The Handbook of Language Teaching

For two reasons, this is an immense title. Firstly, for reviewing purposes its encyclopaedic appearance means it is not exactly the right size, weight, or length to stow in one's pocket for dipping into in less busy moments during the crowded teaching day. Secondly, its breadth of coverage by an international team of specialists in a wide range of fields within applied linguistics has resulted in a combination of papers covering the latest research findings on not only established core topics, but others either rapidly developing or in recent years given less regard. The latest in a series from Blackwell covering all the major sub-disciplines within linguistics, The Handbook of Language Teaching (THLT), is divided into eight main parts. The number of chapters, 39 amounting to over 800 pages all told, necessarily limits the scope of a review such as this, but as far as possible I have tried to provide a general flavour of the goods inside.