Job Discussion Forums

[TexasHighway]

I was wondering if anyone has any textbook recommendations for Oral English university freshmen and sophomore classes? We have been using the Communication Strategies series but it is hopelessly out of date and now out of print and hard to get. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Foo_Fighters_Dave]

I always liked the English Firsthand Series.

[Greg 09]

"Oral English" and "Textbook" have always seemed to be an oxymoron for me. When my school has tried to push a textbook on me I've only agreed to take some of the ideas and adapt them to my lessons.

The Chinese teachers do reading, writing and grammar and I only will address those disciplines in emergency cases where correction is needed. I suppose a textbook could be good for lesson ideas or plans, but wtf, who needs a book to suggest speaking topics?

Seems to me Oral English is speaking, or talking, or speaking, or conversation, or speaking, or one of the more Oral types of communication like speaking. In other words, Oral English. Why do you need a book? You need lesson topics? I'll give you a hundred.

I don't care how well my students can read or write, its not my job. I explain the lesson and they speak. Its listening and speaking. I want my students talking, a lot, the more the better. I want them to understand what I say and then respond. I'll work on their speaking skills as I'm supposed to be.

Create your own lessons that address what they most need to talk about, including daily life or their college major. I teach mostly business students so I do lot of that.

Books are a bother, and I've yet to see a good one for our purposes.

Just my opinion Tex.

[teenoso]

Yes I agree, almost all the textbooks I have seen for speaking are useless, especially the ones published in China - out of date, inappropriate vocabulary and peculiar topics.
But I did use one series published by Cambridge Univ Press, (or possibly the other one ), which was useful if you skipped to the interesting topics and chapters. They were well-graded according to the level of the students.

Ordinary public colleges may not be willing to pay for this kind of textbook, and
I am sure the dean or someone always gets a backhand payment for the terrible china -published textbooks they do order.

A good textbook can save an awful lot of handouts, which I tend to rely on for vocabulary, and for the lesson tasks/running order.

[Non Sequitur]

The biggie for me is dialogues that are sufficiently long for teacher to get a handle on the standard being achieved. Many (as New Interchange) aren't long enough to warrant students getting out of their seats.

[Greg 09]

Write your own dialogues! And give them specific guidelines for role plays. They are often good at this if you're very clear about your instructions.

One of my most amazing lessons is requiring them to write their own role plays in groups of 2-6 and making it mandatory that they incorporate conflict and resolution. I do this after lessons with them performing role plays that I wrote. Its always amazing.

[Osiry]

I've been really enjoying Pathways. The content is a bit more interesting than most.