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best textbooks, worst textbooks.
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bosintang



Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Location: In the pot with the rest of the mutts

PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 6:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

lesza wrote:
One of the 'issues' with New Parade is that they were designed as ESL books, not EFL ones. They operate on the premise that a student is immersed in English learning it as a second language, not learning it as a foreign language.


I loathe New Parade. It seems to me that it's not just an ESL book, but one specifically geared towards Spanish immigrants to the United States, who have, like you said, a good working knowledge of English already.

Actually, I have a beef with many of the books for being too American egocentric, including the Headway series.

My favourite books to teach are the Discovery and Odyssey series.
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shawner88



Joined: 01 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 11:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

some waygug-in wrote:



Chatterbox....... it has some good things, but a lot of junk too. I couldn't get the kids interested in this series at all. They wouldn't listen to the tapes, wouldn't follow the comic strips, couldn't get much in the way of understanding from the exercises.



I used this series before. The series is pretty bad BUT, Chatterbox 3 is a classic. I wish I kept a copy, I may buy one someday as it's totally an acid trip. Who can forget the magic user Uncle John and his archrival Spider Smith, hahahah. Theyre in most of the series but this one is the best. My favorite is the song Spider sings for Uncle John when he breaks out of prison. Tha tape is hilarious:

"I was in prison, but now I'm free. I want your magic, can't you see."

So many funny strips in that one edition only.

If you see it in a bookstore give it a read. It's red, volume 3.

If anyone uses that book, please post the rest of the lyrics.
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sangsaengnim



Joined: 15 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul, South Korea

PostPosted: Sun Dec 21, 2003 8:38 pm    Post subject: Bad Textbooks That I Ain't Happy About Reply with quote

Hm.

I worked for an Ewha branch in Ulsan. They produce their own texts at the lower levels.

I routinely had to correct errors in these texts. Pictures that didn't appropriately describe the vocabulary they were meant to teach.
The distorted font used to teach the kids handwriting.
And a favorite: these texts actually taught my kids to use "ain't."
e.g. "I'm tall but I ain't skinny." etc.

I also enjoyed the surreal flavor of:

"How tall the ghosts are!"*

"The princess can wiggle like a butterfly!"*

etc.

*actual quotes!
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viva



Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: Jeju Island

PostPosted: Sat Dec 27, 2003 10:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree with the other posters about "Hooray for English". I've been using it at my hogwan for the past 6 months and have found it to be pretty useless.

I've also used "Talk it Up" with my middleschool 3 students and have found it to be pretty useless as well. There are too many activities that require role play and my students just won't use their imaginations to role play anything.

I'm starting new books next week that were selected by the head teacher at our Hogwan. I'll be using Side By Side 2 and Side By Side 3. From what I've gathered from this thread, there's not much good to be said about them. Has anyone had any positive experiences with the Side By Side series?
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itchy



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Busan

PostPosted: Mon Dec 29, 2003 6:37 pm    Post subject: Re: best textbooks, worst textbooks. Reply with quote

yup

Last edited by itchy on Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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crazylemongirl



Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Location: almost there...

PostPosted: Mon Dec 29, 2003 9:44 pm    Post subject: Re: best textbooks, worst textbooks. Reply with quote

itchy wrote:

-parade is an arts and crafts book. Good little timewaster.


not when your lessons are 20min and the kids are often late.

clg
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itchy



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Busan

PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 8:47 am    Post subject: Re: best textbooks, worst textbooks. Reply with quote

crazylemongirl wrote:
itchy wrote:

-parade is an arts and crafts book. Good little timewaster.


not when your lessons are 20min and the kids are often late.

clg


when they're that late, why bother doing anything at all?
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VanIslander



Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 4:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

VanIslander wrote:
One supplemental series I need more of, much, much more, is the Oxford Storyland Readers. I discovered on the office's shelf the Level 4 thin storybook "I can swim" by D.F. Green OUP 1994. It has a long cartoon story broken up into segments with review puzzles and exercises, and a final quiz game at the end. The book lasted four classes and I'm presently going through withdrawl. Anyone know of where I can get a fix?

I still haven't come across this series. Has anybody else? I guess I'll just end up contacting the publisher.
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Eazy_E



Joined: 30 Oct 2003
Location: British Columbia, Canada

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 4:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

mack the knife wrote:
Anyone have any good suggestions for Kindy books (Tiny Talk excluded)?


I've used the Teddy's Train books for my kindy classes and they've really taken to the songs. They like the colouring and activities but there might not be enough vocabulary. If you can supplement this with flash cards, etc. you'll probably be all right.
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peppermint



Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 4:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

worst: the board of education's elementary school textbooks. In an effort to promote diversity, they have characters of other nationalities and races. Unfortunately, the drawings of the black kid look suspiciously like little Sambo, and the kid from Singapore is portrayed as "wang- tta".


To go along with this, there is very, very little English in the textbooks. Even though we were talking about different classes- like English, math, music etc, I don't think these words appeared in the text or the accompanying CD-ROM in English once.
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oneiros



Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Location: Villa Straylight

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 5:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

VanIslander wrote:
VanIslander wrote:
One supplemental series I need more of, much, much more, is the Oxford Storyland Readers. I discovered on the office's shelf the Level 4 thin storybook "I can swim" by D.F. Green OUP 1994. It has a long cartoon story broken up into segments with review puzzles and exercises, and a final quiz game at the end. The book lasted four classes and I'm presently going through withdrawl. Anyone know of where I can get a fix?

I still haven't come across this series. Has anybody else? I guess I'll just end up contacting the publisher.


My last school had the full set of them. They're great, particularly for younger classes. Because of the cartoon style, you can get the kids to read different characters. Some of my classes really got into the drama aspect, and would fight for their favourite parts.

My personal favourite of the series is "Superboy". The higher level ones start to get a little dry, though. No idea where you'd buy them, either.
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VanIslander



Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 5:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

oneiros wrote:
VanIslander wrote:
One supplemental series I need more of, much, much more, is the Oxford Storyland Readers.

My last school had the full set of them.

Where did you last work?
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oneiros



Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Location: Villa Straylight

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 6:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I used to work for a hogwan in Bundang. I've been thinking about this a little more, and I think we used to order copies from English Plus in Seoul. They might be worth a try, if you're located anywhere near Seoul. There's a good location close to Insa-dong. They've usually got some cool ESL games in stock, too.
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JacktheCat



Joined: 08 May 2004

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 6:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am teaching the English Time series at the moment. Not bad, and the school has seen fit to supply me with not only the workbook and the tapes; but also the teacher's manuals which I think are excellent.

.... but there's always one wiseazz in the class who yells out "busintang" whenever the two dogs, Max and Digger, appear in the lesson.
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just because



Joined: 01 Aug 2003
Location: Changwon - 4964

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 7:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Worst textbook - Side by Side

Best textbook - Conversational English put out by a guy from pusan
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