EVALUATING SECOND LANGUAGE EDUCATION Evaluating Second Language Education

Evaluating Second Language Education is written primarily for language teaching professionals who are likely to work as (or with) evaluators of language teaching programmes. The book presents a short editorial introduction, opening and closing chapters by one of the editors, and eight `state-of-the-art' evaluation studies, each with an editorial commentary. In the opening chapter, `Evaluation of Language Education : An Overview', Alan Beretta contrasts the lack of attention given to evaluation studies in language programmes with the wealth of work in other areas of education . Charles Alderson's closing chapter, `Guidelines for the Evaluation of Language Education', attempts without prescriptivism to systematise practical issues that will arise during an evaluation . The book as a whole offers reflective experience as a way to "contribute to an understanding of the discipline of evaluating second language education" (Editors' introduction, p.2) .