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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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 Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:42 pm Post subject: (ESL Book Discussion) |
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Anyone use either one of these:
Talk Talk for High Beginning Students of American English (Pagoda)
English in Everyday Life - A Conversation Book 2 (Longman)
They both look really good.. I'm thinking of using one of them in the near future. Anyone else use them?
(Feel free to add other books for discussion on this thread as well). |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Can you explain Everyday English to us? I've never heard of it, but it sounds good. What is the approximate age range for it? What types of exercises and topics does it containt? Etc. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:54 am Post subject: |
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| Qinella wrote: |
| Can you explain Everyday English to us? I've never heard of it, but it sounds good. What is the approximate age range for it? What types of exercises and topics does it containt? Etc. |
I was browsing through the book earlier today, and just wrote down the title. But I'll do my best from memory.
Essentially it was subdivided into 10 major sections.. under each section there were 6-7 sub-sections.. each with a minor theme under the major theme.
Without having the book right here.. it would be something like a Major Unit containing a title like "HOUSE".. and sub-sections of the Kitchen and various rooms.. with tons of vocabulary, questions, conversation-type activities centered around it.
It looked good! |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:55 am Post subject: |
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I use English in Everyday Life - A Conversation Book 2 (Book 1 as well) but only selectively & mixed in with various other texts.
On the plus side, it delves into common themes in more detail than a lot of texts out there & introduces some important topic areas that other texts ignore. The illustrations are full of fun details too & some of the suggested activities work well.
My main quibble with the book is that each unit introduces too much non-essential high-level vocabulary. This either frustrates my students or gets them hung up on wanting everything explained.
I use stuff from Book 1 with middleschool students but generally just photocopy the picture page & choose or invent one or two activities to go with it. Book 2 is more suited to adults or very high-level adolescents, but I wouldnt want to depend on it as a primary text. |
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Dawn
Joined: 06 Mar 2004
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| Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 4:57 am Post subject: |
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| My main quibble with the book is that each unit introduces too much non-essential high-level vocabulary. This either frustrates my students or gets them hung up on wanting everything explained. |
Ditto. I'm using this book with upper elementary/middle school students, and the more motivated students wear themselves out trying to understand the vocabulary. It's not uncommon for them to look up words in their English-Korean dictionaries, only to discover that they don't even understand the Korean word. My less motivated students have simply dismissed the vocabulary in its entirety (saying it's all "too hard") and don't even try to learn the 5-10 words I actually assign from each lesson.
That said, I'll probably continue to use excerpts from the book in future years, and I'll certainly borrow from the conversation activities it offers. I'm just hoping I won't be forced to use it with children or young teens again after this year. |
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