Language teaching is value-laden and based on theories about language and learning. Textbook blurbs are an important site for the visibility of the theories-in-use of the teaching community. However, little research has been done on this site to identify aspects of pedagogy considered particularly important in ELT. A content analysis was made of a corpus of back cover blurbs of textbooks which were best sellers in Auckland, New Zealand, 1998. Results indicated that the ELT community value practical solutions in preference to theoretical rationalisation, 'buy into' techniques and practices derived from a cognitive theory of language learning and view language as at core a set of grammatical structures.
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