Job Discussion Forums

[Carolina]

Hello, everyone ! I need some help or suggestions on books and resources to teach "English as a first language" for IGCSE.

I've already got the Marian Cox and Peter Lucantoni's book and workbook. I also have a new book by Julia Hubbard and john Reynolds called "IGCSE Study Guide" which is said to be very good.

I also consulted the following web pages which were very useful:

http://www.cie.org.uk/CIE/WebSite/home.jsp
http://www.flyingcolours.org.uk/about/what.html

Yet, I'm in need of a book with examples and plenty of practice on how to write letters, reports, speeches, argumentative essays, leaflets, narratives, descriptions, etc. I would like to buy something new and up-to-date, with easy explanations, visual prompts and tips for the students.
Any ideas????

[darkside1]

The books you already have will provide you with the exam format and questions style. You could customize some activities from efl textbooks (I'm guessing FCE or CAE level) and / or develop your own material using newspaper/ magazine/ web articles.

When I was teaching the IGCSE course I felt that it was a pretty demanding exam for even the more able pupils who were more interested in say maths and science. Basically I forced them to do a lot of reading and writing practice in the different formats (I gave them planning grids and visual/ audio prompts); made- up cloze passage to reinforce key vocabulary and expressions; and made sure there was regular debate/ discussion of topics to activate language.

I would also do correction sessions where pupils would categorise errors to become more aware of their own use of language. On the positive side running a class newspaper (maybe in competition with other classes) provides a purpose to writing.

[Carolina]

Thank you darkside1 !! Your pieces of advice were really useful to me, and I will put them into practice this year for sure. I'm rather nervous about teaching this subject, since it's the first time I'll be doing this, yet I'm also eager to begin too. I wanted to share information with other teachers who were dealing with the same exam, but you were the only one who answered! Thanks for that!!