Job Discussion Forums

comenius · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:20 am Post subject: Textbook recommendations?

I'm curious what the current standard, multi-level textbook series are. Back when I was a teaching--a few years back--I remember using the Headway series a lot. Is that one still popular? Which other ones are commonly used?

-Comenius

basiltherat · Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 952

headway - new series is big here in syria. whether one wishes to debate how 'good' it is compared to others, thats something completely different. but it is used massively here. personally, i feel it 'does the job' adequately.
best
basil Smile

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

I've never seen a textbook that I was happy with. Last year my school was using English File, which I absolutely hated. I followed the program outline at the front of the book with my own materials and supplementary items from various texts and the internet.

This year the school has changed over to New Interchange. I find it somewhat more useful, mainly because it has a lot more material in it to pick and choose from - but I still only use perhap one-third of what's in the text.

If you have a choice, I'd recommend you take a look at whatever is available to you and choose the text you hate the least, and be prepared to add material from other sources.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

New Interchange has been leading the way in Latin America for some time now, as far as I've been seeing. Cambridge pushes it pretty hard here with slick book launches.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:21 pm Post subject:

I have received more free stuff from new interchange than from ANYBODY! They really push the series...

But I still don't really care for Cambridge's version of "American English."

Justin

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

I hate the way most texts assume one flavour of English or another. When I worked for EF, the inhouse texts we used for general English were not bad - but what I really liked was that rather than preferring one flavour, the books made use of all flavours of English. The listenings, the readings, etc. used accents and usages from many different countries, and not just the US or UK, but Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, etc.

Too bad other texts can't be as cosmopolitan.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

For general English programs I use Cutting Edge(Longman) I find it more user friendly than most course books.

comenius · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 2:53 am Post subject:

Lots of names I recognize. I'm glad things haven't totally changed in the few years since I've been actively teaching. Thanks for the tips! Smile

Deconstructor · Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 775 Location: Montreal

If a book burning should ever take place, it should consist of nothing but all the ESL/EFL books ever produced in the past 100 years.

I can't imagine a better way to restore the health and dignity of the English language.

As for the authors of these texts, of course we should be fair by lining all of them up against the wall and shooting them followed by a good old fashioned pissing on the corpses.

I put together my own materials, which consist of interesting articles and audios recorded from talk radio.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Deconstructor · Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 775 Location: Montreal

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

basiltherat · Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 952

guangho · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 476 Location: in transit

I once worked with a series of books called GoGo. GoGo is a red dinosaur that manages to get into all sorts of wacky, gratuitously misspelled adventures, which lead to the characters exclaiming in charming exasperation "Oh Gogo!" The books had no structure to them whatsoever.
If they were to be turned into movies, the script would be something like this:

Andy: Boy, it is sunny torday!
Eric: I want a baskeball bat!
Sara: Hey there is a migook! Let's pulls his armhair!
Gogo tries to pull on the armhair and winds up tearing the entire limb off
Andy+Eric+Sarah: Oh Gogo!

jr1965 · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 175

I agree that a lot of ELT texts are pretty awful (I'd include New Interchange in that category, btw), but I do think having a course text is useful for students and instructors. I mean, if you're teaching a conversation class, OK, maybe you don't need a textbook. On the other hand, a teacher in this situation will need to design all his/her own materials based on whatever the course objectives are.

But what if you're teaching a speaking/listening course in an intensive program, and the goal is to develop certain skills and competencies that go beyond using English recreationally just to talk to others? Then I really think it is helpful to have a good text in place, especially for students. Ditto if you're teaching reading and writing. I'm not saying that a teacher should rely exclusively on the text, but I do think that texts are important (just think back to courses you took in college... I don't know what I would've done in some classes if I hadn't had a text to refer to following a class meeting or lecture).

Of course, the challenge is finding a good textbook to use in a lot English classes, and the trouble in many places is that teachers in certain settings don't always have a lot of input as far as this goes. Texts are assigned.

My two centimos.

JR