Advice On Books

[Scott]

I've been teaching an adult class at their work place for a number of years. We have gone through the "Interchange" series, all the way through book 3. The class wants to continue, but I am not sure what text would be good at this point.

There is a core bunch of students, there English is good and they want mostly conversation. There are occasionally new students who join, who are little less skilled so I don't want to use anything too advanced.

None of these folks have to take English....they just seem to enjoy it and we have great fun. They even suggested we not use a book, but I am afraid that would be too unstructured.

Any recommendations?

[PeaceBlondie]

Scott, what about those series of books by both Oxford Press and MacMillan? They cost 70 to 95 baht each at book stores like D-K, and go from beginner through levels 1 to 6. The starter books have color cartoons and simple present tense, and the graded levels include abridged classics like Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" or Tom Sawyer. Both series include discussion questions at the back to check comprehension, and you and the students can think of more ideas. Like, 'imagine Tiny Tim has died and you're Bob Cratchit" or "How do the ghosts resemble the time tenses in English?"

[Ijustwannateach]

"English In Use" has some higher level books that may address even more complicated grammatical and vocabulary structures, but it has low entertainment value- definitely something to use in conjunction with a class rather than as the focus, unless your students are geeky grinds. Maybe use some realia, if they're getting that high level? Lower level real English texts and/or video? It will require more preparation on your part, but if they've actually survived through Interchange 3 they may be worth it.

Perhaps you could even begin coaching them for TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS, etc. and give them a measurable goal to work toward? Or would that be too "serious" for them? Depends on the group.

"S"

[Scott]

Thanks guys, both are great suggestions. What I plan to do is present them with options of what they want. We actually finished book 3 and when I said we should use a text--at least to have something to follow, they said "OK, let's start book 3 over again." So we did. We are now finishing it for the 2nd time.

Most of them are now taking a Master's Degree program on weekends and, although their teacher's are Thai, most of their books are in English. They are really happy because they can read fairly advanced text books and comprehend the information well.

They do well with reading factual information--occasionally we do articles from the newspaper--which can be slightly challenging (because of the way newspapers are written). One student reads a lot of novels and another has now started with graded readers.

They are actually way ahead of me on understanding English grammar (not necessarily using it correctly), but they know all the rules. They don't really like grammar, as a focus, at least.

Great class, fun to teach. I am luckier to have them than they are to have me.

I'll present your suggestions for them to decide. Many thanks.

[Asiacat]

Some things that I've tried with long term classes:-

Split the students into teams and give them a project to carry out and tell them that this is a competition with a prize and certificate for the winning team. You wouldn't believe the difference in approach students have merely by how you present a task to them. "Homework" is boring. "Competitions" and "prizes" are fun.

A couple of ideas to get you started:-

1. Have the students prepare a ten minute presentation on any subject of their choice in English. Give them a date for completion 4-6 weeks in the future and as the company's senior (or as senior as you dare approach) management if they will judge the competition. This approach has double benefits. The students want to be seen in a good light by their bosses and do make a genuine effort and also done right it will put yourself in a good light with the company's decision makers.

Normally I teach presentation skills and direct them towards www.howstuffworks.com for the content of their presentations. They choose a subject and then have to distill it into a ten minute presentation.

2. Ask them to produce a 20 minute DVD introducing their company. This can include details of what the company does, interviews with key personnel and maybe even a guided tour of the work areas. The students love this as they have plenty of scope for adding their own ideas and using all of the English they have learnt to date. Again ask the sompany's senior management to judge the competition.

In the lead up to the judgement day the students are free to work on their project during class time and you act as consultent helping them with their English but not the topic content (The creativity element is very important in this one.)

For prizes I get special certificates printed dor each team member and also give them the Thai language editions of Brian Tracy's awesome productivit books "Goals" and "Eat that Frog."

[B Fuddled]

In Vietnam we used Passages by Jack Richards and Chuck Sandy who brought you New Interchange.

They claim in the introduction:"... it is carefully coordinated to function as a sequel to New Interchange."

[Scott]

More thanks for more ideas. This class is really, really fun. They are cohesive group and very helpful to one another--including the newer students. The experienced ones move around to sit and speak with the newer ones. My job is extremely easy.

I do want to give them direction and focus, that's why I want a book(s) to follow. The idea of a competition, per se, wouldn't work real well with them, but the general idea of getting them to do some creative things, as mentioned, is really great. I am going to do some of this with them and have them present to the rest of the class. This should work well, because they know each other and each other's jobs (at least in general) and can help with vocabulary to describe things and sentence structure.

Again, many thanks.