Review
- Review
THINK Student’s Book B2
What initially attracted me to this book was the brightly coloured promotional video that one can watch on the website, which promises something REALLY (and I don’t hesitate to use capital letters here) revolutionary, capable of waking up the most discouraged students. However, to be completely honest, what I am actually holding in my hands…
- Review
English Empower B1
English EMPOWER B1 Workbook with Answers Peter Anderson Cambridge University Press (2015) ISBN 978-1-107-46680-7 96 pages; paperback English Empower B1 Pre-intermediate Teacher’s Book Lynda Edwards, Ruth Gairns, Stuart Redman, and Wayne Rimmer Cambridge University Press (2015) ISBN 978-1-107-46671-5 288 pages, paperback The Empower B1 course can be described as one that can be comfortably placed in the…
- Review
The Naked Swiss: A Nation Behind 10 Myths
If you are Swiss, know someone who is Swiss, or are simply interested in the Swiss and Switzerland, then this book is for you! Delving into the truth behind ten prevalent myths about the Swiss, Irish-Swiss author and journalist Clare O’Dea tells it like it is. Although the details are not always flattering, the history…
- Review
Tenses on Timeline
This self-published Kit provides a set of teaching materials crafted through the author’s 35 years’ experience and with which she has had great personal success. The Kit consists of a Student’s Book with a CD-ROM, six glossy cardstock pages with colour diagrams to be cut into cards and used for practise with the last item…
- Review
Teaching Lexically – Principles and Practice, DELTA Teacher Development Series
Since Meara (1980) argued that vocabulary was a neglected aspect in language teaching literature, the situation has changed considerably. Not least thanks to books and articles by scholars such as Meara, Nation, and Schmidt, and others. Probably one of the best-known books on the topic of vocabulary has to be Lewis’s The Lexical Approach (1993). In fact,…
- Review
Collins English for Life: Listening
B2 Level to Upper IntermediateCollins English for Life: Listening What exactly is perfect spoken English? Is it English spoken only by a native speaker? Is it English spoken by someone with perfect grammar? What if a native speaker uses non-standard grammar or speaks in incomplete sentences? What if a non-native speaker does the same? If…
- Review
Going Mobile: Teaching with Handheld devices
Going Mobile is part of Delta’s Teacher Development Series. Although the cover makes explicit mention of teaching with hand-held devices, Hockly and Dudeney take a holistic view of mobile learning where the focus is not just on the device itself but on learning that is mobile. In this sense, learning is envisaged as a better…
- Review
The Naked Swiss: A Nation Behind 10 Myths
If you are Swiss, know someone who is Swiss, or are simply interested in the Swiss and Switzerland, then this book is for you! Delving into the truth behind ten prevalent myths about the Swiss, Irish-Swiss author and journalist Clare O’Dea tells it like it is. Although the details are not always flattering, the history…
- Review
Speak Out Advanced Students’ Book 2nd Edition
It can be difficult to choose a text book for advanced learners as many books contain such advanced grammar that students immediately go blank while others simply offer a repetition of the topics students have been discussing since A2 level (not jobs again please!). Also, learners’ expectations differ widely at this level – some wish…
- Review
Moral Dilemmas
How important is it to keep a promise? When is killing someone an act of self-defence? Is it right to torture a terrorist when the lives of many are at stake? Does it matter where money comes from if it ultimately does good? If these questions make you stop to think, you have just met…
- Review
Focus with MyEnglishLab
Workbook Daniel Brayshaw, Bartosz Michalowski, Beata Trapnell ISBN 978-1-4479-9839-6 Teacher’s Book with Multirom Arek Tkacz ISBN 978-1-292-11010-3 Class CDs Sue Kay, Vaughan Jones, Daniel Brayshaw, Beata Trapnell ISBN 978-1-4479-9818-1 Teacher’s ActiveTeach Sue Kay, Vaughan Jones, Daniel Brayshaw, Beata Trapnell Pearson Education Limited (2016) Harlow, England. ISBN 978-1-4479-9835-8 Focus 5 Student’s Book Sue Kay, Tkacz, Daniel Bradshaw et…
- Review
Teaching English to Teenagers
The Oxford Teachers’ Academy online course Teaching English to Teenagers offers a 30-hour immersion in fundamental teaching strategies and ideas to engage students of this critical age group. One receives a participant code card to login online – instructions are clear and in a few easy steps the platform for this highly flexible self-study course opens. Alternatively,…
- Review
Open Mind Advanced Teacher’s Book Premium Pack (with with Class audio CD and DVD)
Despite the abundance of online resources – and the voices arguing that we are moving towards teaching without textbooks – the fact is that textbooks are still with us. They provide a reliable source of information (backed by the reputation of the editors and publishers), and make teachers’ lives a lot easier. Open Mind Advanced…
- Review
Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College (K-12)
This book is aimed at school teachers in the USA. However, I believe it would be useful for any teachers of groups, especially those teaching young learners and teens. I often hear YL and Teens teachers asking for advice on classroom management, especially those in private classes where none of the traditional ‘school sanctions’ such…
- Review
Passport to Academic Presentations: New Edition
In business and academic circles today, knowing how to give effective presentations ranks high amongst the soft skills being taught and sought after in post-study employment. According to Mason (2015), communication skills refers to “…more than just speaking the language. Communication skills involve active listening, presentation as well as excellent writing capabilities. One highly sought-after…
- Review
English EMPOWER B1: Student’s Book, Workbook with Answers, Pre-intermediate Teacher’s Book
The Empower B1 course can be described as one that can be comfortably placed in the middle ground between a General English course and a Business English Certificate course. In this way, Cambridge is able to provide adults with learning material that will arm them with English they can use in, and outside, the workplace….
- Review
Foundation IELTS Masterclass: Student’s Book, Teacher’s Pack
Although I get more and more requests to assist my learners with their IELTS exam preparations, the exam, or at least aspects of it, remains elusive to me. Due largely to my inexperience in teaching for this test, I endeavoured to learn more about approaches to teaching IELTS materials and this increasingly popular exam itself…
- Review
Thinking about Language Teaching: Selected Articles 1982-2011
As the title suggests, this is not a resource book like others but an eclectic selection of Swan’s articles over the span of his career. Topics vary from Grammar (2011) to Language Teaching is Teaching Language (1996). Swan even includes H.G. Widdowson’s article, Against Dogma: A Reply to Michael Swan (1985), to give us a more balanced view on the communicative…
- Review
Measured Constructs: A History of Cambridge English Language Examinations 1913-2012
This hefty, academic tome, which is No. 37 in the series Studies in Language Testing, is by Cyril Weir, Director of the Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment (CRELLA). With his two co-authors, he has produced a comprehensive history of the Cambridge exams from their birth in 1913 down to the present day…
- Review
Film in Action
Film in Action is a resource book which aims to demonstrate to teachers how film can become an essential part of their teaching. It achieves this in great detail, comprehensively covering all the different aspects that a teacher and/or institution will need to take into account before following the author’s advice and challenging themselves “to reflect…