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[fluffyhamster]

Sometimes I've bought second copies of books that I hadn't packed (usually due to luggage constraints) for my ELT travels. I thought it would be interesting to make a list of our ELT-related repeat purchases, as it might be revealing of "must-have" titles.

Some of my choices are obviously staffroom staples, standard reference works, and are usually good to get the latest editions of, but there are a few that are less widely used or known.

Here goes:

Berk's English Syntax: From Word to Discourse (sort of like a concise version of The Grammar Book's findings, not that it can quite substitute for it. Informative historically, and well-written)

Cambridge International Dictionary of English (I bought this before getting into ELT, and then sold it. Years later it was re-released with a CD-ROM, so I bought another copy, as by that point I'd become much more interested in learner dictionaries. The CIDE wasn't the best ALD around, but the paper edition was well-produced and had many features and panels lacking in the subsequent CALD, though the CALD's CD-ROM is superior. One feature of both CD-ROM versions is the Smart Thesaurus, but you can get that now in the free online version [scroll down to the 'Browse related phrases' section]: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/go-fly-a-kite )

Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman's The Grammar Book, Second edition (just a nice reference to have generally, but especially for its treatment of discourse factors)

Chalker & Weiner's Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (old copy had acidic paper that was turning a little too brown. Usually my first port of call for not only grammar/syntax terms, but also those from phonetics, morphology, and linguistics generally)

Collins COBUILD English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (but not past the Third edition, as later editions became somewhat selective and flawed)

Collins COBUILD English Grammar (the first and still overall the most useful grammar publication from COBUILD)

Cook's Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (full of interesting little details. My copies were of the Third edition, but it's now in a Fourth. Amazon review: http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RO0O4Z9JW8NRB/ )

Eastwood's Oxford Guide to English Grammar (similar in style to Swan's PEU, below, but arranged in chapters for form classes, rather than in the "quick access" A-Z entry format that Swan employs)

Leech's Meaning and the English Verb, and Leech et al's English Grammar for Today (the Third and Second editions respectively of these works are genuine revisions/updatings. The former is a detailed work that nicely complements Lewis, below, while the latter is a reasonably gentle course mainly in parsing)

Lewis' The English Verb (though I may also have bought his The Lexical Approach more than once LOL)

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English+CD-ROM (wasn't able to afford past the 4th edition, but one of the best ALDs around)

Longman Language Activator (essentially a somewhat selective thesaurus, but far more detailed and inclusive, esp. of speech, than conventional thesauruses are)

Macmillan English Dictionary+CD-ROM (but only the First edition, as in the Second the sense divisions proliferated a bit unnecessarily. Good for illustrating beforehand and whenever necessary the differing parts of speech an item may belong to, and its functional definitions/explanations in general. Also contains some interesting sections on topics such as phrasal verbs, academic writing/composition, metaphor, British versus American English, pragmatics, and spoken discourse markers)

Murphy's Basic/Essential Grammar in Use (useful for ensuring essentials are covered, and for setting remedial homework if need be. Local bilingualized editions are often available)

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary+CD-ROM (have updated as far as the 7th edition, though it's now in an 8th. It seems like the paper edition's sole revision was the new foreword by Henry Widdowson, and his insistence that it include some Indian usages such as 'prepone' [cf. postpone]. Previously, the 6th's print version was a great improvement on the 5th, but its CD-ROM was pathetic! I didn't ever buy the 5th, as it was clearly lagging behind all the other ALDs released in 1995, most notably the LDOCE3)

Oxford Collocations Dictionary (there is no better way of establishing sense divisions beyond doubt than looking at their collocations. Obviously useful for students who have to write a fair amount of English. The latest edition comes with a CD-ROM)

Oxford Paperback Thesaurus (essentially a budget version of the COT. About the best thesaurus available, certainly given the low-end price)

Sampson's The 'Language Instinct' Debate (the perfect antidote to Chomsky and his followers' quite possibly over-complicated theories)

Schmitt's Vocabulary in Language Teaching (one of the most readable, interesting and useful single-author surveys on the area)

Schmitt & McCarthy's Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy (a very interesting and useful collection of papers, probably my fave book on vocab and lexis)

Seidlhofer's Controversies in Applied Linguistics (a very good primer for deciding, amongst other things, what one believes constitutes "real English". For example, what place do "non-native" varieties, invented or adapted as opposed to genuine data, and perhaps too formal or limited second-language acquisition studies have in informing language teaching?)

Swan's Practical English Usage (just the Second edition, not yet upgraded to the Third. Generally useful, but I often consult it more just to see what other teachers are alluding to than for my own purposes)


Then there are a few books that I probably needn't have bought let alone got new editions of, for example Leech & Svartvik's A Communicative Grammar of English (from Second to Third editions).

[teacheratlarge]

I have actually given away or sold many books that I used to have.

Swan's Practical English Usage and a few learner dictionaries are the few that i have retained. A lot of information is available on the net now, so I'm not sure I need 'paper' copies and I am not in the habit of toting around an e-book reader as yet.

[Chancellor]

Any books I have that are ESL-related are all on my Kindle Fire. I really don't have much in the way of printed books.