Job Discussion Forums

[kylemcgee]

Hello -

I am curious to know what English books your school is using for their foundation program. Our college would like to make a change and your advice would be welcome. We need books for our core (general), speaking, reading, writing, and listening classes.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Kyle

[veiledsentiments]

Are you looking for an integrated skills class or a book for each skill?

VS

[kylemcgee]

[happyroofus]

Our institution uses the following:
Talk Time and Listen In (listening/speaking)
Active and Headway Academic Skills (reading)
Headway pre-intermediate, intermediate, etc. (grammar, though now being used as the core book for a "general English" program)

Personally, I really don't like using most of these books, especially for such specific purposes.

The main problem, as I see it, is that there are no books written with Arab ESL learners in mind. Nearly all the books out there are written for EFL learners in North America/UK/Aus-NZ and those that are written specifically for ESL learners are usually written for Indo-European L1 learners of English (I'm not referring to the jungle to books out there written 40+ years ago using the so-called "classical" or audio-linguistic methods). In terms of finding inter-active communicative or integrated methods for an Arab ESL learner there are none.

By the way, certain universities in Oman are now developing internal programs to author their own books. If this is with the intent of developing such books specifically for Arab ESL learners (with L1 interferences and general needs in mind), then great. If it's to save a pound not a penny then I'd imagine it could well be a disaster.

R

[Geronimo]

I suggest that you take a look at the books written by Richard Harrison, kylemcgee . This author has taught in Muscat for some years now -
he is currently Course Coordinator at GUTech - http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=9319&heading=Oman -
and he is obviously familiar with the obstacles confronted by learners with Arabic as their L1.

As well as his 2 "Keep Writing" books, and "Better Writing" -all written with Arabic speaking students in mind, he has also produced
a "Headway Academic Skills" coursebook which isn't too eurocentric.

For a sample of this "Headway Academic Skills" student's book, visit:- http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/elt/catalogue/9780194715584-b.pdf


Geronimo

[kylemcgee]

[happyroofus]

Thank you Geronimo! I'll look into the series of books you mentioned.

[Geronimo]

Terry Phillips has published a lot of "Skills in English" books. The Omani Ministry of Higher Education colleges bought into his programme a few years ago.
He presented his case for the series at a special seminar at an MoHE college in Nizwa back in 2007.

The decision to use "Skillls in English" series, instead of the 'North Star' material, was not met with a great deal of enthusiasm by teachers in Sohar College at that time. No doubt several further significant changes to the selection of course materials have ensued in the last 3 years in any case!

Nevertheless, Terry's Skills In English forums may be worth a visit... http://skillsinenglish.com/forum/index.php
as his thought processes as an author are on display. There is a link to the series' UAE forum, too, featuring contributions from Emiratis as well as Phillips himself.

Has anyone used Garnet Education's new "EAS: English for Academic Study" series in Oman yet?
Background on this series is available in a brochure format at: http://www.englishforacademicstudy.com/resources/EAS%20Brochure.pdf
Samples of the materials are available at:- http://www.englishforacademicstudy.com/sampleunits.php

Geronimo

[Insubordination]

I really like that 'Better Writing' book. It's quite well done.

[Geronimo]

The specialist bookstore, KELTIC, has listings of its available EAP texts at....

http://www.keltic.co.uk/shop/mainframe.asp?http://www.keltic.co.uk/shop/collection_display.asp?a=2&mscssid=M5M0E0BEU19N9PTSATNRVAH8F40J1V6B&SiteLanguage=ENG&