Category Archives: textbooks

Making textbook listenings manageable and fun

Posted on 18/01/2008 by alexcase

Despite the attempts of some textbooks to use more stimulating listening activities like jigsaw listenings, stories in episodes that end at suspenseful moments, comic dialogues etc, turning on a tape is still the action that is most likely to make … Continue reading →

Posted in Adapting textbooks, ELT publishing, Lesson planning, Listening, Materials, textbooks, Usingenglish | Leave a comment

New Year, New worksheets

Posted on 19/12/2007 by alexcase

Bored of Xmas before it’s even arrived as usual, so here comes with the New Year theme ones instead: Xmas and New Year future tenses review Future Perfect New Year predictions New Year action and state verbs New Year resolutions … Continue reading →

Posted in Adverbs of frequency, Conditionals, Future tenses, General English textbooks, Going to for future plans, Grammar, Photocopiable worksheets, video | Leave a comment

Testing and reviewing new EFL materials – Can talking about TEFL books really be any use?

Posted on 21/11/2007 by alexcase

UPDATE: Whole page on TEFL reviews now here. When I think back on the many conversations I have had in the teachers’ room about English language textbooks, photocopiable resource books etc. over the years, I can remember quite a few … Continue reading →

Posted in ELT publishing, General English textbooks, links, TEFL blogs, TEFL reviews, TESOL, textbooks, Usingenglish, Writing ELT textbooks and materials | Leave a comment

TEFL Insider Part 5- Inside TEFL reviews

Posted on 04/10/2007 by alexcase

A few posts ago I promised to dish the dirt on the world of the reviews of English teaching materials, a part of the biz that I have been involved in in various ways for 8 years or so now. … Continue reading →

Posted in ELT publishing, General English textbooks, Humanistic language teaching, Pilgrims, TEFL reviews, TESOL | Leave a comment

Questions from a reader- Cookie and Friends and little kids

Posted on 26/09/2007 by alexcase

Question from a reader that I am pondering my answer to- can anyone else help while she is waiting?  “I’m from Bosnia and Hercegovina, and I’ve been teaching English to very small children, age 4-6 and this year I decided … Continue reading →

Posted in pre-school/ kindergarten/ very young learners, Teaching young learners, TEFL, TESOL, textbooks | 6 Comments

You can't Beat that sh*t! Oh, okay, turns out you can…

Posted on 04/09/2007 by alexcase

So, Takeshi Kitano wins another film award at an arty festival, along no doubt with a whole load of other unwatchable crap. There are a few specifically Beat Takeshi points worth making here, such as: if the judges just watched some … Continue reading →

Posted in Dogme, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, TBA (Task Based Approach), TEFL Heroes- Michael Lewis, TEFL heroes- Scott Thornbury, TESOL, textbooks, The lexical approach | Leave a comment

Teaching quote of the day

Posted on 24/08/2007 by alexcase

“(Rod Ellis) recommends holding off teaching grammar to beginning students because the early stages of acquisition are primarily lexically rather than grammatically based and because of the evidence from immersion programs that learners are able to acquire word order and … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, ELT publishing, General English textbooks, Grammar, Lesson planning, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, Teaching low levels, TEFL, textbooks, The lexical approach | Tagged | Leave a comment

Why are there so many bad English teachers in Japan? Part Three

Posted on 14/08/2007 by alexcase

Here is the next part of my serious attempt at examining why there might be so many bad teachers in Japan. Having already examined why worse teachers might come out to Japan, now it’s time to examine: Why do good … Continue reading →

Posted in ALT, Business English and ESP, CELTA, ELT publishing, IELTS, Learner motivation, Teacher training, Teaching English Abroad, Teaching English in Japan, Technology, TEFL, TEFL certificate, TEFL qualifications, TEFL working conditions, TESOL, textbooks, TOEIC | 4 Comments

How the future of textbooks has to be

Posted on 09/08/2007 by alexcase

How the future of textbooks has to be Looking back on my 12 years of teaching English, if it is not just old age speaking I could swear that the first couple of years after I did my initial certificate … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, ELT publishing, General English textbooks, Learner motivation, Learner training, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, links, Mixed ability classes, Speaking, Staging, Technology, TEFL, TESOL, textbooks | 7 Comments

Names of pirate EFL courses

Posted on 06/08/2007 by alexcase

My collection of rip-off English language textbook names Market Reader (for stock analysts?) English Fire (for the emergency services??) Catting Edge (all illustrations replaced by photos of cute kittens) Catty Edge (bitchy English?) Heedway (Scottish English?) Feedway (English for Farmers?) … Continue reading →

Posted in ELT publishing, General English textbooks, TEFL, TESOL, textbooks | Tagged | Leave a comment