Job Discussion Forums

[Englishpal]

I just finished my first term teaching here and found it to be a little challenging, not at all what I was expecting. I am hoping to come across some teaching book that I can use for lesson plans. Are there any out there that could be recommended? I might be teaching 3 year diploma students again, and need to get something mailed to help.

[doogsville]

Can you give us a little more information? When you say 3 year, do you mean third year students? What exactly are you teaching them, oral English, business English, listening and speaking? Also, when you say a teaching book you can use of lesson plans, do you mean a textbook or a book about teaching and how to build lesson plans?

[Englishpal]

The students that I taught were freshman, not English majors, working towards a 3 year diploma. I only taught listening and speaking classes. I am bracing myself for having these students again, and hoping that there might be some textbook I can use through the semester.

Perhaps there might be some textbooks that could be recommended for standard oral English classes?

[GeminiTiger]

I'm wondering if your asking for a resource or reference material instead of an actual textbook to be ordered and distributed amongst the students. I've never heard of a school allowing a foreign teacher to pick a textbook. A clarification will settle my curiosity and allow people to give better suggestions.

[roadwalker]

In addition to the questions already asked: are the speaking and listening classes separate classes or one class called "speaking and listening"? And what kind of classroom is it and what is provided? That is, do the students sit at computer cubicles or at regular desks? Chalkboard or computer/projector?

Most of the Chinese textbooks are terrible but can be used as a list of topics. Textbooks from western publishers have good English but often are not culturally relevant to Chinese students. Most teachers who post on these forums seem to mention using additional materials either from outside sources or self-made to supplement or replace the provided textbooks (when provided).

Edit: I reread your OP and realized you are asking for additional materials for that very purpose. It really depends on the classes themselves. I sometimes use the book and spend a couple minutes having the students correct errors in the text or dialogues, and sometimes use alternative texts from the internets, and sometimes write my own dialogs to replace the worst offenders. With more details, perhaps other posters will have specific textbooks to recommend.

[Non Sequitur]

If you are teaching 2x45 min classes together (with 10 min break) you need to do something different in the 2nd 45.
Ideally you need a class resource rather than something you yourself purchase.
Take your Chinese supervisor to a biggish Tsinghua outlet and there will be Chinese-published dialogue books. Dreadful mangled English sometimes. However, these will do for the 1st 45 and as mentioned, you need something more active after the break.
I take it the students have no set resource currently?
I use commercial downloads (around US$10 per set) which if printed on light card last several semesters and which are ideal for the 2nd 45 mins.
Another factor in choosing a resource ie a book of dialogues, is creating a situation that allows you to mark performance. No matter how cute little discussion groups appear, the only student you actually hear speak is the most able student in each group.
PM me if you need a link to the downloads.
I totally appreciate your feelings after one semester. It does get better..

[Englishpal]

The classes (2 hours each with about a 10 min. break) I taught were supposed to have equal parts of listening and speaking. There were some textbooks available for me to use, and copy from for students if I desired. I found that the students were less than interested in the material found within.

I do not think I will teach listening and speaking again, but fear that I will have the same group of students. Perhaps they fear that they will have the same teacher! The cohort is infamous for being more difficult than the normal Chinese Uni. group of students. This was attributed to them being non-degree students and freshman. Regardless, I am hoping to find some text books that I might use for constructing lesson plans, or better to teach directly from.

[Songbird]

You could try the New Interchange series, they have a mix of speaking/ listening exercises and have 4 different levels of books. You can adapt activities as needed (as I have done) but they're not bad for a base.

[Non Sequitur]

[Zhejiang_Man]

Think about this analogy:-

You have been employed by a company to work as the cook in the staff canteen. The company is expecting you to serve meals that will achieve an overall 10% reduction in body fat for the group as a whole.

Some, maybe most, of the employees are not overly enthusiastic about achieving a 10% reduction in body fat but they all expect to be served varied, palatable meals.

The canteen kitchen has a limited variety of ingredients for you to use but you do have some scope to source your own ingredients.

You could try to find a single recipe book that you can use meal after meal after meal or you could search the internet for individual recipes from the innumerable cooking and cuisine websites.

Not all of the recipes you try will be well-received but for the ones that do go down well, put them in a scrap book.

If you remain in the industry long enough you're likely to put together 3, 4, 5 or more scrap books which you'll be able to categories into different levels.

Eventually, you'll reach a point whereby you'll never have to worry about menu planning again. You'll have a collection of tried and tested recipes that you can deliver to any group at a moment's notice.

So, start searching among the myriad of ESL / EFL websites for free, downloadable, individual lessons - food, transport, time, weather, holidays, inventions, careers, pastimes, etc, etc, and watch as your students develop respect and attentiveness towards you.

[Non Sequitur]

Good advice.
But don't run dialogues at them for 2 hours.
The 2nd hour should be completely different. Almost a reward for diligence in the first hour.

[doogsville]

The Internet is the ultimate textbook. It allows you to pick and choose to suit both your students and yourself. There's a ton of information out there. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but it sounds a little like you want a textbook for safety, to give you confidence in the material. That's okay, but you still need to present the material in a way that engages the students. In my experience it's actually easier to be confident in material you've selected for yourself. Textbooks can make planning quicker, but not necessarily easier, especially if you want the students to engage with the class. Choosing your own material also allows you a flexibility that textbooks don't. You can expand on things that work well, and drop things that don't. As Zhejiang_Man points out, it takes a little more time at the beginning, but it saves time in the long run as you have the opportunity to use the material again and again.

[Non Sequitur]