Job Discussion Forums

[Salam]

Hello all.

I'm in Indonesia and have been put in charge of English development at an Islamic School here that wants to reach international level. The problem now is that the books I have selected for Junior High School (Energy, by Longman) and Senior High School (Headway, OUP) have been deemed by the staff as "too sexy".

I was wondering what English text books you are using in Saudi. Being the stricter Muslim country that it is, do you have special books there? Any publishers I can look at? All assistance appreciated.

Thanks.

[Cleopatra]

Actually, Headway is quite widely used in KSA, and is freely available in bookshops such as JArir.

When I've used the books, I was told just to skip bits that might be considered offensive - anything about alcohol, boyfriends, you know yourself what's not on. Some schools go so far as to get their students to black out any pictures of wine glasses or women who are less than 'modestly' dressed, but that depends on the employer's policy.

[Neil McBeath]

OUP are currently preparing a Middle East edition of Headway, so you might want to look at that.

There's also a Prentice Hall book called Tapestry (again available in a Middle East edition) where the girls are all in hijab and there's a lot less emphasis on the usual "I go shopping/like music/watch football" stuff that passes for General English.

I happen to think that this approach is quite valuable in itself - therre's less triviality - but an ex-colleague in Oman wouldn't agree. She believed that a passage about shopping in Asda was "aspirational", it got students "away from the daily grind".

[Wigwam]

Try Garnet Press
Skills in English
Published and piloted in the UAE so it is considered appropriate for ME

Don't use Headway as it is far too volatile and would be considered quite offensive by many moderate muslims in KSA

The new Academic Headway series is being written but unlikely to be ready before december.

Try using IELTS preparation books for the upper levels as these teach the academic skills and do not touch sensitive issues

The British Council uses Cutting Edge