Job Discussion Forums

OzBurn · Joined: 03 May 2004 Posts: 199

What textbook series does English Time use at its schools in Istanbul? My understanding is that it is an American series and is highly structured. Is this true? If you used this series, what did you think of it?

Thank you for any information you might be able to provide.

naive · Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 4

they use the crap interchange for lower levels and a way more crap US book called mosaic, for higher levels.
yes, they are trying to highly structure their course, but most of them out there wouldn't have a clue.
pretend you're using the mosaic books, at level 4 upward and just find your own cool way to teach, coz the mosaic books are dog boring.
good luck!!!

OzBurn · Joined: 03 May 2004 Posts: 199

Thanks for the information. What was bad about Interchange and Mosaic? I mean, aside from the fact that you found them boring? Were they poorly structured? Ineffective?

The best English series I have seen is the Lado series, which is almost impossible to get nowadays; but I think most people would think it is boring (it is, somewhat, but it does work -- does do what it is supposed to do). The TEFL books I have looked at seem all to be imitating each other. All of them use huge chunk sizes and cute color pictures and lots of interesting topics and zingy magazine articles with lots of near-useless vocabulary. But it is hard for me to imagine any of them being effective.

naive · Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 4

mosaic is very cluttered and the grammar topics are not so well thought out in terms of when they appear in the book.
also extremely boring readings for the most part with way difficult vocab. ok we want them to learn new vocab but how much can they take in from a single reading?!!! the transition from interchange is also very severe coz interchange is quite easy (and i guess no worse than other books, big pictures and very little explanation of the grammar, they hope you learn by the two sentences they give you as example and if you're a shit teacher who doesn't know how to explain stuff from their own knowledge, good luck). then they hop up to mosaic for level 4 with all the crap topics and new vocab and they're lost unless the teacher is very selective. that's about it, i guess, sorry it was so long!!!

OzBurn · Joined: 03 May 2004 Posts: 199

Thanks. That was actually concise. Too bad, though; this is just the kind of thing that I have seen with all the other textbooks -- largely unimportant vocabulary in insufferably large chunks, insufficient (and poorly chosen or constructed) examples, and indigestably large leaps from one level to the next. You would think that with the fifty or more EFL textbooks in print, someone would design a good series. But I am not sure it would sell, if someone did. The market too often seems to suck up the garbage and reject whatever is well-designed and realistic.

naive · Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 4

have often thought that. but the betty azar books they provide there are great for grammar. they give fairly concise explanations and have extra exercises you can photo copy for students. the rest are shite, but can easily be worked around if you do a little prep.

OzBurn · Joined: 03 May 2004 Posts: 199

I agree. Azar is the best I have seen, and I have been looking for quite a while.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Murphy over Azar anyday

johnslat · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 12:26 pm Post subject:

Despite my Irish ancestry, I have to cast my vote for Azar over Murphy.
Regards,
John

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

My 2 cents: Azar is a way better grammar, but I prefer Murphy in the classroom because the explanations and exercises are on different pages. Which means you can hand out the exercises, then a key when they're finished, then the explanation page to let them figure out their mistakes, which lessens the number of questions at the end, and makes the questions less inane. Plus, it gives them the pure joy and satisfaction that comes from filling in blanks while tricking them into some form of autonomy.

irieteacher · Joined: 29 Apr 2004 Posts: 30

I've found the Interchange to be pretty decent books.

Not as boring as Enterprise but not as cool as the Cutting Edge series.

Et prefers the Interchange series becz they belive the others have been used to death by other schools and therefore many students know them already when they come to ET.

Mosiac books have some good topics but too much info is stuffed into the students in a short space of time....frustrating the teachers and students.

Yep Azar will augement your classes well at all levels...don't leave home without it... Smile

Irie teacher