ESL textbook for experienced academic in tutoring situation?
January 31, 2011 8:03 AM   Subscribe

Seeking: an excellent ESL textbook, with exercises and answers in the back, plus useful grammar reference, for tutoring an individual adult academic learner.

A Kazakh with a Ph.D. in sociology is about to start being tutored in English. She seems to have had some instruction in ESL, but doesn't speak or write with any fluency; communication is difficult (except in French, or maybe Russian). I think she'll pick up the language fairly quickly, but she needs a textbook to get started.

My own experience learning French taught me to love a) having lots of exercises with answers so I could self-check; and b) having the book be well organized, possibly with a grammar reference in the back, so that I could learn to use its resources quickly and refer to it as needed when writing. A vocabulary glossary was almost worse than useless (so not important here), but a basic irregular verb reference was very helpful.

Are there any ESL books that have these features? Any other recommendations for whatever reason?

I found this question and looked at the "American Headway" book recommended there, but can't figure out whether it has exercises with answers, etc., or whether it's really all that great. In any case, I wonder whether there are more ESL teachers on MeFi now.

(bonus: I found the Oxford Picture Dictionary Russian/English version at the local Barnes & Noble -- should I get it? Is it really that useful for one-on-one tutoring?)

Thank you!
posted by amtho to Education (6 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Seeking: an excellent ESL textbook... for tutoring an individualfor use

If you're looking for a grammar book as a tool for tutoring, I recommend The Grammar Book -- but it sounds like you're after a textbook (or a series) for the student, and there's quite a few of those but I've yet to come across one I'd call excellent.
posted by Rash at 1:19 PM on January 31, 2011


Response by poster: I have a borrowed copy of The Grammar Book - it's interesting so far! However, I do want something for my student to use.

OK, setting aside "excellent", how about something with exercises and answers in the back?

Also, my French text from Heinle was pretty good; are their ESL texts good, too?
posted by amtho at 1:32 PM on January 31, 2011


Most textbooks I've used have had a grammar reference in the back. Most of them don't have answers in the back, the thinking apparently being that the teacher will provide these during the lesson, referring to the accompanying Teacher's Book if necessary. Instead, they have a 'workbook', which is designed for self-study or homework.

Headway (American or otherwise) is the classic EFL textbook, although many consider it dated now. I don't know how suitable it is for an ESL context or for one-to-one lessons. Other big sellers that try to be more up to date include English File (my favourite for lower levels and I seem to remember the students' book has answers in the back), Cutting Edge (attempted to be task-based) and Inside Out (I liked the higher levels of this). More recent releases that are currently causing a buzz are English Unlimited and Global.

However, these are all designed for classes, with information gap activities and group-work suggestions. There might be books designed for ESL in a one-to-one setting, but I don't know of any.

If you're tutoring this person one-to-one, you have a fantastic opportunity to develop a bespoke course to meet her specific needs. Does she need academic language? English to deal with everyday situations in a new country? Work on specific skills or sub-skills? To be honest, if the course content involves learning general English by working through a standard coursebook, she might be better off in a good class with an experienced teacher. But I'm reading between the lines here a bit, so apologies if I'm missing something.

As always in these threads, I should point out that I do know and/or have worked with the authors of some of these books. It's kind of unavoidable in the environment in which I work.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 1:53 PM on January 31, 2011


Basic Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy or Grammar in Use - Intermediate (same author). I love these books. They really only address grammar, but they do it well. They have one page of tutorial followed by one page of exercises, with answers in the back. They're perfect for one-on-one work; I have used them with middle and high school ESL students (in one-on-one tutoring scenarios) but are definitely appropriate for adults as well.

The OPD you found - is it the one with the black cover? I use these also in my k-12 teaching, mostly as a reference for learning/generating vocabulary. There are workbooks and other supplementary materials that go with them if you need more structure.
posted by kirst27 at 4:47 PM on January 31, 2011


Response by poster: kirst27 - Yes, black cover. I'm not sure how I'll use it, but we'll come up with something.

Thanks for the answers! I'm considering a Heinle book.
posted by amtho at 5:26 PM on February 1, 2011


I like Azar's Fundamentals of English Grammar, but yes, at this level she really needs something to help her with vocabulary as well, so a picture dictionary might be good. I don't know whether that particular one is good.
posted by wintersweet at 8:51 PM on February 1, 2011


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