Book critique

An innovative resource book for teachers

 Language Hungry is a resource book for teachers who want to give their classes a twist.  The book contains twenty one chapters with original titles which immediately attract the reader`s attention. The first one is entitled The Roller Coaster of your Language Learning. It describes the learning process as an up and down way of interacting with language.  In this chapter, Murphy (2006), the writer of this unimaginary book, invites the reader to think and reflect upon which direction our students`roller coaster is going at the moment.  Other titles include Serious FUN!, Everyone is a juggler, and Passion Vision and Action, among others. At the beginning of each chapter the author includes some quotations from different well known people.  These citations reflect upon and anticipate what he will develop throughout the whole chapter.

The purpose of this book is for teachers to learn how to enjoy learning even more passionately than they do now.  As Murphy describes “Teachers can be happier when they welcome new opportunities around them and willingly take healthy risks that will challenge and thrill the mind and body” ( p. 5).  The author asserts that the information in this book can change your life when you choose to use it and improve yourself. Not only does he politely suggest the reader to use the information he provides, but he also challenges his audience to experiment with it, and risk finding more joy in learning.

Murphy (2006) confessed that he has written this book with “[his] students in mind” (p.4). He has used much feedback from them in the writing process. He asserted that the ideas and activities originated from his experiments with students on Alternative Learning Forms, Interaction and Language Acquisition, and Neuro Linguistic Programming. Various editions of Language Hungry have been used by teachers and learners in Switzerland, Finland, China, Thailand, New Zealand, and Japan. Many of the chapters were first published in a popular Japanese magazine.

The different ideas from this book are numerous. However, Murphy`s (2006) innovative and explorative work would have been more successful among Eastern countries if it had contained a more complete guide on how to use these activities with larger classes.  On the whole, it is  merely advisable to read this book which stimulates passion for learning making the reader hungry for language!

References

Murphy, T. New Edition: (2006)  Language Hungry! An Introduction to Language Learning Fun and Self-Esteem. Helbling Languages.