to arrange teaching materials and how to manage students in the class.

This book written by Cook （2011） introduced L2 theories and some L2 teaching methods. All in all， this book is a great one for the L2 teachers and linguistics students to learn from. Although a little shortcomings were shown， it is worth reading for the second or the third time to better grasp the essence of this book.

References：

[1]Cook，V.（2011）.Second language learning and language teaching.Beijing：Foreign Language Research Press.

[2]Harmer，J.（2016）.How to teach English.Beijing：Foreign Language Research Press.

[3]胡壯麟.语言学教程：第四版[M].北京：北京大学出版社，2011.

【作者简介】王靓（1994.10.8- ），女，汉族，现就读于西安外国语大学英文学院2016级外国语言学及应用语言学专业，主要研究方向：应用语言学。