Job Discussion Forums

[jpvanderwerf2001]

I've been put in charge of selecting a new set of books for kids (5-11), and teenagers (12-16).
I'm partial to Matrix for teens, as the kids seem like it. However, I obviously haven't taught every available course.
Admittedly, I have less experience teaching kids under the age of 12, so I'm not sure what the best courses out there are.

Any suggestions?

[Dan The Chainsawman]

Cambridge ESL has a nice series for young learners and one for young adults.

[naturegirl321]

Activate is for teenagers trying to prepare for the Cambridge exams. it seems to get good reviews.

[rusmeister]

Hey, JP!
As a career vet with those age groups, I recommend, for the little ones, that you start them with "Get Ready" by Felicity Hopkins (for 5-7 year olds, zero English exp or knowledge required.) There are two books, the course thoroughly teaches the alphabet and beginning reading and vocab. (Hint: you teach letter sounds before you teach letter names: /a/ - apple BEFORE calling it "ay", etc. At 3 hours a week, you should more or less cover the entire course in a year.
Follow up with Chatterbox. Introduce grammar in 3rd year (I use "Round-Up" - it's good for all ages).

For teens it's tougher. My experience is that "teen" textbooks suck across the board, esp. in lang. development for beginners, so I use Headway. At least it uses progressive lang. dev instead of trying to impress teens with punk/emo/goth hair styles, etc.

Us old hands have to watch each other's backs...

[Betti]

Not a 'course' as such but one of the best kid's websites I've ever found is Genki English. Yes, you have to subscribe but its concepts work so well with young learners. Lots of Total Physical Response along with catchy songs and attractive flash cards. I've mixed this in with lots of bits n pieces and have regularly taught private groups of 3-10 year olds very happily for the past 2-3 years. For adults I like English File but always supplement from other sources. For teenagers Natural English is not bad. I'm freelance, but when I run courses in state schools for this age group (Italy) I tend to think of subjects that they might be interested in eg: popstars, movie stars, dating, shopping etc. and work round that. Have had great lessons using the Speed Dating idea and various other practical, interactive and energetic themes. My philosophy is always to get students to speak English in the sense that it's more useful / important to be able to communicate in a language than it is to complete grammar exercises by rote.

[rusmeister]

[Betti]

Oh, I totally agree. The two go hand-in-hand. The point I was trying to make was that when I'm drafted in to do short courses in state schools, the level of spoken communication is often very low. Therefore the bias of my lessons is towards oral practice. Practical ways of using grammar obviously reinforce the theory.

[Justin Trullinger]

For coursebooks- I'd add:

Animal crackers for very small children. (I've used with 4-7 year olds)

Backpack, StepUp, or Domino for older kids. (7-12, approx)

As has been observed, most "teen" books are pretty unappealing, though I liked Extreme alright. I also really like English in Mind, which is a little more recent. Framework isn't bad.

Rusmeister is really right, though- whatever you use, you're going to have to adapt and supplement. And the purpose built teen books usually err on the side of trying to be cool. They mostly aren't, and even those that might have been once, date quickly.


Best,
Justin

[rusmeister]

I'll add on "Get Ready" that overall, it's got to be the best textbook I've ever worked with. I really can't recommend it enough. Most books that are ostensibly intended for beginners nearly always assume that they can already read. This one really doesn't, and its approach to teaching the alphabet is brilliant. It has 3 supplements - and one of them - the Numbers book - which assumes they don't know numbers, either, is unnecessary (unless you are in an international school).

On Round-Up - my experience is that nearly all grammar books teach/express grammar poorly. R-U is the best of a bad lot, and its tables are decidedly the best (although I could make them a little better). The main thing that bugs me about it is that its recent editions made major changes to the illustrations and text in the name of political correctness. (All images of women doing any sort of house work, baby care, or working in any position perceived to be subordinate were systematically replaced with pictures of men doing these things, etc. In some cases the exercise ceases to make sense, but that doesn't matter I suppose, as long as radical feminists are appeased.

The same author has produced a new book which appears to be an improvement on R-U - it's co-authored (generally a good thing), but aimed at adults and only goes through upper-intermediate; it's called "Grammarway". I haven't tested it on the battlefield yet.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Thank you for all your input, everyone. Good stuff.

How about business English? I've always used Market Leader (mostly due to its supplementary package). Are there others out there I've been neglecting?

[Betti]

I may be wrong, but doesn't Reward do a business series? Reward books are always good for supplements to lessons as they concentrate on oral practice for specific grammar points. Have a look at One Stop - on the web - they have a fairly good selection of business English lessons. Again (re. my first post) the best lessons are available through subscription. I work freelance so these type of sites are useful to me but if you work for a school it may be worth their while to subscribe. Alternatively, base upon English level, of course, look at websites for national newspapers - the FT etc. and teach new business language from there.

[Blingcosa]

I like English File from OUP. Lots of references to movies, music, shopping, sport and dating.