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[Slim Jim]

Not being in a position to judge myself I have nevertheless found myself intrigued by the seemingly universal contempt with which the venerable EF's coursebooks are held. By posters on this site and elsewhere. They employ some kind of system I've heard. Is the truth possibly stranger than all the rumours, I wonder - to cut to the quick, is EF really some kind of weird cult masquerading as the World's most successful language school? Do EF teachers return home to rise in the ranks acquiring secret code names, EFL-meters, and anyway, wasn't it all started by L. Ronald McHubbard!? Who can sort the fact from the fiction and lay it out cold and truthful like for those in the dark considering a plunge into the unknown?

Would anybody out there actually working for EF in Russia care to comment on this organisation and the much-maligned coursebooks teachers are seemingly forced to use? Are they a good company to work for? Are the books really so tragic? (Why don't they just let teachers devise their own course programmes employing leading textbooks alongside other source materials?) Does the long arm of EF Centralised Thought and Methodological Compliance stretch even as far as the more eastern backwaters of Russia!? Tell me no, no it isn't true! Interference from Central Office when all you want is a quiet life and no pep talks progress checks visits from London etc. etc.

Are the coursebooks so tedious that you want to jack it all in and run off to Language Link or Sunny English or whatever the hell these schools call themselves? These and many more less salubrious questions await a few enlightening answers from the good English First guys and gals out there in the tundra and taiga, teaching the good teach to the Russian masses.

Joking apart, would you advise a newbie or oldbie considering a change to take them on and sign a contract? Answers from anybody not representing the EF Propaganda Department, would, I'm sure, be greatly appreciated in this space.

[brasilstu]

I left an EF in China about a year ago and they were just about introduce new ones. So they should've either changed them, or you're talking about the new ones and they're rubbush aswell.

The reason they are bad is because they were done on the cheap and in a hurry (but I've seen worse). The only thing that can be said is that there's much more there then you can use, so you can be picky.

You don't have to use them though, there's usually plenty of other stuff at EFs to fill yourself.

I hope that helps, I don't have a clue what the rest of your post was about

[BELS]

QUOTE:

Not being in a position to judge myself I have nevertheless found myself intrigued by the seemingly universal contempt with which the venerable EF's coursebooks are held. By posters on this site and elsewhere. They employ some kind of system I've heard. Is the truth possibly stranger than all the rumours, I wonder - to cut to the quick, is EF really some kind of weird cult masquerading as the World's most successful language school? Do EF teachers return home to rise in the ranks acquiring secret code names, EFL-meters, and anyway, wasn't it all started by L. Ronald McHubbard!? Who can sort the fact from the fiction and lay it out cold and truthful like for those in the dark considering a plunge into the unknown?
Would anybody out there actually working for EF in Russia care to comment on this organisation and the much-maligned coursebooks teachers are seemingly forced to use? Are they a good company to work for? Are the books really so tragic? (Why don't they just let teachers devise their own course programmes employing leading textbooks alongside other source materials?) Does the long arm of EF Centralised Thought and Methodological Compliance stretch even as far as the more eastern backwaters of Russia!? Tell me no, no it isn't true! Interference from Central Office when all you want is a quiet life and no pep talks progress checks visits from London etc. etc.

Are the coursebooks so tedious that you want to jack it all in and run off to Language Link or Sunny English or whatever the hell these schools call themselves? These and many more less salubrious questions await a few enlightening answers from the good English First guys and gals out there in the tundra and taiga, teaching the good teach to the Russian masses.

Joking apart, would you advise a newbie or oldbie considering a change to take them on and sign a contract? Answers from anybody not representing the EF Propaganda Department, would, I'm sure, be greatly appreciated in this space.




Just curious, I just can�t work out any sense on this thread. What does EF mean? Maybe it�s some form of new teaching code? Or perhaps your keyboard is sticky on the L. Perhaps you mean EFL (English as a foreign language) or ESL (English as a second language) or perhaps TEFL (Teaching English as a second language) OOPS! That�s TESL.

I�ve never known EFL as being some form of weird cult, or having meters, perhaps you have been studying these �Venerable EF course books with too much centralised thought and Methodological compliance.

[Slim Jim]

Hi. Read this extract you quoted from me again - but this time very carefully and attentively, relating it to the original title of the posting itself:

Not being in a position to judge myself I have nevertheless found myself intrigued by the seemingly universal contempt with which the venerable EF's coursebooks are held. By posters on this site and elsewhere. They employ some kind of system I've heard. Is the truth possibly stranger than all the rumours, I wonder - to cut to the quick, is EF really some kind of weird cult masquerading as the World's most successful language school?

EF: English First. Get it? Just to clarify matters for you in easy to understand terms English First is a language school organisation - otherwise known as EF. Now isn't that strange, you (presumably) being an English language teacher based in Moscow, not knowing that. Anyway, it's not so important. We all have those unsophisticated moments. (Duh?) Also, just to make things even more crystal, a lot of the other stuff couched in a mock-serious-conspiratorial style and referring to 'EFL-meters' and the 'weird cult masquerading as the World's most successful language school' was supposed to be some vaguely (not very) amusing reference to the cult (sorry, church) of Scientology and some of the apparatuses that this group employs in its experiments. I guess it went above a few EFL teachers' heads...

Who said that humour and irony were dead...

[Henry_Cowell]

[Nexus]

No argument. They're s.hit

[Nexus]

I should expand.

I realise that even a 'well-written' coursebook that is well-suited to a particular group of learners might bear little relation to what goes on in their heads in terms of learning / acquisition. It's only book after all.

However, newly qualified teachers rely very much on the support provided by the coursebook and especially the accompanying teacher's book as they lack a developed repertoire of classroom techniques etc. Publishing houses also produce materials that are based on recognised theories of language learning and are written by experienced authors / teachers.

The EF books I've seen are just s.hit

[dreadnought]

I was a DoS at three EF school and I can confirm, unreservedly, that the books are utter rubbish. They are largely designed to extract as much money from the poor unsuspecting customer in as short a time as possible.

I also knew someone who was involved in writing them, and if she is anything to go by, they didn't have a crack team working on their production. I gather the recruitment procedure involved going round to various EF schools, asking if anyone wanted to help write some books and if you said yes, you were hired on the spot.


For some reason, the writers seemed to believe that having lots of characters with comical names and ridiculously exaggerated American and British accents would actually help students learn the language better. They were wrong.

[BELS]

They are just a franchise, are they really that successful in Moscow? Yes their books are crap, teachers are using Longmans Publications such as "Snapsot" and for the younger "Excellence" also other publications of Business English such as Market Leader.

Thats my opinion , any one wanting to do business and develop a school and have the capability would not bother with expense of a franchise.

[canucktechie]