Job Discussion Forums

[teacherdude]

Well, ET is presently making some changes to the books.

However, with their insistence on a "Block System," don't expect too many improvements.

They've spent a lot of time and money on this system and they will do their best to make it work before they finally give up.

I believe that eventually they will have to do away with it, with the continuous complaints of students and teachers.

I pity the newbie who starts off with these books.

TD

[molly farquharson]

the newbies get a lot of support from these books, as the grammar is explained pretty well and the teachers' books offer more help. the teachers at the branches that have been using them for a while have settled down about them and have got used to them, and there are fewer complaints about them from students and teachers. and btw, there were complaints about interchange and interactions/mosaic, too. everyone complains about all the books, no matter what or where they are. i think that the new books are worthwhile and i expect the 2nd edition will make them better. what i don't get is why, according to so many people here, it is such a bad thing to try to write our own books. why isn't there a sense of admiration or respect for trying to address the needs ot teachers and students? is it only because it is english time? what are YOU doing to make things better at your school?

[Kathanar]

One thing I've noticed with the new books is the improved quality of the reading and writing of the lower level students. Pre-intermediates are writing well-structured concise compositions with great vocab and even transitions! Call me crazy, but that floats my boat.

[Pepys]

I'd like to say that I don't think anyone has a problem with a school using its own books, they just need to be GOOD books. A block system with constant testing is robotic and boring for both teachers and students.
The teachers have to get through so much in too little time. Also, what about other things? Games, songs, extra speaking? These things are very important, especially with Turkish students. The system takes away any freedom or flexibility from the teachers. When asked at a meeting about why books and resources were takan away from ET branches, Molly Farquarson replied: "With our books you won't need any other resources."
This is the root of the problem.

[teacherdude]

[FGT]

Yes ,by all means

[Golightly]

FGT, what I meant was that the units in Cutting Edge, like those in CEC, are too independent of each other: That is, there is the sense that each unit stands in its own and doesn't link adequately with what comes before and after. Headway changed the way textbooks are written, for better or worse, because there is a clear sense of progression through the whole series.
In a way, headway is a far more difficult textbook for a teacher to use because it renders it difficult to wedge supplementary material in, even though it is necessary. For a new teacher, they are a great resource, but as one becomes more experienced, their omissions become more obvious. In my opinion, John and Liz seem to have a phobia about certain areas of the language - use of articles being one that comes to mind, certainly at the lower levels. Another irksome feature of the series is the bloody awful tapescripts using the same bloody awful actors putting on crap accents.

[FGT]

Headway pre-int (can't remember which unit but it's early) "my uncle is a shopkeeper blah blah" is one of the best ways I know of introducing articles. Especially as it is sufficiently free standing to be adapted by the teacher (with experience). It makes a good shouting dictation which then gives students a seperate text with which to refer to the grammar notes at the back when they do the exercises. Cutting Edge (Upper Int) also has good articles stuff. My complaint (if I have one - apart from just being mouthy at this time of night) is that some course books dot the i's and cross the t's so much that the teacher can't adapt and improve at all. All elements are interdependent of one another so the teacher is bound hand and foot, whether it's a mixed ability class or 5 hours a week or whatever, you have to adhere to the book(s).

[justme]

I have to say, I've always liked Cutting Edge as a resource. As a coursebook, it's awfully dense and I found students got bored with it after a few units. And if you really take advantage of everything that's in a unit, including the resource packet, there's no way you'll get through it in the 2+ hours that most courses allot to each unit.

But when you come into a class that's been using only Headway (I used to do a lot of subbing in a dershane where I didn't regularly work), or if you're stuck teaching in a course with a really crap book, I like picking and choosing from Cutting Edge. For one thing, if you photocopy just a reading, students can't always tell it's from a coursebook, and they think they're doing a 'real' article that's not for students, or at least they think you did some extra research to find them something special. Most readings also make it really easy to teach the grammar by discovery, as there are always sentences with the new grammar you can pull out and focus on. Many Cutting Edge activites, used individually out of the context of the unit, are structured very well and easily broken into smaller parts, and give a lot of freedom how to actually carry out the activity in class. I also like it that each book has some supplementary activites about learner training, like guessing words from context or identifying errors (or lack of). And for those times when someone came to me 10 minutes before a lesson saying they needed a teacher, Cutting Edge pretty much teaches itself (if you've taught the unit before) with very little prep time, and it's a great time killer when you can't be bothered to make up a lesson.

The CE Pre-Int (I think) resource pack has a nice activity for articles-- like a Chutes and Ladders game with little cards (okay, some prep time there cutting up the bits of paper) with fill in the blanks, multiple choice and error identification (and I like that it incudes zero-marked article as one of the choices...)

My beef with Headway, one of them anyway, is its focus on British pronunciation, like activities in the elementary book that tell students to find the silent letter in 'world' and 'farm', or rhyming pairs like 'caught' and 'court.' Students always want to do those activites (they're at the 'fun' bit in the end of the units), but (when the tape or CD has gone missing once again) it's hell trying to explain to an elementary class that your accent is different and some of the word pairs don't work. I never understood why it doesn't focus on features of English pronunciation that trouble pretty much all students and that exist regardless of dialect, like good old 'ship/sheep' or consonant clusters...

[Golightly]

Yes, good old Headway and its British accents...
I remember a newbie American teacher come out of a class after having just done unit one of the (old) New Headway Elementary, looking a bit confused.
'Hey, Golightly', he said, 'Do you guys say 'Zed'?'
'Yes.'
After a pause he said, 'Really?'
'Honestly.'
After another pause, he exclaimed, 'Well, shoot, I bin teachin' 'em 'Zee'!'

[dmb]

So,do we agree all course books are crap and we should pick and choose the odd bit from various books?

Do we also agree that Interchange is really crap and Jack C should hang is head in shame?

[justme]

DMB, I agree.

Golightly, I remember my first week of teaching here, coming across the word 'knackered' in Headway Upper Int, and I had no idea what it meant. I turned it into a 'can you guess?' moment, and I think they came up with 'sick' or 'bored,' so I just left it at that, asked someone over the break...

[dmb]

Wow they were bored and not boring. Maybe they were upper-int.

[justme]

Either that, or they did come up with 'boring' but I was too new of a teacher to be annoyed by it yet...