A Japanese businesswoman taking TOEFL preparation classes at a U.S. intensive English program becomes gravely ill with stress over the test. A group of oral communication students request that their obstinate Italian classmate be removed from their project team. A new composition teacher is frustrated when a colleague refuses to end his class on time or erase the blackboards before leaving the room. These are among the 40 cases of professional dilemmas described in this useful book for new teachers of adult second language learners.

Business and law students thrive on discussing case studies, brief stories that capture a critical incident without an obvious solution. Now there is finally a book of case studies for students of TESOL, reflecting the distinct concerns of teaching adult learners of English in North American institutions. These stories require readers to draw on their broader understanding of intercultural communication, U.S. academic norms, and ethical practices in discussing potential resolutions to the problems.

Each case is told as a narrative, naming the student and teacher participants and relating the incident in detail up to the point where it requires a resolution. A series of discussion questions follows the story, asking readers to reflect on aspects of the case and how it could be resolved. The next section of each chapter briefly describes two or three different but related cases that present similar dilemmas. Further discussion questions ask readers to reflect on broader issues represented by the set of cases taken together. Next, several activities are proposed to deepen novice teachers’ understanding of the chapter’s cultural or professional issue focus, followed by several recommended book and article readings. Each chapter concludes with a narrative possible resolution to the initial case.

These cases are appropriate for use in TESOL teacher preparation programs with students at the undergraduate, graduate, or certificate level. They would make good fodder for discussion at in-service workshops for more experienced teachers as well. Individual teachers can also benefit from reflecting on the discussion questions, particularly if they have had similar dilemmas in their own work. One way to access the material in a group discussion would be through role-playing the featured cases, taking on the parts of the participants and dramatizing the scenarios to make the issues more immediate. Students could also share their findings from further research activities through presentations for the classmates or at local conferences.

As a teacher educator, I was impressed by the book’s primary focus on the range of real-world situations language teachers face, often in situations beyond the North American university setting. The authors explain that the cases are based on true stories that they have experienced or heard about during their extensive teaching careers. The students and teachers seem like real people in real classrooms. Though the settings represented vary from intensive English programs to community college and universities to community adult schools, the issues are often universal to adult newcomer language learners in any of these settings in the United States or Canada—and are relevant to language programs in other countries as well. Many cases show professional situations that usually are not central to language teaching methodology courses in graduate school, for example, grading students fairly whose parents have made financial contributions to the university, or addressing uncooperative colleagues. The discussion questions are carefully worded to ensure that novice teachers can connect the specific cases to knowledge gained from observations and coursework, regardless of prior teaching experience.

The design of the chapters contributes to the value of this book in developing a sense of the nuances inherent in ethical teaching. As mentioned before, each scenario describes a specific case in detail and is followed by shorter descriptions of related cases that may elicit different responses. For example, Case 6 narrates the story of an advanced oral communications class where one student refuses to participate. The extension scenarios present cases of a husband and wife in the same class, an overly talkative student, and a student who relies on his friend to translate. The reflection questions ask readers to weigh the pros and cons of various aspects of class participation, including cultural differences and nonverbal participation.

The primary drawback of this book is that the focus is mainly on university-level students in intensive English programs and college classes. Although many TESOL students do plan careers in North American college settings, others want to work internationally or teach other populations of learners. Future books of case studies for TESOL teacher development could focus on other contexts where new teachers may work: K–12 schools, adult community schools, or international settings. Similarly, the focus is much more on cultural and personal issues that teachers might face—what the authors call “issues that go beyond the curriculum” (p. xi). It would be useful to have a companion book focused on the dilemmas of teaching language and content, such as how to balance responding to student writing with teaching students how to self-edit. This book would make a perfect supplement to any TESOL teacher education program and also deserves a place on the reference shelf in all language program resource rooms. I hope that the authors consider writing companion volumes addressing the related issues and contexts noted above.

Betsy Gilliland is an assistant professor in the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She has taught English classes in the United States and Central Asia since 1996. Her research interests are in second language writing and adolescent literacy.