Korean Job Discussion Forums

[withnail]

At your local bookstore, you�ll find hundreds of them. Some focus on American English and some on British so it�s a good idea to check this out, especially if your school has a preference. What I look for, is as follows:

Pages that are easy on the eye and not dense and difficult to read.
Units which are not dominated by long reading texts (a big problem from Intermediate upwards)
Something modern - at least in the last few years or so
Something that has a good teacher�s book / resource pack with good communicative activities
Important to check if it comes with a cassette/CD and that your school has the player needed!
Important to check the level!!
Need to know if the store can order it in bulk and that extras are not unobtainable!

My favourite series are:

New English File
New Cutting Edge
Inside Out

These are the best for my purpose in Korea principally because of the resources they come with but also because in Korea, grammar is taught in a separate class and vocabulary is just memorised for tests!

My school doesn�t require me to bother with either of these in my lessons but Korean school managers don�t know very much about how to develop speaking skills!

These materials are the only chance my students have to activate grammar structures and vocabulary in speaking.

�Conversation� books here are a dime a dozen. The units consist of a short reading text, followed by useful phrases and discussion questions. As such they are perhaps only useful for confidence building.

They do tend to have the advantage of topics which Koreans are interested in but they don�t really work. My advice would be to choose a good general english textbook which draws grammar structures and vocabulary together to lead to speech.