Reseña: Reflective Language Teaching: Practical Applications for TESOL Teachers. Thomas S. C. Farrell (2018). Bloomsbury Publishing. 292 pages. ISBN: 9781350021365 and 978-1350021358

Ceyhun yukselir Reflective Language Teaching... 239 Reflective Language Teaching: Practical Applications for TESOL Teachers. Thomas S. C. Farrell (2018). Bloomsbury Publishing. 292 pages. ISBN: 9781350021365 and 978-1350021358 Ceyhun yukselir Osmaniye Korkut Ata University (Turkey) There is a growing interest in teachers’ professional growth to see how they shape their teaching, learning and reflect their real classroom experiences throughout their academic careers. It is also noteworthy to state that reflection and reflective practise are indispensable parts of language teacher education and teacher development programs. The theoretical framework of reflective inquiry / reflective practice dates back to John Dewey’s work (1933) entitled “How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process” and Donald Schön’s work “The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action”. The writer of this book, Thomas S. C. Farrell, was influenced from their ideas about reflective practise in line with his statements: “I am attracted to their work because they were very pragmatic in their approaches so that they could help practising teachers on the frontlines rather than academics… (p. 3)” (see Farrell, 2014). Like Dewey, Farrell also believes that reflective practise is a systematic inquiry or evidence-based reflective inquiry, in which teachers examine, analyze and take responsibility to shape their classroom practices. He also touches upon Schön’s ideas, reflective-in-action and reflective-on-action and contributes to the field by adding reflection-for-action, which gives a new dimension for reflective language teaching (see Farrell, 2004). This quite recent second edition volume was originally published in 2007, “Reflective Language Teaching: From Research to Practice”. In this revised version, there are 16 Chapters in total, respectively, called as; Reflective Language Teaching (Chapter 1), Self-Reflection (Chapter 2), Teacher Beliefs and Practices (Chapter 3), Teacher Narrative (Chapter 4), Teacher Metaphors and Maxims (Chapter 5), Classroom Communication (Chapter 6), Reflecting on Teaching Young Learners (Chapter 7), Action Research (Chapter 8), Teaching Journals (Chapter 9), Teacher Development Groups (Chapter 10), Classroom Observations (Chapter 11), Collegial Friendships (Chapter 12), Concept Mapping (Chapter 13), Online Reflection (Chapter 14), Professional Development Through Reflective Practice (Chapter 15), and The Importance of Reflective Practice for Effective Teaching (Chapter 16). As opposed to the previous version of this book, this second edition offers two new chapters (Chapter 7 and Chapter 14) and also the author changed one title of the chapter, Critical Friendships into Collegial Friendships. 240 Porta Linguarum Nº 34, junio 2020 There are some new concerns and subheadings in this book. First, the author starts with an introduction part in each chapter and finalizes with chapter scenario and reflection parts, showing the writer’s attempt to make the reader think through questions. Except for two chapters (1, 16), the author gives case studies based on the writer’s own teaching experiences and suggests practical applications for TESOL teachers, which can be deemed as distinctive features. Chapter 1 outlines the origins, definitions and types of reflective teaching along with levels of reflection by discriminating reflective teaching from professional development, in that this former top-down approach is based on the applications of the research as a framework for teaching and transmission of knowledge. Chapter 2 discusses self-reflection through stories and puts emphasis on compiling and reviewing a teaching portfolio by reflecting some critical incidences in the writer’s career. Chapter 3,4,5 attempt to map out teachers’ beliefs, ideas, maxims and metaphors regarding the notion of reflective language teaching and show how to reflect their classroom practices through case studies. Chapters 6-13 highlight ways of conducting reflective practices ranging from classroom communication, action research to classroom observations and concept mapping. These chapters also contribute to teacher education field providing tools and case studies for teachers, trainers and teacher educators. Chapter 14, Online Reflection, addresses the technological issues and applications of reflective practices through online tools, web blogs, chats etc. in order to facilitate reflections for language teachers. Chapter 15 is devoted to giving information about teacher’s professional development through reflective activities such as conducting an action research, teaching journals, peer observation and developing a teacher portfolio etc. The final chapter touches upon the critical competencies for effective teaching rather the dichotomy of distinction between native speaker teacher and non-native speaker teachers’ language proficiencies in TESOL, which created some discussions in the first edition of this book. All in all, this priceless book contributes to TESOL field with lots of grounded ways and facilitates teachers’ reflective journeys with authentic reflective practices and case studies based on the writer’s own teaching experiences. Besides, touching on teacher professional growth in line with reflective activities puts this valuable book into an important place for teaching professionals. RefeRences Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. Houghton-Mifflin. Farrell, T. S. C. (2004). Reflective practice in action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Farrell, T. S. C. (2007). Reflective language teaching: From research to practice. Continuum Press. Farrell, T. S. C. (2012). Reflecting on reflective practice: (Re)Visiting Dewey and Schön. TESOL Journal, 3(1), 7-16. Farrell, T. S. C. (2014). Promoting teacher reflection in second language education: A framework for TESOL professionals. Routledge. Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.