A list of texts and resource materials for language teachers is available for book reviews in TLT and JALT Journal. If none of the titles we have listed appeal to you or are not suitable for your teaching context, please feel free to contact us to suggest alternate titles. We invite publishers to submit complete sets of materials to Julie Kimura at the Publishers’ Review Copies Liaison postal address listed under Editors on the inside cover of The Language Teacher.
* = new listing; ! = final notice—Final notice items will be removed on February 28. Please make queries by email to the appropriate JALT Publications contact.
Books for Students (reviews published in TLT)
Contact: Julie Kimura—jaltpubs.tlt.pub.review@jalt.org
-
English communication for nursing—Zeff, B. B. Seed Learning, 2024. [This eight-unit coursebook has been designed to help nurses communicate effectively with English-speaking patients. Learners are provided with an essential foundation for communicating in the healthcare setting. The book features vocabulary and expressions, realistic dialogues, cultural tips, and practice activities. This coursebook can be used as stand-alone material or with a series of online videos that can help to enhance listening skills.]
-
Everyday science and technology: News you can use—Knudsen, J. (Annot. Y. Satake). Nan’un-do, 2024. [Science and technology make front-page news every day. The readings in this coursebook are presented in technical, yet accessible language. Twenty need-to-know topics offer readers a look at great discoveries, key breakthroughs, and game-changing innovations. The subtitle, News You Can Use, reflects the hope that the book will provide a go-to manual for navigating through this exciting yet perplexing moment in history. A teacher’s manual, an audio CD, and a review test are available.]
-
! Our world: How technology will change our lives tomorrow—Murray, A., & Passos, A. Nan’un-do, 2024. [The 15 units of this coursebook are designed so that students can hone all four skills in an engaged and meaningful way. A CLIL approach introduces technologies that foster progress towards SDG goals. This second book in the series places a greater emphasis on critical thinking by introducing case studies that can be used for small group discussions and debates. Audio files are available for students to download, and a manual is available for teachers.]
-
* Summer at Cinnamon Beach: English literature in the classroom (Vol. 2)—Kamata, S. Asahi Press, 2025. [This literature-based coursebook is suitable for learners in the CEFR B1 range and higher. The story follows a deaf bicultural Japanese teenager spending the summer abroad and explores themes of communication and identity through accessible and graded English. Each unit includes comprehension and discussion tasks, vocabulary support, and online audio recordings for listening practice. There is also a teacher’s manual available.]
-
What should every EFL teacher know?—Nation, P. (2nd ed.). Compass Publishing, 2024. [This practical book covers the most important information that an EFL teacher should know. It focuses on issues including teaching the four skills, pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, and how to design classes and courses. Nation also proposes ideas on dealing with problems such as large classes, classes of mixed proficiency, and classroom management issues.]
-
Teaching and learning English in Japanese classrooms: Teachers’ perspectives—Elliott, D. (Ed.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023. [This edited volume shows how ELT professionals in Japan have explored questions and issues that have affected both them and their students in the language learning process. Although contributors are working in Japan, classroom practitioners from the wider international language teaching community can benefit from the practical approaches and accessible descriptions of research. A secondary audience of administrators and teacher trainers will find value in chapters that outline the ways in which to foster an environment conducive to practitioner research.]
Books for Teachers (reviews published in JALT Journal)
Contact: Melodie Cook—jjreviews@jalt-publications.org
-
Children’s additional language learning in instructional settings: Implications for teaching and future research—Butler, Y. G. Multilingual Matters, 2025. [This new title provides an overview of young learners’ language in pre-primary and primary education. It collates current research on language development and pedagogy among children learning an additional language in instructional settings. The book promotes a learner-centered approach to research and encourages critical reflection on how best to conduct research.]
-
Constructing, reconstructing, and reclaiming learner identities: Academically successful 1.5 generation Filipino students in Japan—Motohashi, E. P. Multilingual Matters, 2025. [This book focuses on the experiences of 1.5 generation Filipinos in Japan, charting their life histories and education in the Philippines and Japan. Against a background of transnational migrations between both countries this study looks at immigrant /non-Japanese students of varying proficiencies studying Japanese as a second language with varying educational support in Japanese schools. The author uses a narrative/life history approach to consider how the participants used their educational histories and learner identities as intangible resources upon which they drew to overcome structural and cultural differences in the environments they encountered.]
-
Language teacher emotion and regulation: An exploration in Japan—Morris, S. Multilingual Matters, 2025. [This book helps us understand how language teachers regulate and use their emotions to best serve themselves and their students. It advances research in the field by providing an in-depth theoretical discussion of emotion regulation in the Japanese context. The book primarily focuses on strategies language teachers employ to regulate their own emotions, motives that help to regulate such emotions, and various contextual factors that shape their decisions.]
-
! Navigating English Policy and Practice in Japan’s Primary Schools—Ferguson, P. Multilingual Matters, 2025. [In this book, the author investigates recent changes in language education policy and how EFL is being implemented in Japanese public elementary schools. Through interviews with policymakers, school principals, and elementary school teachers, he examines the challenges in creating, transmitting, and applying this new language policy. This book will be of interest to researchers of language policy and planning, second language acquisition, and second language teacher education.]
