[puu_sawn]

Up until this point I have been making my own materials to use with students. Since, I've only been doing one-on-one tutoring this has been easy enough. However, I am now going to start teaching group classes and would like to use a textbook that each student can either purchase or be assigned homework from. I teach Adults, beginner to intermediate. I am overwhelmed by the variety of textbooks out there. The university bookstore near me carries at least NINE publishers, I spent yesterday looking at over 20 books and I could see good ideas in all of them.

I'm sure this topic has been discussed to death already. (Yes, I did search ) But thought I'd ask you most knowledgeable ninja teachers what your favorite textbooks are.

[mesmark]

I like Interchange and the Headway series.

[HUE]

I like the Headway series, and probably used these the most for conversation classes. For business, I often used the Business Basics series. Now I use a lot of my own materials... which doesn't really help you.

Over all, the textbooks by Oxford seemed more focused and easier to use than the Cambridge ones.

[clivehawkins]

I've used English File (Oxford) a lot, but have recently started using Straightforward (Macmillan). It's exactly that - straightforward!
I'd stay away from Inside Out (Macmillan again) though, I found it painfully tedious.

[puu_sawn]

Thanks for all your advice! I'll be checking them out later today.

[turale]

HI...I think ENGLISH FOR LIFE from OXFORD it's really interesting if you want something that doesn't bore students since it's really easy...Otherwise STRAIGHTFORWARD it's very good too.
Bye

[Bagga]

Though I think I prefer Headway to most of the coursebook series I have used, I have found English File interesting recently. Although I think that is partly caused by over familiarity with Headway.

However, I have never restricted myself to just using the coursebook, as I have never been wholly satisfied with them. I prefer to use the coursebook as a curriculum, and as a basis for the course, and then I add activities tailored to the needs of the class and my whims of the moment. (I believe that teacher boredom is a very counter-productive factor.)

I find that I keep returning to the old favourites that I have relied on for the last 15 years. These include:

Almost anything by Penny Ur, but especially Grammar Practice Activities
Jill Hadfield's Communication Games series, esp the Intermediate book
Peter Watcyn-Jones's Vocabulary Games and Activities & Grammar Games and Activities
Several different song lyrics sites on the internet

The OP says that many different coursebooks are available locally. This suggests to me that EFL has been running in that area for some time. I have often found that students in areas with a long (ish) history of EFL teaching locally have already "learned" the grammar, or at least had it taught to them. Or AT them....

In such circumstances they need interesting and stimulating practice, and straying from the coursebook has beneficial results. Especially when every different level in a coursebook series has an identical structure - a perhaps inevitable failing in a coursebook series.

However, always try to prepare different activities for the same teaching point, from different resource books. You can then choose the one that seems most appropriate at the time, and you avoid a situation I experienced in my early years in Poland. I took a book from my bag and said proudly "I found this book in the school library and it contains lots of interesting things for us to do".

One student groaned and named one activity I had intended to do that evening, and even gave the page number. I asked how she knew so much detail, and she told me that she had done that same discussion activity every year for the last 4 years. I quietly decided to shelve my plans do do that very activity during that lesson, and got the class to check the contents page and choose which activity titles they liked the look of.

(Don't forget, the most under-used but perhaps the richest resource in an EFL class is the students themselves. If you can get them using English in relation to their own area of expertise, their own lives, then you are home free.)

[puu_sawn]

Bagga-
Thank you! From the little I have read so far, I am interested to look further at the English File books. I printed out some of their online .pdf files to try with two of my one-on-one students this week. It also looks like there are a few Penny Ur books I would like to add to my fledgling collection.

I also appreciate the tip about using a variety of resources. Yesterday I almost groaned when my student (international college student) took out her grammar book. Talk about being taught AT.....

Thanks again!

[Bagga]

You're welcome, puu_sawn

Ok, here we go, a little review section giving my opinion of those Penny Ur books I have used or owned. ( I once had every resource book she had ever written, which was actually far too many!)

GPA - already mentioned, a must-have

Five minute actuivities - I liked this one, but didn't use it a lot. Some of the 5 minute ideas can be expanded to 30 minute sessions...

Discussions that work - this one was very dense with ideas, but I found it took a fair amount of mental preparation for me before I personally could use it. (I prefer quick fixes maybe, so I can lazily throw an hour-long session together in minutes...)

Keep Talking - good stuff, again, like all of Ur's resource books, but I didn't use it a lot

Teaching Listening Comprehension - brilliant stuff! I wish I had a copy now, teaching IELTS here in China. There is a table early in the book that shows how fluent English speakers actually speak bad English, this table alone is worth the cost of the book, and the activities were excellent too. ('Owdjudu? 'Owarya?))

When I started this list I was convinced there were more books than this in my collection. Maybe I was thinking of another book I had with a similar cover:

Games for Language Learning by Andrew Wright, David Betteridge & Michael Buckley. This gave me some good activities to exploit in class, too.


The good thing about the above list is that there is so much discussion of the hows and whys of EFL teaching that you are almost getting a teacher training course thrown in as a bonus.

Good Luck, keep on drilling!

[donpaulo]

I use Side by Side from Longman for oral communication, but also like 50-50.

I sometimes use the American Streamline series, but only for some of the lessons.

Recently I have begun tapping into the home school text books such as Scholastic and Usborne. They aren't ESL lesson plans in themselves but you can them to base a class around the information presented.

For younger ones I have had alot of success with "Green Eggs and Ham" and "Go dog go" as well as "hop on pop".

[Eric]

Quote Bagga

Keep Talking - good stuff, again, like all of Ur's resource books, but I didn't use it a lot

I love this book. I used to extensively in my adult classes and higher level high school and university classes.

[Manuela]

I've taught both English Files and New English Files. I would recommend the latter, even though the old English Files were excellent books too.
The New English Files also have a CD ROM for students to practice on their computer. I'm really enthusiastic about this series of books and would gladly teach it again. I wish I had written it, it so much suits me. THere is also plenty of extra stuff to do with the students, in the teacher's book. There are games. THere are songs. There is everyday conversation vocabulary. I strongly recommend it.

[fnnkybutt]

Quote donpaulo

For younger ones I have had alot of success with "Green Eggs and Ham" and "Go dog go" as well as "hop on pop".

I've been using GE&H as my lesson plan with 6-8 year olds for the last 2 weeks. They can't get enough of it. I've used it to teach vocabulary, rhymes and verbs (I like, I don't like, Would you like? etc) and it's worked better than anything else I've found for that age group to actually get them TALKING. They're at the point now of reciting the story along with me. Dr. Seuss is non-existent in Peru, so I'm having some more books sent to me soon. Hop on Pop, Red Fish, Blue Fish, The Cat in the Hat, and I'm thinking I'll use 'where the wild things are' with my pre-schoolers. I'm even considering using the longer books (Bartholomew Cubbins, The Lorax, The Sneetches, Horton Hatches an Egg) with my high schoolers.

My regular textbook is Interchange - which has worked just fine for teaching vocabulary and basics - but really getting the kids to talk is a whole other story.

[puu_sawn]

Quote fnnkybutt

Dr. Seuss is non-existent in Peru, so I'm having some more books sent to me soon. Hop on Pop, Red Fish, Blue Fish, The Cat in the Hat, and I'm thinking I'll use 'where the wild things are' with my pre-schoolers.

My friend and I were just discussing using Dr. Seuss the other day. That and Mr. Bean videos to teach verbs...

[clivehawkins]

Quote Manuela

THere is also plenty of extra stuff to do with the students, in the teacher's book. There are games. THere are songs. There is everyday conversation vocabulary. I strongly recommend it.

Yes, it certainly has a lot of support material. Something that the Headway series is certainly lacking.

BTW, have you been to the OUP website, there are also some online activities, both for the EF and Headway series.

[puu_sawn]

Too add to my growing list, this week I bought Eric's "Compelling Conversations" book. Some may remember, I had posted a few weeks ago that I had an advanced student that I felt like I was running in circles with, not sure what to do next. I downloaded some of the free .pdf's on the site and we went over two of them with great results. I supplemented the material with some I created to add reading practice with it. (The multinational entry on wiki.) Delighted with the results, I bit the bullet and just bought the book. I highly recommend it..

[Eric18]

Good discussion!

Like other contributors, I've had positive experiences with a range of Cambridge University books - especially the Vocabulary in Use series and Grammar in Use series as supplemental materials. Ann Raimes "Grammar Troubleshots" is also a smart choice for both student writers and their instructors. When I was tutoring, these materials really helped quite a bit.

Let me also recommend a thin writing book called "The Writing Template Book" by Kevin B. King (Uni. of Michigan Press) for academically focused ESL students worried about standardized exams. It provides, as the subtitle promises, "the Michigan Guide to Writing Well and Success on High-Stakes Tests." Practical, effective, and flexible, it's worth having on your bookshelf.

Finally, thank you for the kind words about Compelling Conversations! The hybrid conversation textbook certainly makes teaching (or tutoring) advanced students easier.

[puu_sawn]

Even though they are not books, I've added 2 of TE Breitenbach's Proverbidioms posters to my library.
Proverbidioms & T. E. Breitenbach Fun to set a time limit and see how many student's can find. (They are all listed below the poster and students find the matching area of the painting.)

Just wish they came in a pocket size foldable format.