Korean Job Discussion Forums

[riverboy]

Hello folks,

Can anyone out there recommend some good low level conversation book? Classes will be quite large, but the requirements for the class will be very low.

Thanks

[jackson7]

The Breakthrough series is very good, as we have used that with good feedback from both teachers and students.

I also liked the Gear Up series, although it was a little light on material, so depending on your class length, it may be more difficult.

The Breakthrough series offers a good variety of speaking and listening activities, with very little time spent on writing (it's a conversation course after all).

I'm also looking at the Top Notch series, which seems to be packed full of information and well laid-out, although it may be a little on the difficult side for a true beginner.

[Thiuda]

For low level university courses I recommend using Harris and Rowe's Exploring English series. It's a six level series that focuses on language acquisition through communicative practice. It's great because the series developes a story line that students can follow all the way from book one to book six, is light on writing, and draws attention to grammatical points in an easy to understand manner. Throughout the student books there are free talking exercises, group discussion exercises, reading and writing tasks. I don't recommend the workbooks, however, as they focus only on grammar and writing.

Book one is suitable for low-beginners (for example, college students), book two for high-beginners (like 1st year uni students) and book three is good for low-intermediate students (2nd year uni students). Books four, five and six are suitable for higher level students, though I feel that for higher level students there are better texts out there.

One downside to this otherwise great series is that it looks pretty dated. Pearson Longman hasn't updated the series since 1995 and it shows; there is no mention of internet and cell phones and the fashion of the protagonists is very 70s. The books are also pretty tame, which I think is too bad, since controversial topics often make for great class discussions.

[Trip]

Super useful and super easy to follow:

Conversation Strategies

by David Kehe and Peggy Dustin Kehe

Pro Lingua Associates (publisher)

[riverboy]

Thanks guys! I'll be looking into them this weekend!

[pocariboy73]

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[bassexpander]

Touchstone series by Cambridge (maybe level 1 or 2).

[riverboy]

I am told that these guys are very low. College level.