Recommended reading for a new ESL teacher?
April 18, 2006 11:06 AM Subscribe
I'd like some book recommendations for ESL/EFL teachers.
I will have my CTESOL certification done in two weeks and I'd love a little bibliography of recommended reading. Thanks!
I will have my CTESOL certification done in two weeks and I'd love a little bibliography of recommended reading. Thanks!
I've been on a kick of reading Stephen Krashen lately; he's got a book and a bunch of articles up on his web page, so you can see if it's the sort of thing that interests you.
posted by Jeanne at 12:43 PM on April 18, 2006
posted by Jeanne at 12:43 PM on April 18, 2006
Best answer: Learner English by Michael Swan - really useful for a new ESL teacher, identifies the typical errors made by 20 or so first language backgrounds. If you could bring one book to your first teaching job, I'd say this was the one.
Learning Teaching, Jim Scrivener, is the main text I use in some of my training courses, plenty of good stuff in there.
You might also try The English Verb by Michael Lewis - demystifies / simplifies a lot of grammar that seems complicated / nonsensical as presented traditionally. Allows you to answer more than "Just because" when students ask "why".
One potential trap for new teachers is getting bogged down in activities, bits of cut up paper, lesson plans. The real key to successful language teaching is providing meaningful opportunities for communication, and then listening to your students, and helping them say what they want to say better. The Dogme way can help you a lot in this respect, you might want to check some of the files in their discussion group (the mailing list itself is a little dry / esoteric for my tastes).
And, in direct contradiction of the above, Five Minute Activities by Penny Ur gives you plenty of ideas for activities with cut up bits of paper.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:52 PM on April 18, 2006
Learning Teaching, Jim Scrivener, is the main text I use in some of my training courses, plenty of good stuff in there.
You might also try The English Verb by Michael Lewis - demystifies / simplifies a lot of grammar that seems complicated / nonsensical as presented traditionally. Allows you to answer more than "Just because" when students ask "why".
One potential trap for new teachers is getting bogged down in activities, bits of cut up paper, lesson plans. The real key to successful language teaching is providing meaningful opportunities for communication, and then listening to your students, and helping them say what they want to say better. The Dogme way can help you a lot in this respect, you might want to check some of the files in their discussion group (the mailing list itself is a little dry / esoteric for my tastes).
And, in direct contradiction of the above, Five Minute Activities by Penny Ur gives you plenty of ideas for activities with cut up bits of paper.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:52 PM on April 18, 2006
In general, you want to stick with English publishers (OUP / Cambridge) and avoid US ones. North American ESL/EFL : European ESL / EFL :: Ford : Mercedes. The Brits are 20 years in the future on this front.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:56 PM on April 18, 2006
posted by Meatbomb at 7:56 PM on April 18, 2006
COBUILD dictionary us the greatest for giving students when they want to look up a word.
posted by Pericles at 2:58 AM on April 19, 2006
posted by Pericles at 2:58 AM on April 19, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Mo Nickels at 12:37 PM on April 18, 2006