The document discusses an EFL teaching book written by Paul Nation called "What Should Every EFL Teacher Know?". It provides an overview of the book's contents which includes topics and a walkthrough. Nation wrote the book because other similar books were missing what he felt was important. He also wrote an accompanying ESL book after realizing ESL teachers needed different guidance. While he thought the ESL book could just copy the EFL book, they ended up being very different, showing how writing can be a learning process.
9. From the Author:
“I wrote What Should Every EFL Teacher Know? because I had recently read several other similar books and drafts
and found that a lot of what I thought was important was not included in them. I have also recently retired,
although the work does not seem to have got less, and I felt that after many years of teaching I should be able to
tell a language teacher what are the most important things to do. Although the book is strongly based on
research, it is not written as an academic text but as a how-to-do-it text. When I finished writing the EFL book, I
went to a conference for ESL teachers in New Zealand and realized that I needed to say somewhat different
things to them than I would say to EFL teachers. So, I wrote an accompanying ESL book, What Should Every ESL
Teacher Know? When I started writing the ESL book I thought I could just copy over a lot of the chapters from the
EFL book, but to my surprise, they turned out to be very different books. Writing the books turned out to be a
good example of how we can learn through writing. I learned a lot by writing the books. Compass Publishing very
generously agreed to make the ESL book available free in electronic form, and I am very grateful for this.”
~Paul Nation
10. From the Author:
“I wrote What Should Every EFL Teacher Know? because I had recently read several other similar books and drafts
and found that a lot of what I thought was important was not included in them. I have also recently retired,
although the work does not seem to have got less, and I felt that after many years of teaching I should be able to
tell a language teacher what are the most important things to do. Although the book is strongly based on
research, it is not written as an academic text but as a how-to-do-it text. When I finished writing the EFL book, I
went to a conference for ESL teachers in New Zealand and realized that I needed to say somewhat different
things to them than I would say to EFL teachers. So, I wrote an accompanying ESL book, What Should Every ESL
Teacher Know? When I started writing the ESL book I thought I could just copy over a lot of the chapters from the
EFL book, but to my surprise, they turned out to be very different books. Writing the books turned out to be a
good example of how we can learn through writing. I learned a lot by writing the books. Compass Publishing very
generously agreed to make the ESL book available free in electronic form, and I am very grateful for this.”
~Paul Nation
