Korean Job Discussion Forums

[endofthewor1d]

i've been a reader and poster on here for a while. perhaps this subject has come up before, but i don't remember ever seeing it. what is your favorite series of books to teach?

mine is "exploring english". it has six levels, and it truly takes students from basics to fluency with the right teacher.
i'm currently teaching a ten year old boy with very little english speaking ability at level one. he's doing great.
i'm also teaching a couple of businessmen at level six, and they have said more than once that my class has helped them on their job.

i've got a full bottle of gin in me right now, so i might have made some spelling or gramatical errors in this post. if this is so, please don't bring it up. the point of this post is to give credit to what i believe to be an entertaining and informative series of books. i thiink the authors and illistrators have done a fine job, and i'd like to reward them by giving them an excellent review.

for those of you who have tought "exploring english", i welcome you to share your comments on the series. for those of you who haven't, i welcome you to share with the rest of us a series of books that you've foun particularly enjoyable to teach.

[dulouz]

I like the characters in Exploring English. Dr. Pasto is tall and intelligent. Tino is handsome. Barbara is beautiful.

[SuperHero]

THey still publish the crap that is exploring english? I used it back in 1997 and couldn't stand it. The book is all about drill and kill. In my opinion there is not anything CLT related in the book at all.

A much better series would be Interchange 3rd edition or (almost) American Cutting Edge. I say almost american because there are a lot of british vocabulary used in the book and the voice actors are all british trying to sound american. One thing in particular I enjoyed was the supposedly american couple driving to scotland for the weekend after a busy week at the office. But other than those idiosyncracies it's a good book.

[VanIslander]

[cbclark4]

My brother recommends Betty Azar grammar
series and "The Non-Stop Discussion Workshop".

Has anyone had any experience with these?

cbc

[PRagic]

Lower level Korean students always have more knowledge of Enlish than they do experience in using it. This unfortunately results in them overestimating their abilities. For a speaking class, I used to love Side by Side. Repetitive? You bet, but it gets them speaking with some structure, and the series builds fairly quickly. If you've studied a foreign language or two, then you know that this approach gets you where you need to go where speaking is concerned. I can't stand the situational-based beginner's books that just have students creating copied dialogue that is too situationally specific. Just my 2 cents. I know the books are older now, but they do the trick.

[captain kirk]

Magic Time is the Primer (for tots) and the rest are called English Time. The reason I like them is the artwork. A picture is worth a thousand words and the fine artwork, like mosaics with lots of detail and goings-on, give lots to talk about, and write new vocab about (kids writing in the book).

[ChopChaeJoe]

I like the Up and Away in English series used with the teacher books. They're fairy grammar intensive, but they have interesting characters. There are also Up and Away in Phonics books which get fairly interesting at at book 5.

I also like to use the magic Time 2 book with students who are starting to read because they can get a lot of practice reading simple words.

This is a pretty good resource for the Exploring English series, which I also like:

http://esl.lbcc.cc.ca.us/menu/menu.htm

[Roch]

[jajdude]

I think "Exploring English" is a good series, as good as any other I know. It works better with older students who actually want to improve their English. It's grammatically sound and offers lots of practice of various structures. Younger kids or those not serious about learning English will get bored, but then, they will get bored anyway unless you can make class as interesting as a cartoon or computer game somehow.

For younger kids there are a few series I like, including English Time, Seesaw and Best Friends. I like Chatterbox with the little serial story too.

[Donkey Beer]

I hate Up and Away.

I agree with the guy who said English Time is a good series. By the time you get past English Time 6 your ability should be pretty good assuming you also practiced some speaking.

[ChopChaeJoe]

The Up and Away series isn't much without the teacher book. At least for me.

I am using Exploring English book one with students in first grade through fourth and they're doing alright. I wouldn't reccomend it as a begginning text though. There is a lot of vocabulary and assumptions of cultural knowledge. Some parts are too easy, others require a lot of additional pictures, ect. to get the point across.

[TECO]

[some waygug-in]

I use Up and Away workbooks as a suppliment, but I would dread having to use them as a full time textbook.

English time is OK but it doesn't cover some essential areas that students need to know. I believe ET was designed as a suppliment to Let's Go.

Let's Go is a far more comprehensive series, but some things in in are a bit dated now. I haven't checked the new edition though.

If you use Let's Go, you have the advantage of all the picture cards and things that go with the series. These are a big help, without them the series is not much different than any other, but with all the stuff this series is probably the best out there.

[theatrelily]

For the Upper Elementary students I used to teach with lower-level English skills I have two favs:

Englishland - very colourful, lots of songs and chants using Disney
characters and a great workbook

Backpack - again, great to use, fun songs and chants...and to this day
some of the old students still sing the "It's time to open
Backpack" song.