The Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning is an authoritative handbook dealing with all aspects of this increasingly important field of study. It has been produced specifically for language teaching professionals, but can also be used as a reference work for academic studies at postgraduate level.

It offers a comprehensive range of articles on contemporary language teaching and its history. Themes covered include:

• methods and materials
• assessment and testing
• contexts and concepts
• influential figures
• related disciplines, such as psychology, anthropology and sociolinguistics.

It covers the teaching of languages, in particular Japanese, Chinese and Arabic, as well as English, French, German and Spanish.

There are thirty-five overview articles dealing with issues such as communicative language teaching, early language learning, teacher education and syllabus and curriculum design. A further 160 entries focus on topics such as bilingualism, language laboratories and study abroad. Numerous shorter items look at language and cultural institutions, professional associations and acronyms. Multiple cross-references enable the user to browse from one entry to another, and there are suggestions for further reading.

Written by an international team of specialists, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning is an invaluable resource and reference manual for anyone with a professional or academic interest in the subject.

'This encyclopedia is valuable for many different purposes. Most of its entries read easily which is a definite plus for this kind of book. It is a rich source of knowledge and reference material for professionals within language teaching ... I would not hesitate to use some entries as background texts for a graduate course in second language acquisition. But most entries in this encyclopedia do not need to be taught: they will draw the interested reader in on their own merits.' – Sigrid Dentler

Michael Byram is Professor of Education at the University of Durham and Special Advisor to the Council of Europe Modern Languages Project