Job Discussion Forums

ebooktrial0001 · Joined: 02 Jan 2014 Posts: 156

We are using English File at my school and I feel it's effective.

What do you guys think?

Shroob · Joined: 02 Aug 2010 Posts: 1339

There's not a 'best' coursebook. Materials themselves aren't intrinsically 'good' or 'bad', it's how they are used with a group of learners. One coursebook may be brilliant for one class, but terrible for another.

ebooktrial0001 · Joined: 02 Jan 2014 Posts: 156

Any other ideas on curriculum design?

golsa · Joined: 20 Nov 2011 Posts: 185

I'm a big fan of English File and also use Face2Face and New Total English. New Cutting Edge is also pretty good and it's probably the only major series on the market that has a pre-made TBL lesson for each chapter, which is nice if TBL is your thing. Speak Out! is also becoming popular recently. New Opportunities is also OK. I found English File, Face2Face, (New) Total English, and (New) Opportunities good enough to buy the entire sets for my personal collection.

As I've developed as a teacher, I've learned to rely less and less on books, but still use them for the backbone of courses. The nice thing about having 2-3 sets in your personal collection is that you can pick and choose materials that will best suit your students instead of forcing them to work through only one book.

Can anyone recommend decent books for age 10-12 learners? I'm not an expert in this group, but may teach them in the future and it would be nice to have a few resources to fall back on.