Job Discussion Forums

[Brooks]

recently I have been looking at books for oral communication classes for my high school.
I met with representatives from Oxford, Cambridge, Longman and Thomson. I got a lot of sample copies to look at.
I doubt I can find what I am looking for. I want a book that gives enough speaking practice, but has a focus on listening, and has some grammar and pronunciation exercises. For pronunciation, I would like to use a book that has practice for intonation and stress in sentences.
It seems that most of the books are for the general EFL market. I would like to see a book that would work well for Japanese teenagers (one that has topics that they can talk about).
Another thing is that I notice that generally the ability level of my students is going down. So I found that in March last year we chose a book that ended up being a little hard for some of my students.

Please let me know which texts you think are useful.

thanks

[PAULH]

A couple of books you may want to try are the Passport series , which are Japan-themed and have topics students can relate to and talk about.
I found it needed heavy supplementation as the chapters and dialogs are very short.

Another one that came out last year and has been road-tested on japanese students is J-Talk. Centered around themes that students like to talk about, hobbies, sports dating, Japanese customs etc. Mainly for false beginner college level students.

This year I will be teaching a comparative culture course and am thinking of using a book called Identity, where students talk about and compare differences in Western and japanese culture and customs.

[Brooks]

Identity works well. I used it with returnees, and it was fine.
For sannensei I have a class that will meet 4 days a week. Passport is thin and wouldn`t last long. Passport got kind of easy, so that is why I was thinking of using On the Move by Longman.

Also not all of my students are interested in going abroad. I like Headway, and I have used it in Casablanca. But what I don`t like is that it doesn`t really have speaking exercises.
I think Fifty-Fifty 2 is fine, but the book is not long enough for courses that meet 4 times a week.

[Glenski]

Brooks,
What grade in high school are you trying to find books for? At my HS, we get along with Talk A Lot, vol. 1 for the 1st year students, and we don't have to do much supplementing. For the 2nd year students, we are in a bind, and for the 3rd year students, they only get an optional English class from April to December, then they are finished, so we just have a miserable projects class. Motivation is zero after August, so we are in dire need of revamping this whole process.

I think you are going to be very hard-pressed to find a book that suits your needs for grammar, topics and pronunciation. In my opinion, you will have to get more than one book, or make your own materials for the gaps. Personally, I would stay away from purely theme-based books because students need the practice speaking with conversation-based grammar, not the grammar they learn to pass the entrance exams. Get something for pair work or small group work, perhaps something by Penny Ur. It won't be a book for the students to buy, but Ur has some good ideas for large classes.

[Brooks]

I need books for the second year students and third year ones.
Ni nensei will have class twice a week, and for san nensei it will be either three or four days a week. The ones that will meet three times a week intend to study agriculture when they are at university and they have the option of spending a year in British Columbia. But I hear their ability level is low so I doubt there will be time to teach an English for science majors.

Anyone have something good to say about English Firsthand by Lomgman?
That is one book I am considering

[TokyoLiz]

Brooks,

The junior hig 3rd year kids will get Passport and supplements once a week for the whole year. My fellow teachers and I are working on some activities to supplement it. It is a little easy for our kids, but we'll be putting the emphasis on intonation, pronunciation of individual sounds, consonant clusters and overall fluency. The kids will be told this at the outset.

I just finished using J Talk for a once-a-week eikaiwa with adult students, and I got a little frustrated because there is little or no structure presented in the chapters. It's still an awesome book for false beginners and the topics are just the thing a Japanese audience wants to talk about. The listenings are so clear and the activities make sense.

Has anybody used the Cutting Edge series in their classrooms in Japan? I used Cutting Edge intermediate students book and textbook a lot in Vancouver international English schools, but I haven't used it here. The other day on the Sobu Line, I got talking to a high school boy who was studying his copy of the low-intermediate book. He told me that he goes to a class two times a week. His fluency was quite good - I'd say a low intermediate level in terms of the varieties of structures he could use and his comprehension and vocabulary levels.

Would Cutting Edge work in your classroom? Considering you've got the students more than one lesson a week. Cutting Edge doesn't offer pronunciation practice, but there are a lot of taped dialogues and monologues that could be used for the purpose. The book is geared to task-based method of language teaching and it presents all four skills - reading, writing, listening and speaking.

[Brooks]

well Cutting Edge has British English, and since I am American, I would prefer a book with American English.
But I am considering Longman books.

I agree about J-Talk. Some chapters I like, but not all of them.

[TokyoLiz]

Brooks,

I'm Canadian, and as a result, some of the language points in Cutting Edge are a little out of my purview. When I taught in Canada, I often supplemented CE books with American textbooks.

That's the thing - there are few ELT textbook series developed in Canada. And the few that there are tend to be aimed at immigrant students or francophone Canadians.

I guess I'm a bit off topic here...

[chixdiggit]

I'm in a similar situation as Brooks. I just met with reps from the various publishing companies as well. However my mission,if I choose to accept it, is to choose ONE textbook for all three years of highschool oral communication. This is no doubt a result of the ever-increasing monetary restraints on public schools in Kanagawa. However, my classes don't meet as often as some of the others who have posted, so with heavy supplementation I might be able to pull it off. I'm leaning towards Headway at the moment, but am open to suggestions.

Cheers,

Chix

[TokyoLiz]

Chix,

I'd say Headway is an awesome book, but it's a mixed skills textbook - in other words, reading, writing, listening and speaking.

We just ordered a lot of samples from Longman and there was one title about functional English. It looked really good. When I get back to my desk, I'll post a message with the title in it.

Is everybody tired of Fifty Fifty yet?

[Brooks]

I think Fifty Fifty 2 was fine, but the students were pretty good overall.
With 50/50 2, some of the speaking activities were for specific kinds of communication.
But Fifty Fifty Intro and book 1, well they weren`t as good.
I think the students hated 50/50 book 1, and the intro book was too easy.
I heard that 50/50 Intro is used at some junior high schools.
I think the books need to be revised and expanded. I told just that to the Longman representative.

Tomorrow I will meet the MacMillan representative. My girlfriend likes a couple of their books: Time to Talk, and Your Opinion, My Opinion.