Category Archives: textbooks

On the CELTA, Japan, and very small learners

Posted on 22/11/2009 by alexcase

An interview with Charlie Richards of Learning Tree English, a private language school for 16 and unders (sometimes far unders!) in Osaka. “I first came across your school through your excellent examples of young learner lessons on YouTube. Typical lessons … Continue reading →

Posted in CELTA, Cultural differences/ cultural training, Discipline in the classroom, EFL CD ROMs, English through craftwork, Lesson planning, Phonics, pre-school/ kindergarten/ very young learners, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching Japanese primary school children, Teaching young learners, Technology, TEFL career planning, TEFL games, textbooks, Using songs with kids, Using storybooks | Tagged | 2 Comments

If your students hate classes based on the textbook

Posted on 12/11/2009 by alexcase

… there are six possibilities: 1. The whole concept of using a textbook is wrong 2. Having a textbook is wrong for that class 3. You’re using the textbook too much 4. You’re using the wrong textbook 5. You are … Continue reading →

Posted in Business English and ESP, ELT publishing, Experience of Language Teaching, IELTS, textbooks | 8 Comments

ELTJ in defence of textbooks Part One

Posted on 23/10/2009 by alexcase

There’s been a lot of online chatter on the topic of textbooks recently, all of which are neatly linked to by a recent Turklish TEFL blog post. As if to prove that the online world is just a faster and … Continue reading →

Posted in ELT publishing, TEFL, textbooks | Tagged | 4 Comments

Free books for teachers in Korea and Japan

Posted on 09/09/2009 by alexcase

but let me know which ones you want quickly, because I’ll need to make sure they stay or go when I go back to Korea this weekend. Here they are, mainly from OUP and with the most recent ones at … Continue reading →

Posted in ELT publishing, TEFL, TEFL reviews, textbooks | 3 Comments

ELT publishing trendspotter

Posted on 07/09/2009 by alexcase

New ways of getting content – Big publishers have been buying up books from smaller publishers (e.g. a couple from Helbling Languages ending up on CUP and Oxford buying up some business skills books) and even self-published books (I gave a … Continue reading →

Posted in board games, Cambridge University Press, Critical Mass ELT, Delta Publishing, EFL CD ROMs, EFL geek, ELT Journal, ELT publishing, getting into ELT publishing, Helbling Languages, links, Macmillan, Marshall Cavendish, Materials, modern english teacher magazine, online games, Oxford University Press (OUP), Pearson Longman, Technology, TEFL, TEFL blogs, TEFL e books, TEFL games, TEFL reviews, textbooks, Writing ELT textbooks and materials | 7 Comments

Rules, patterns, words and conclusions

Posted on 23/08/2009 by alexcase

At last, an ending to the series of posts that started here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here* several blogging decades ago on the book by Dave Willis. My chief objections to the approach suggested in the … Continue reading →

Posted in CPD, Dave Willis, PPP (Presentation practice production), TBA (Task Based Approach), Teaching methods and methodologies, TEFL reviews, textbooks | Leave a comment

The secret to writing EFL textbooks

Posted on 29/07/2009 by alexcase

“Thanks to… McVities’ Jamaica Ginger Cake and PG Tips” From the contents pages to Innovations Pre-Intermediate by Hugh Dellar and Andrew Walkley. I’m missing one of those two, which is why I’m here knocking on people’s doors with my freebie worksheets like … Continue reading →

Posted in ELT publishing, Materials, TEFL, TEFL reviews, textbooks, Writing ELT textbooks and materials | Tagged | 1 Comment

Prices of EFL textbooks to drop?

Posted on 10/05/2009 by alexcase

There are strong rumours that, perhaps due to the 100 day sit in and short hunger strike of students on London’s Oxford Street protesting the price of books, the latest edition of the Headway series of textbooks (official title “Latest … Continue reading →

Posted in ELT publishing, Oxford Street schools, Oxford University Press (OUP), TEFL, TEFL in the UK, textbooks | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Market Leader Lesson plans and worksheets

Posted on 21/04/2009 by alexcase

I’ve updated my Market Leader worksheets page so that all of the worksheets are available in PDF and Word formats. If anyone has any worksheets that you’ve used with these books (old or new editions) or links to other materials … Continue reading →

Posted in Business English and ESP, Business English games, Business English textbooks, Determiners and articles, Grammar, Grammar games, Materials, Past continuous, Photocopiable worksheets, TEFL, Writing ELT textbooks and materials | Leave a comment

Listenings – why bother?

Posted on 29/03/2009 by alexcase

A guest piece by Andy Mallory “‘Doing a listening’ is a bit of TEFLese that has all but dropped out of my vocabulary of late. It’s still a staple of coursebooks, usually accompanied by a little cassette symbol (maybe a … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, ELT publishing, Listening, Materials, Technology, textbooks | Tagged | 11 Comments