Job Discussion Forums

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

My vote would go to Century Business English. In particular the dialogue on P21.
What is the point of getting a student to participate in a dialogue where all she/he says is:
'Uh-huh'
'Yes I see that'
'Very clear' etc
Do the compilers of these things have any inkling of the classroom situation?
I worked for DUTP at one stage years ago and I never saw rubbish like this

MisterButtkins · Joined: 03 Oct 2009 Posts: 1221

Personally I think the books that are obviously too high level are worse than the ones that are too low. In a class where half of the students answer the question "How are you doing?" with "Yes", what am I supposed to do with a textbook which has its first chapter on globalization?

Also, I have one book right now where all the readings are really weird, random bits about either (A) God or (B) love. Crap like "Love will lead you if you take his hand. The way is steep and hard with love but if you let him he will hold you etc..." for like two or three pages out of each chapter.

brittania898 · Joined: 06 Mar 2010 Posts: 11

Our current textbook describes the British 'national character' as the most suspicious, most unfriendly, most cold-hearted and most dominating of all western people. And in France, 'men know women the best'!

Trinley · Joined: 29 Apr 2010 Posts: 144

I worked for a crappy school once that decided to have any random teacher write textbooks for the school. The result was a hodge podge of fill-in-the-blanks, random things pulled from about.com and some really bizarre and badly written stories, such as one talking about one person decapitating another person and eating the head and pooping it out, after which the head starts talking again. Awesome.

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

Yuk
Maybe Century isn't so bad?

Teatime of Soul · Joined: 12 Apr 2007 Posts: 905

Trinley · Joined: 29 Apr 2010 Posts: 144

The way it was written, it didn't really come off as horrific as it sounds. It was more of the slapstick genre, but still completely useless. And that was the first book I was given for my first class in China. On the upside, every other book I was given after that looked pretty decent.

dakelei · Joined: 17 May 2009 Posts: 351 Location: USA

Personally, I utterly despise "New Concept English" and can't for the life of me comprehend why so many schools here like it.

Voldermort · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Posts: 597

mike w · Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 3:54 pm Post subject:

erm ................ I haven't actually found ANY good ones yet!

Fifteen years and still looking!

airapets · Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Posts: 78 Location: The Middle Kingdom

The Chinese love affair with New Concept English is frustrating, to say the least.

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

...and how about Interchange.
The red book has this gem:
'My name is Charles, you can call me Chuck'.
Our students are learning English as the international language not so they can ape any particular culture.

LanGuTou · Joined: 23 Mar 2009 Posts: 621 Location: Shandong

malu · Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 1344 Location: Sunny Java

"Building Bridges". Chronic insomniacs might find books in this series useful.

MESL · Joined: 23 Aug 2003 Posts: 291

I've been collecting and recommending ESL textbooks for years. Used and evaluated many. Even have a website. Never been asked which one is worst. A better question would be what makes a good/bad textbook. That type of discussion would be more useful than sharing horror stories.