Victory for Translation and Motivation in the ESU Book Awards 2014

We’re very proud to announce that the English-Speaking Union’s HRH The Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Awards has awarded Best Entry for Teachers to Philip Kerr’s Translation and Own-language Activities.

Translation and Own-language Activities is one of the latest additions to the popular Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series, edited by the celebrated Scott Thornbury. It tackles a controversial subject in a practical way, providing effective ways of integrating carefully chosen activities into language classrooms.

Since 1971, the ESU awards have recognised the best book published each year in the field of English language teaching and learning and this is not the first time the Cambridge Handbooks series has seen success. Jim Scrivener’s Classroom Management Techniques (2012) and Graham Stanley’s Language Learning with Technology (2013) were previous winners, so with Translation and Own-language Activities in 2014, it’s a hat-trick of prestigious awards for Cambridge.

The ESU had this to say about Philip Kerr’s winning book:

“A very useful resource for contrasted analysis in the ELT world, this publication contains up-to-date research on an important topic. Well written and authoritative, this is a much-needed teacher development book for all English language teachers, with activities which cover a wide variety of teaching contexts.”

We are also delighted that Motivating Learners, Motivating Teachers by Zoltán Dörnyei and Magdalena Kubanyiova, was ‘Highly Commended’ in the same awards. This is the latest in the well-respected Cambridge Language Teaching Library series. The authors couple methodical research analysis with practical techniques to promote the idea of ‘vision’ in language teaching and learning. The ESU judges said of this book:

“This is an interesting entry to aid teachers and learners alike. There are many engaging ideas and techniques in this book and the content shows a great combination of perspectives, woven together well. This entry addresses an issue which is of key importance to teachers and learners of language across the world and will be useful to many.”

The awards ceremony will be taking place in London in February 2015.

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