So I teach English to a group of people, and at first we didn’t use a textbook. It went well but now I’m starting to struggle a bit with what to teach them during class. They’re complete beginners but they’re definitely not advanced either.
They want to focus more on every day English, so far I teaches them about shopping, directions, self introduction etc.
Now they want to start with conversation, but I find it really hard to plan a lesson now without a textbook. I decided to buy one for our next class. The thing is that I don’t know what kind of book to get. Do you have any tips on any good book that I can use? Thank you.
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From my experience, textbooks aren’t going to help with conversation. My advice is to think of a topic for each class, and write about ten questions relevant to the topic you’ve chosen. So if the topic is shopping, then the questions can be “What do you usually buy at the grocery store?” or “What’s your favorite convenience store?”.
Think open-ended questions that can’t be answered with a yes or no. Have them write their answers down, and then check their answers. Once all the answers have been checked and corrected, have them ask each other the questions you wrote, and the answers are what the students wrote.
I would also advise against allowing them to just read the answers. Eye contact! If you’re talking to somebody, it’s polite to pay attention to who you are talking with.
oh, and those usual topics like directions and introductions are a wash. Even I have trouble telling somebody how to find the local piggly wiggly. Especially in a country that doesn’t have street names and building numbers, and blocks aren’t laid in a grid. My answers usually sound something like “walk down the street here until you come to a coffee shop, then take a left, then keep walking until you see a large blue or maybe yellow building. I forget, but it’s thataway.
Introductions are even stupider. I have never ever been asked to introduce myself to a group of English speakers, except to say “Hey, I’m no-comfortable.”.
I really liked English First Access for total beginners. Textbooks do help you to plan lessons; no need to reinvent the wheel here!
It would help to know a few things about the class and your approach.
First, are you a trained teacher? Do you understand methodology, or are you just winging it? If you don’t have much teacher training, you definitely should be following a textbook that is meant for teaching conversation. That will give structure to the lesson and give you ideas for what elements you should be adding to the lesson.
Second, what level are the students, and how old are they? What is their purpose to study? Are they serious learners, who need English for a specific purpose, i.e., for work, or are they just studying as a fun hobby and don’t care so much about speed of progression?
If you answer these questions, I can make a more accurate recommendation.
Breaking news English is your friend. News is a great way to get discussions going, and you can easily pick up a few key points to give further attention to.
I tell students that a textbook is a good springboard for conversation. If you just chat each lesson, it gets repetitive and there isn’t much for motivated students to do at home.
I prefer Cambridge’s Interchange for students who like conversation. It has a variety of topics, and the audio is free to download for the teacher and students, plus each unit has a video. All of these spur conversation in class, while giving students a base to work with better than notes on paper.
If possible in the future, please write your actual question in the post title so readers can quickly decide whether their feedback would be helpful. That will get you more views and better replies. Good luck and have fun!
If you don’t have materials you’ve collected/ created already then use a textbook. It will give your lessons more consistency than using materials from Breaking News English this week, onestopenglish next week, then some random worksheet the following week.
It might also reassure some students in case they’re worried if they’re learning “real English.” It’s good to focus on teaching expressions that are used in real life, but people’s intuitions about what language is common or not is notoriously bad. With that being said, look for four skills textbooks that are corpus-based.
A textbook will also save you time because it sucks to spend time every week searching for materials.
If I were you I’d go to a few publishers’ websites and print out the sample chapter and the table of contents. Then bring those materials to your next lesson and pass them around and have students discuss and choose one. Also, write the prices on them. Insist that everybook buy the textbook in case you have any cheap bastards that want you to bring photocopies for them every week.
If you haven’t done a needs analysis already find out what they want to learn, what topics they’re interested in, which of your activities they like (or don’t), etc. They’ll be more invested in the class.
English Gym.
It would be good to include a little more information when asking for textbook recommendations. I’m assuming that you are teaching low level adults in which case my favorite textbooks are the Passport series (start with Passport 1) and a book called Topic Talk (be careful not to get Topic Talk Issues which is a bit more difficult).
I believe you can find Passport at English Books Japan or Amazon and Topic Talk at Nellie’s English Books.
I like the English for Everyone series by DK publishing.