Korean Job Discussion Forums

[fidel]

The government issued High School text book that I have, but don't use, is a nasty piece of work that doesn't follow any logical progression, is poorly written, and basically unusable. As it turns out one of the authors is an English teacher at my school and agrees with my critique. Fortunately I'm not required to use it and have a library of books that I pick and choose material from.


If I had a choice however they would all have the New Headway Pre-Intermediate book and workbook of which I use a lot. Something to request for next year I think.

[Son Deureo!]

The absolute worst I ever had to deal with was the Global Junior English chain's homegrown series of "textbooks".

Each book had four lessons, and each lesson was supposed to last for a week. Each lesson was a 4-page play in dialogue form which could have been compressed into about half a page without all the pretty pictures. The idea is that they were supposed to read each play over and over again every day for a week until they memorized it.

As if that weren't bad enough, each story was chock full of Konglish and bizarre non-sequiturs. A few of my favorites:

"Mr. Brown can go like a cow!"

"See the shape of a wonderful jeep."

"Don't drink cold water or eat ice cream." (from the wise doctor in the epic saga "I Feel Cold and Have a Fever)

I got lucky and was able to convince the boss to switch to Let's Go after only 3 months of that crap, but damn was that a long 3 months.

[ulsanchris]

In my last job I used English time a lot and I really liked it. At first I didn't think much of it, but now I think it is really good. At my job now I am using Let's Go (my previous favourite), and I am wishing that I could use English time.
Let's Go does have the excellent flash cards though. I wish English time had them.

Side By Side Sucks.
Do not use that series.

[TECO]

[matthewwoodford]

Chalk up another vote for Let's Go. I've noticed kids consistently think the pictures of boiled eggs are actually of ice-cream, a cultural misunderstanding which led me to wonder if the series was really designed for Asian countries - and yet it was.

English Time is also very good. I wouldn't like to teach a Let's Go book for 6 months - odd to find myself in agreement with the typical boss's thinking on this one - but would like to be able to keep going on English Time for that long.

For adult intermediate to advanced classes I like the Cutting Edge series. It's photocopy friendly, varied, has tapescripts and handy grammar summaries in the back, good suggestions in the teacher's manual, and lots of examples of authentic English. Ever find yourself talking Konglish to students? If ever I find myself teaching something which just isn't right ( ) then I know it's time to stop and rethink - and seeing real English in the textbook helps remind me what it sounds like!

[crazylemongirl]

[some waygug-in]

For adults, I have changed my mind about teaching them. The best books out there are graded reading books at various levels.

A new series that I'm using this year is "Totally true". Interesting little stories about subjects that the students can relate to.

Other reading books that I've used are Can you Believe it?
True Stories, Active Reading, What a World and some others I can't remember. Some are better than others, I like the format of the Totally True books the best of all so far.

I've also used the Small Group Discussion Topics- conversation/reading books published by PNU.

Interesting articles, and good discussion questions, but a bit too difficult for most of the students I've had.

[TECO]

text books - good or bad - we shouldn't hesitate to add to them or modify the content.

do a google.com search

We all have access to the internet and sites like:

CNN
Washington Post
Bangkok Post
British Council
The Library of Congress
The History Net
ESL Gold
BBC
Oxford
Cambridge
Longman
Encyclopedia Britanica
National Geographic

We don't even need textbooks nowadays, the lessons are already there waiting to be exploited.

[margaret]

I also like the Let's Go series. One thing I especially liked was the teacher's cards that had items in context rather than just individual items. I used them to ask questions, make up stories or have the kids make up stories.
Margaret

[jazblanc77]

Books I HATE:

>>Any low-level Longman Press books, ie.) Go-Go Loves English which I have redubbed as Babo Loves English

>>New Parade (is this by Longman Press?)

>>Take-Off

>>Magic Time

Books that are Okay:

>>Basically anything by Oxford University Press

>>Tactics for Listening

>>Let's Go - English Time is the improved follow-up series that is putting Let's Go out-of-print

>>Tiny Talk

Excellent Books:

>>English Time

>>Exploring English

>>Grammar in Use

>>New Interchange

[jazblanc77]

[quote="TECOI have a friend who is analyzing the BERLITZ textbooks for his M.A. dissertation. He says they're "crap" - LOL!![/quote]

Berlitz is known all over the world for making crappy texts.

[Corporal]

Side by Side truly does suck. Particularly when you aren't even given the tape and have to skip all the audio activities. Though I suppose that saves me from trying to get middle schoolers to discuss love songs.

[jazblanc77]

[NearlyKorean]

Another one for LG.

I absolutely love the Let's Go series. I think the time frames of six months depends how much time you have in each class, and how many times a week the class meets. I used everything including the books, tapes, grammar ( a little cheesy), story books, teacher's books, and activity books. I was able to cover one book in about 3 months.
I found LG Starter to be a good book for the beginners ( I was just lucky I guess). My favorite songs are "Busy, Busy, Busy" (LG3) and "The Weatherman Song" (LG5). Also, you have to love the ABC song in LG Starter and LG 1.

One problem I did have was with the younger students moving through the books quickly and their physical writing ability was unable to keep pace with the amount required in LG 5 & 6. So I change it a little, and did LG 1,2,3, then went to the "Easy True Stories Series, and then did LG 4,5,6. It seemed to work fairly well.

Side by Side sucks.

I used a book called "Talk Your Head Off And Write, Too" for my adult classes. It worked really well. Some of the topics and vocab was a little strange. I never did figure out what "horse tripping" was. It was in the gambling lesson.

Well that's my 10 won worth,
NK

[Hater Depot]

I'm using the Connect series, which would probably be great if I wasn't forced to cram each book into 2.5 months. More means best though, I guess.