Teacher Discussion Forums

I would very much like to start a list (that we can keep adding to) of ESL materials we use in our classrooms.
I teach Adult ESL, so my recommendations will mostly be for teaching adults. If you recommend books, please mention the appropriate age group they are meant for.
All right, here we go...
1) Can you believe it? by Jan Huizenga (Books 1-3 with cassettes) OUP
2) Basic Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy, Cambridge UP
3) Monolingual Picture Dictionary OUP
I'll think of more later.
I have used all these books in my adult ESL classes (beginner-high intermediate) with great success.

I taught adult refugees for almost two years in the US. Here are a few of my favorites. They are my favorites because they are life-skills texts that are communicative-based with good emphasis on grammar.

Exploring English Series by Longman ELT
Oxford Picture Dictionary - the black one is great as it has communicative questions and activities to go with all of the vocabulary
Betty Azar's Fun with Grammar
Side by Side Series

I particularly like the Communication Games series by Jill Hadfield. I have found that these books work with students from junior high to adult, and the prep time for the teacher is minimal. The activities have clear instuctions to the teacher, and the indices are arranged in such a way that you can easily find an activity to go with any grammar or lexical unit that you happen to be doing with your class.

Hi,
I direct an English school in the Czech Republic and we use Cambridge New Interchange and Passages. They are very good and easy to teach from. They have good topics and support materials. They can be a little repetative in their topics though.
We just started a business course using Longman's Market Leader. We'll see how it goes. So far, so good.

I've just starting using a gem of a book for teaching grammar to business students.

It's called Business Grammar Builder by Paul Emmerson (Macmillan).

It's for intermediate level and above and covers all the usual grammar points, along with a couple of 'extras' such as linking words and punctuation. The great thing about it is that it uses business vocabulary throughout, so that a grammar module doubles up as an opportunity to learn (or review) business vocabulary. It also has an audio CD but I haven't used it yet so I can't comment on that.

For writing Jill Hadfield does a book called "writing games" which is quite good (for intermediate or above.) The activities are good because it allows the students to have some fun and improve their writing. But this book is for General English rather than for EAP, ESP, or Business English.

I just got a review copy of Grammar in Context by Sandra Elbaum (Heinle and Heinle publishers). It is a really good resource, and I am adopting it for my intermediate students. (Book 2-Intermediate)

I just started using
Even More True Stories :a reader for my high-intermediate students, and they love it.
I am sorry but I don't remember the publisher's info.

Innovations by Hugh Dellar and Darryl Hocking (pub LTP - Language Teaching Publications) is for intermediate/ upper intermediate learners.

I like this because the material is VERY up to date. I've used it in conversation classes with lower learners as the topic areas have interesting language that me (as an older teacher) my forget!

The listening exercises are authentic and pretty challenging but topics appealed to the students. Things like Violent or Dangerous Sports, Party Animals .... The language is British English.

Jane

I have a spanish-speaking friend who is studying survival English primarily on his own, with some help from an ESL teacher on occasion. I'd like to find him a good workbook that is easy to work with independently (has answers in the back to activities) and is good for a visual learner. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks so much!!!

Hiya people,

When I do private tutoring and need some short stories because my student's level is low, I use "Short Stories" by Ken Methold and Heather Jones. I am using level I. I think there are different levels so that's good. I have found it useful because it comes with vocabulary, grammar and comprehension questions. You can use it as you wish but the stories are usually one page and pretty easy to understand. Good luck.

For ESL students learning by themselves, "Talk Talk" by Pagoda is pretty good. The blue book is good. I used it on a student. It has great pictures and simple activities. It doesn't bog you down with a lot of grammar and sticks to the objectives for that unit. Good luck!!!

I find Teaching Tenses, by Rosemary Aitken, really useful, there are just so many ideas for teaching them, especially if your coursebook is not so good or you need something different.

Nic

"Language Teaching Games and Contests" by W.R. Lee is a great book for teachers, especially for younger students.

Once they get into learning more vocabulary and grammar, "Grammar in Use" by Raymond Murphy is excellent.

I did a search on eBay and found both of them listed, going cheap (as of 13Aug04):

http://snipurl.com/8f6o

I recently taught an Intermediate ESL class. My students often had questions about grammar (some were quite difficult for me!). I found Intermediate Grammar by Susan Kesner Bland to be pretty helpful. I also used Grammar Express by Marjorie Fuchs and Margaret Bonner.

In this class I also used the Challenger series (I don't remember the publisher)-- these have articles which I found good for reading comprehension and discussion. (I also sometimes used the articles for listening practices).

Hello! I have seen here a couple of recommendations for Business English textbooks. Could you please recommend other textbooks and resources? I would like my class to be very interesting and diverse, yet practical, covering all the basic and necessary issues.
I am teaching International Business for students majoring in International Trade and Logistics. Any help you can give will be much appreciated!