Review
- Review
Oxford Grammar for Schools 1
This book is designed to teach students all the grammar they will need to successfully complete the Cambridge Young Learners Starters assessment. The 25 units include possessive adjectives, present tenses, conjunctions, prepositions, and so on. Regular ‘revision’ chapters test students’ progress at regular intervals and are composed of exercises involving the four skills (reading, writing,…
- Review
Culture in our Classrooms: Teaching Language through Cultural Content
How many of your students’ reason for learning English is because they want to go abroad, or communicate with someone who has a culture different from their own? The answer is probably, ‘every one’. So, they need language skills, but they also need cultural competence. Cultural competence is the ability to interact effectively with people…
- Review
Business Benchmark Upper Intermediate
This new edition of Business Benchmark Upper Intermediate improves on what was already an excellent coursebook for learners studying for the Cambridge Business English Certificate (BEC) Vantage. It retains the layout of the previous edition with 24 units covering six areas of the business world, plus grammar workshops focusing on the main grammar points needed…
- Review
English for Economics in Higher Education Studies
This book is suitable for upper-intermediate to proficiency (IELTS 5.0-7.5+ and CEF B2-C2) level, although it is assumed that the student is familiar with English for Academic Purposes and has an IELTS of a 5 or higher. If you are looking for a complete tertiary academic Economics (ESP) course ranging from 50 – 80 hours,…
- Review
50 Steps to Improving your Academic Writing
Serendipity’s a fascinating thing, isn’t it? I am currently submitting many papers to an academic setting as well as teaching English at a local university, where, you guessed it, our concern is academic writing. Additionally, a colleague of mine, Helena Lustenberger, happened to have a new book on academic writing which needed to be reviewed….
- Review
Schubitrix English: School, Body and Home, First Reading 2
As I am always on the lookout for games and fun activities to motivate my students, I find this product the perfect choice. With 22 volunteers agreeing to stay at school an extra hour on Friday afternoon, I can definitely say they were motivated! Schubitrix is a set of triangular dominoes that combines pictures with words or…
- 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 integration…
- Review
Collins 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 we can understand the main message, do we still consider this…
- Review
Moving into Tourism and Hospitality
This three-component course is intended for college and/or university students who are pursuing a career in tourism or hospitality. The components of the course are written by Hans Mol and Anna and Terry Phillips, who are experienced English teachers, trainers, and writers. As indicated in the coursebook, the level of the course meets the CEFR…
- Review
Visual Grammar Elementary A2
Another refreshing can-do, communicative approach to learning is Scrivener’s Visual Grammar (Richmond, 2013), which uses colourful graphics, pictures, and photographs to visualise how grammar works. The book can be used for self-study, in combination with the online learning platform, or in class. I like the emphasis on accessible presentation to the A2 learner: ‘I can…
- Review
Authentic Listening Resource Pack
One of the difficulties that an ESL/EFL student faces in developing their listening skills is the challenge of coping with a steady stream of connected speech. Elements of spoken English, such as hesitations, repetitions, false starts, and reduced forms of words, can be a great source of frustration for students who are accustomed to listening…
- Review
The Legal English Manual
ETAS’s very own valued member and former ESP SIG Coordinator, Alison Wiebalck, has been at it again. This time she has outdone herself by co-writing an ESP title specifically targeted to Legal English in the Swiss market. So, be a pal, and do her and yourself a favour and order this book as soon as possible….
- Review
Focus on oral interaction
Speaking and listening are key communication skills, yet they are often taken somewhat for granted. To what extent and how should they be practised in the classroom? In Focus on Oral Interaction, researchers Rhonda Oliver and Jenefer Philip examine the role of oral communication in a wide range of classroom contexts. Drawing on current research conducted…
- Review
English File Third Edition: Intermediate Plus: Student’s Book with DVD-ROM
This course from OUP aims to help learners make the jump from Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate (B1/B2) by providing motivating but challenging consolidation and extension of knowledge of high-frequency words and phrases and basic grammar, presented in the form of engaging material to encourage students to communicate. The can-do approach and short input sections give the…
- Review
Teaching Online: Tools and techniques, options and opportunities
Teaching Online: Tools and techniques, options and opportunitiesis a most welcome addition to the emerging resources for language teachers who are either currently engaged with teaching online, or thinking about getting involved. For the latter group, co-author Nicky Hockly attests on the Delta Publishing website (http://www.deltapublishing.co.uk/titles/methodology/teaching-online) that this is “the book that I would have liked…
- Review
English for Public Relations in Higher Education Studies
English for Public Relations is part of Garnet Education’s ESAP (English for Specific Academic Purposes) series, which is designed to prepare B2 – C2 level students to study a particular subject at tertiary level in English. I would advocate its use as a generic academic skills course for all Business students, not only students of…
- Review
Exploring British Culture
This recent publication focuses on teaching English through lessons which concern various cultural elements of modern Britain. I was particularly pleased to see it since I had recently been asked to develop a course based on culture in Britain and I had spent a great deal of time finding out facts and figures myself. This…
- Review
Catalyst: A Conversation Taskbook for English Language Learners – False Beginner to Advanced
Anyone who knows me can confirm that I’m big on technology, so when I was asked to review a coursebook on an iPad, I needed no enticement. And since I’m also big on thinking skills and challenging my learners, I was hooked after just my first look into the iBook Catalyst. When using digital technology,…
- Review
Advanced Trainer
If you are looking for new resource material which offers both an introduction to the Cambridge English Advanced (CAE) exam as well as practice tests, here is another book designed for you. It can either be used as a supplement in a ‘standard’ advanced course designed to fulfil the function of a CAE preparation course…
- Review
Three Languages in the Swiss Primary Section: A Challenge, but not impossible – A Comparative Study
Caroline Briggs Ambrosi de Magistris Verzier compares three different course books for teaching English at primary school level starting in class 3 or 5. Her discussion covers a range of topics from language acquisition in general and as a second or third language to various teacher types and teaching methods, including the role of the…