Contextualizing College ESL Classroom Praxis: A Participatory Approach to Effective Instruction

"...an important contribution to the ongoing discussion on what constitutes effective English as a second language (ESL) teaching practices...Berlin's effective instruction model and participatory framework compel ESL teachers to reflect on and re-examine their perspective on the roles and functions of teachers, students, and the language classroom....this book provides language teacher educators with a valuable supplement to the more traditional texts found in ESL methodology and practicum courses."
―TESL-EJ, September 2006, Vol. 10, No. 2

"The voices of the teachers and learners are rich....The approach is inspiring, and can leave readers with will for reflection, an awareness of the complexities of a living multicultural classroom, and with a motivation to embrace and encourage the co-construction of knowledge in a language learning environment."
―Mary E. Wildner-Bassett, University of Arizona

"Berlin guides the reader into a fully developed understanding of what it means to be engaged in a participatory approach to language learning. This approach, based on the combined principles of Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy and communicative language teaching, is more than a method, and more than an approach. It is an entirely new way to view the roles of teacher and students together....After reading this book, to become participatory on one's classroom becomes a haunting responsibility, if one claims at all to be democratic, a believer in social justice, or one who simply recognizes the uniqueness of each individual as a learner."
―Lorrie S. Verplaetse, Southern Connecticut State University