Job Discussion Forums

[St Vitus]

Does anyone know of any student magazines for kids aside the Studio Classroom series? The magazine, along with its equivalent for two other levels, is atrocious. It's full of clumsy language, including bad grammar. More insidiously, it is acting as a front for a Christian journal trying to convert Taiwanese kids. If anyone knows of any other materials, which have to be better than this rubbish, please let me know.

[surrealia]

I recommend the following:

Discussions A-Z Intermediate

Discussions A-Z Advanced

The Book of Days

Taboos and Issues

All of these books (first three have cassettes) are good for intermediate and advanced students. There is an attempt here to create quality material that goes beyond the usual topics covered in coursebooks (travel, food, shopping, etc.)

[surrealia]

Also, two coursebooks I can recommend are Impact Values and Impact Issues. Both books include a CD.

[trukesehammer]

Those "Impact Series" are great, although not necessarily full-fledged student magazines. Taboos & Issues is a godsend and it's photocopy friendly.

In addition to God, I give special thanks to my good friend, Surrelia, for supplying me with samples of these items. So you've come to the right place.

By the way, I think we had this discussion before about Studio Classroom. My diagnosis: I don't mind the Christians so much as JEFF FRIGGIN LOCKER, who seems to love having his face plastered across as many issues as possible. I also l lamented the dearth of "colorful faces" in these wonderful magazines. Seems we Blacks, Injuns, and Mexicans STILL don't exist unless we're entertainers or atheletes.

SIGH!

[surrealia]

You're right, Trukesehammer. I should have pointed out that those materials I linked above are not magazines. The first four are "photocopiable resource books" (a teacher's best friend) and the Impact books are coursebooks.

Trukesehammer raises some good points about those English learnin' magazines. I have some other complaints.

1) Some of them are poorly written (lots of typos, grammatical errors, and embarrassing "Chinglish")

2) There's a lack of variety in presentation. Usually there's a dialogue and a word list, and the authors don't want to try anything different.

3) Overall, the magazines are bland and not very creative.

[trukesehammer]

Today I popped down to my campus bookstore and here is what I found after a brief, 10-minute survey:

A+ English
ABC
CNN
English Digest
English 4 U
Everyday Intermediate English
EZ Talk
Ivy League Analytical English
Let's Talk in English
Speak to Me
Studion Classroom
TIME for Students



If I remember correctly, there are also bilingual Discovery and National Geographic magazines lurking out there somewhere. From the above list, however, my favorites are CNN and TIME, mainly because they address contemporary global issues and have great "crossover value." In other words, with the latter mags, you can help keep the littluns up to date with current world events and teach 'em English simultaneously.

This is, of course, entirely theoretically speaking.