Job Discussion Forums

[Firestarter]

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for texts geared toward low-level learners, preferably with Japanese translation. Conversational texts are best, but anything with activities, role-plays, dialogues, etc., would work well.

Thanks!!

[bluefrog]

This isn't exactly what you were looking for but I've used these lesson plans for a few of my private students. It's pretty basic stuff.

http://www.onlinetutoringworld.com/lessonplans/index.htm

[JimDunlop2]

I suppose that everyone is going to have their favourites so there's really no right or wrong answer here. However, having Japanese translations may be a little counterintuitive, a little bit like "Japanese for Busy People" which attempts to teach Japanese in English, versus "Minna no nihongo" which gets the students accustomed to reading everything in Japanese and using all aspects of it right away. So, I'd say that unless your students really need that extra crutch, don't introduce any bad habits you may have to break later.

As far as what to choose, the best person to judge that is YOU. If you like, here is a link to some of the OUP (Oxford) materials. I'm usually very happy with their materials, but I'm especially a fan of the "Clockwise" series. It's not for true beginners, but the "Elementary" book starts at the false beginner level, which is (more often than not) a more accurate portrait of most so-called beginners anyway. If you go to the website via the link I provided, they have all sorts of page samples from the book there so you can get an idea of what it's all about before investing the money.

Hope that helps a bit.
JD

http://www.oupjapan.co.jp/adult/index.shtml

[ndorfn]

I use "side by side" for beginners.

[AndyH]

New Interchange Intro, with lots of supplementary materials.

I prefer not to use materials with translations, but there is a series called "talk a lot", geared towards beginning Japanese students, that has some decent lessons.

[TokyoLiz]

What do you mean by "low level"?

Jtalk is good for false beginners - people who have had English language instruction, but only have greetings, numbers, s-v-o.

Side by Side is perfectly good. To cover all the skill areas, I use Headway starter.

[Alberta605]

Take a look at Topic Talk by EFL Press

www.eflpress.com (as you would expect)

No Japanese translations, but that's proabably not a great idea anyway. The grammar translation style of SLA went out with the butter churn.

[TokyoLiz]

In the fall last year, The Immediate Method workshop http://www.almalang.com/ presented two textbooks for basic English - one for high school, the other for college-level English classes (on themes relevant to adult learners).

Alberta605 said

[gaijinalways]

jim posted