Psychology for Language Teachers

This book examines the field of educational psychology and considers various ways in which a deeper understanding of this discipline can help language teachers. The first part of the book presents an overview of educational psychology, and discusses how different approaches to psychology have influenced language teaching methodology. Following this, four themes are identified: the learner, the teacher, the task and the learning context. Recent psychological developments in each of these domains are discussed and implications are drawn for language teaching. Areas considered in the book include approaches to learning, motivation, the role of the individual, attribution, mediation, the teaching of thinking, the cognitive demands of tasks and the learning environment. The book does not assume previous knowledge of psychology.