Job Discussion Forums

[coledavis]

As people are likely to have to choose books at some time in their careers, I thought I'd start this thread with comments on my own, and then perhaps other people can add their opinions. (Unlike my children's thread, I have something to contribute here as an experienced teacher of adolescents and adults.) In my opinion, by the way, I think most of the adult series are marketed these days so that adolescents can use them. If you can think of series which you believe are best for just adolescents, or just adults, I would be interested.

Total English - good grammatical structure and very accessible. Excellent additional resource book, providing communicative add-on activities for the lesson. Disadvantages: arguably too accessible, as the celebrity obsession and coffee table nonsense can get tedious. And where was the proof-reader?

New Headway/Headstart - excellent grammatical structure. Generally considered very good for adults and adolescents. I'm not sure about its disadvantages, but would welcome comments.

New English File - loads of materials. Really difficult to find errors. Disadvantages: a colleague of mine says teaching with it is like joining up the dots. There are so many activities that if you use it to the full, you never have to think. And lessons can be boring.

Cutting Edge - good topics, generally good but short grammatical input. Disadvantages: I'm not sure. Perhaps not particularly well-endowed with additional communicative activities. Comments?

Reward - long time since I've used this. Comments?

Going for Gold - ditto.

[naturegirl321]

We use New English File for one of my classes, I like the fact that there ae lots of activities. I pick and choose what I want and supplement with about five other books.

I've heard good things about Cutting Edge, but never used it.