Job Discussion Forums

[khmerhit]

I recommend the Prophet, by Kahil Gibran.


(Had you there, for a second.)

[FGT]

How can people praise New Interchange and criticise New Headway? I've taught from both and would choose Headway every time (although at higher levels it begins to pall). As far as I'm concerned Interchange has no saving grace ("listen and repeat, listen and repeat, listen and repeat....")
Can anyone defend Interchange from an educational perspective? Or give good grounds to slate Headway?
Cutting Edge is good but maybe a bit too dependent on all its integral parts such that the teacher on a tight schedule can't easily cut or adapt.
English File likewise and also too much like spoonfeeding. Excellent for supps though.

One book = Swann
Others = English Grammar In Use (3 levels), English Vocab In Use (2 levels + business), Teaching Tenses, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (or equivalent)

[naturegirl321]

I like Swan for grammar, though it's heavy, so I brought Murphy with me.

I don't like New Interchange, I used it for six months and hated it. There's no thinking, just spoon feeding.

I'm using Expressway for a teacher class, they picked the book and it's decent, for converstation.

[dmb]

To all you people criticising New Headway, Think yourself lucky. I have to use the OLD Headway

[Teacher in Rome]

Do any of you teach business English? I'd take Market Leader and if I can get away with two books, the Longman Language Activator. It's really good for advanced students.

[Teacher in Rome]

[Cleopatra]

Don't get me started on "Headway"!

It is: pompous, Anglocentric, patronizing, too focused on grammar, it features unfunny jokes inane dialogues between pony-riding British kids, and it is boring as hell at the same time.

anything sowrse than "HEadway"? Well, as DMB has said,there's "Old Headway"...

[Ben Round de Bloc]

I think any textbook series that maintains good scope and sequence works okay for me, because it helps keep me organized. I tend to use a lot of supplementary materials anyway, while picking and choosing what I want to use from the textbook.

In our program we use a textbook series called Matters for beginning through intermediate levels and First Certificate Gold and Objective CAE for the upper levels. In general, these texts do a decent job of keeping things in order by introducing new concepts in proper sequence and then reviewing/developing them throughout the following levels. They cover the four components of language quite well, while providing sufficient grammar without going overboard on it, so the grammar focus fits in okay with a mostly communicative approach.

I see a few glitches in the textbook series in the areas of vocabulary and grammar, and a few of the unit themes are pretty irrelevant to most of our students. However, once a teacher has been through a lesson one time, it's easy enough to avoid or work around those problems after that. I don't think these textbooks would work very well, however, in a system where the textbook is almost the sole source of material used in classes.

When I taught in a language school, the main text we used was Side by Side. I didn't really care much for it. Headway and Interchange are also commonly used in language schools here, although I've never used them.

[Wolf]

Azar wrote a series of grammar books as well. A colour coded series: red, black, blue (then white?) For the life of me, I can't remember the title.

You see ... certain DoS's will say that Japanese students have okay grammer and writing skills but need "conversational practice."

Moo poo.

Most of my students, God save them, couldn't write in English to save their lives: "Please not killing to me." Nor was their grammer very consistent.

Those evil, old fashioned grammar books saved my bacon during many a lesson. Surprisingly, those books were rather varied in their exercises. Hey, in CLT writing practice is fair game, and giving the students lessons they need are high priorities, no?

[Capergirl]