ELT Resources Review

Book Review: "Spotlight on Learning Styles" by Marjorie Rosenberg (Delta)

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:25:00 +0000

Spotlight on Learning Styles
Teacher strategies for learner success

Marjorie Rosenberg

Delta Publishing 2013

ISBN: 9781905085712

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Sample blurb: "Spotlight on Learning Styles focuses on how we learn rather than what we learn. It sheds light on our personal learning preferences and what we can do to learn and to teach more successfully..."

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It's always fun to review titles in the Delta Teacher Development Series, and recently The Company Words Keep, Teaching Online and Digital Play have all come favourably under the ELT Resources Review's critical fingers.

Spotlight on Learning Styles is no exception, although this one is even more succulent because some tend to find its premises funny ha-ha or even funny-peculiar in addition to simply 'fun'.

For in considering learning styles we are edging inexorably towards the shadowy extremes of mainstream teaching precepts and principles. Most of us are perfectly happy to incorporate as wide a variety of learning activities as possible into our lessons, but some of us are unable to take the more left-of-centre ideas on board, either personally or in their professional context. So be it.

Read on and you too can decide whether this particular volume by Marjorie Rosenberg, whose interests also include Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), is right for your particular teaching and learning style. "The book," we are told, "... provides opportunities for us all to step outside our 'comfort zones', multiplying our possibilities for success." You have been warned!

Personally, I enjoyed doing a very lively 'learning styles' session outside in a park as part of a TEFL Certificate course I used to run, so I'm a fan, within reason. Anyway...

Spotlight on Learning Styles is divided into three sections.

The first part covers the theory of preferred ways of learning, and how they affect how learners learn and teachers teach. The aim is to include and motivate all students as fully as possible in the learning experience through a wide range of different activities covering the famous audio, visual and kinesthetic learning preferences.

We're also introduced to the fascinating Global-Analytic model, and the abstract and concrete ways in which students perceive, process and store information about the world around them, all of which have ramifications in the teaching and learning process.

The second section, and the guts of the book, is a large number of inventive activities focusing in turn on all of the approaches covered in part 1. This includes an introductory mini-section for determining what our learners' styles actually are, although a fairly good level of English would be required to actually perform this activity competently.

Then come the main activities. Under the Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic learning styles category we have activities for Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic emotional, Kinaesthetic motoric and Mixed VAK learners. In the Global-Analytic learning styles category there are Global, Analytic and Mixed Global-Analytic activities. And for the Mind Organisation learning styles part, Flexible friends, Expert investigators, Power planners, Radical reformers and Mixed mind organisation learners are all taken care of admirably.

If this is all making your tiny minds boggle, I can only empathise. But my aim isn't to explain all of these terms - that's what the book's for. Rather it's to give you a taster of this undeniably intriguing field in case you want to take your studies, and indeed your teaching, further down this subtly shining path.

The last section is, appropriately, a Further... section - further approaches, further applications, further activities and further reading for those who want to pursue it, well, further.

Now this is all well and good, but whether you actually believe it all, or, alternatively, can realistically envisage using these activities in your classes is another matter. It very much depends, vitally, on you as a teacher, the openness of your learners to new ideas, and of course the philosophy of the teaching establishment you work for. If nothing else, Spotlight on Learning Styles should allow you to understand where you stand as far as that is concerned.

I only wish I had ~~the patience~~, err, the time to tell you about some of the wonderful activities the author has imagined and what a fun, lively lesson it would be that included one or more of them to complement the rest of the session. But I haven't (I think I'm an impulsive-expressive learner, if such a thing exists), so I'll leave you with some page shots to give you a tiny idea and encourage you to at least check out this title in the book shop or on-line if you feel it could be for you.

In the world of English teaching, the teacher is often remembered more than what was taught, and often for the wrong reasons; by incorporating some of these activities into your lessons you should be able to have both and for the right ones!

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Sab Will is, or has been, a freelance teacher, teacher trainer, director of studies, ELT writer, fanatical blogger, Facebook freak and website weirdo. He is also a well-known street photographer, abstract artist, poet and Paris city chronicler. The 'well-known' bit only applies to those who know him well, however.
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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Spotlight on Learning Styles"
© 2013 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Macmillan Global Business Class eWorkbook"

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:34:00 +0000

Global
Business Class eWorkbook

Pre-Intermediate & Intermediate
Campbell, Metcalf, Hogan, Moore, Tennant

Macmillan 2013

ISBN: 9780230443754 (Pre)
9780230443778 (Inter)

Publisher's Website

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Sample blurb: "global is a ground-breaking 6-level adult course for today's learners of English. It enables you to learn English as it is used in our globalised world, to learn through English using information-rich topics and texts, and to learn about English as an international language."

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The Global Business Class eWorkbook is a professional addition to Macmillan's Global coursebook series which I reviewed in some depth here so I won't be going into as much detail this time.

It consists simply of a CD-ROM in the same style as the general English offering that comes with the original course but with more professional topics covered.

Either as a complement to the course books or perhaps more likely as a stand-alone component, the core package consists of 10 units. Each unit has a variety of interactive gap-fill and matching vocabulary exercises, a business skills video and worksheets, along with listening, reading and writing activities. A colourful booklet explains how it all works.

Further sections include comprehensive coverage of grammar points, vocabulary and pronunciation with more interactive exercises, additional videos and audio recordings and a range of other back-up material such as word lists and dictionary, grammar help, writing tips and tests.

Your results are charted as you progress through the units so you know what you've already done and what needs more work.

An 'On The Move' section allows you to download recordings and videos for use on your mobile device and the recordings from the course book are also available if you are using the two in tandem.

My feeling is that this is a worthy component to the over all Global course which can also stand alone and be used conveniently by the busy professional both at home and on the move.

It's also further evidence of the industry-wide drift away from physical dead tree coursebooks over to the digital medium, and it's a constant delight to see what the ever-inventive publishers will come up with next.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Macmillan Global Business Class eWorkbook"
© 2013 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Advanced Grammar in Use" by Martin Hewings (Cambridge)

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:39:00 +0000

Advanced Grammar in Use

Third Edition
Cambridge University Press 2013

ISBN 9781107699892

Publisher's Website

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Sample blurb: "Advanced Grammar in Use Third Edition meets the advanced-level learner's needs with comprehensive grammar coverage and a user-friendly layout."

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A long, long time ago, I can still remember... when I interviewed the likeable Martin Hewings back in my superstar ELT interviewing days. Sigh.

The first edition of Advanced Grammar in Use had just come out and I remember a very pleasant and interesting conversation although don't ask me what we talked about. This, that and the other, no doubt.

Now the third edition is here and I don't intend writing as comprehensive a review as I did back then. Simply a nod to let you know the book exists and that it's somewhat of a bible for the ultra-keeno advanced learner to get their grammatical teeth into.

100 meaty units take you from the basics like the differences between the past simple and the present perfect, through in-depth analysis of stuff like few, little, less, fewer, and rapidly into deeper, darker territory such as gradable and non-gradable adjectives, and two- and three-word verbs: word order.

The units are split into the following sections:

- Tenses
- The future
- Modals and semi-modals
- Linking verbs, passives, questions
- Verb complementation: what follows verbs
- Reporting
- Nouns
- Articles, determiners and quantifiers
- Relative clauses and other types of clause
- Pronouns, substitution and leaving words out
- Adjectives and adverbs
- Adverbial clauses and conjunctions
- Prepositions
- Organising information

As you can imagine we're not talking red Murphy (the elementary member of the series) here. This is serious stuff and many a lay English teacher would break into a cold sweat if asked to explain some of these concepts off the bat, I suspect...

The blurb reminds us that this third edition is now 'in full colour', which in reality means a coloured picture, photo or diagram every two units or so. I'm a big fan of images and colour as a bona fide aid to learning so that's pleasing to see, even if each image necessarily tends to illustrate a single sentence from any given unit.

Once the 100 units are done the book is far from over. The 'study planner' is effectively a 12-page test allowing learners to see which areas they need to brush up on most. Answers are provided.

There's a glossary and also an 18-page 'grammar reminder' reference section if you want your rules and regulations in a more condensed format, with a lot of cross-referencing to keep you busy.

Then there are 11 pages of additional exercises as well as the CD-ROM but we'll get to that in a moment. Cambridge tell us that the book is ideal preparation for IELTS, as well as the Advanced and Proficiency general English examinations.

The CD-ROM took a little while but installed itself on my computer without any hiccups and opened to a straightforward, crisp and clean welcome screen.

Included are 200 practice exercises, organised into the same units as the book, and customised tests allowing learners to target specific language areas. There are also audio recordings of all the main exercises, something which adds considerably to the richness of the package.

As well as attractive screens, they've slotted in a little pic for each exercise and the whole thing is a fairly pleasant experience.

So to sum up, this is a great package, perhaps the package for the serious student of English grammar at the higher levels, and particularly those studying for exams where such esoteric knowledge is liable to be tested. It's certainly the most comprehensive volume of this sort and level I've seen so far.

Well done to Cambridge for continuing to update what was already a leading volume and making it more and more user-friendly, as they say. Power to your grammar!

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Advanced Grammar in Use" (Cambridge University Press)
© 2013 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Punctuation..?" (User Design)

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:09:00 +0000

Punctuation..?
User Design 2012

ISBN 9780957071223

Publisher's Website

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Sample blurb: "Punctuation..? explains the functions and correct uses of 21 of the most used punctuation marks. It is humorous, fully illustrated using real life scenarios and is for a wide age range (young to ageing) and intelligence (emerging to expert).
This book also makes an ideal gift, birthday present or special occasion gesture."

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Ingenuous, somewhat endearing line drawings combined with simple and straightforward punctuation rules and examples make Punctuation..?, from User Design, a bit of a one-off.

I must admit I didn't even know there were 21 punctuation marks, much less how to use some of the more obscure ones such as the Pilcrow (so that's what it's called), the Guillemets (so that's what they're called - despite living in France) and the Interpunct (so that's what... etc.). See the contents page below if you're not sure what I'm talking about either.

The book is aimed at a general audience and seems to be gunning for the Eats, Shoots and Leaves (by Lynne Truss) category of fun-but-frightfully-useful-if-this-is-your-thing literary self-help volumes.

Curiously, for a self-proclaimed humorous book (see blurb) there isn't any in the actual explanations or examples, which are dry enough to have been lifted directly from a scholarly grammar tome, but there's no denying their clarity and indeed brevity, err, efficacy.

In the end it's a pleasant little book, certainly original in its design, and if you are looking for some crystal clear explanations, especially on things like the dreaded apostrophe, which gets six pages, or the subtleties between dashes and hyphens, commas, colons and semi-colons, you could do worse than to check out Punctuation..?.

You need to know that it's slim though - Amazon call it a pamphlet - and at £10 new (although check Amazon, hint, hint) a little steep considering...

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Punctuation..?" (User Design)
© 2013 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Cambridge Learner's Dictionary" Fourth Edition (Cambridge)

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Cambridge Learner's Dictionary

Fourth Edition
Cambridge University Press 2012

ISBN 9781107660151

Publisher's Website

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Sample blurb: "The ideal dictionary for intermediate learners of English.
NEW! English Vocabulary Profile levels: all words and phrases at CEFR levels A1 to B2 are shown with a level indicator, helping you to decide which words to learn first.
NEW! A section on common learner errors at particular CEFR levels helps you to avoid common mistakes in exams."

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This is how I look at paper dictionaries these days: I love them but. But what? But I don't use them as much as I used to.

Now, I don't have one of the de rigueur CD-ROMs running on my computer all the time, but then again I'm not a serious language learner, in which case I might. No, my criterion for using a paper dictionary is very simple: is it within arm's length? If it is I'll probably reach for that reassuring and highly reliable resource (neologisms notwithstanding, oh dear...).

If, however, I have to bend down to get it, or, heaven forbid, actually leave my seat, I'll probably use Google. As often as not I get the information I'm needing by typing the word itself into the search engine, followed by 'definition'. Sometimes I don't even have to go that far before the confirmation (spelling / meaning) pops up in the automatic suggestions.

What future, then, for the erstwhile essential but laterly humbled paper dictionary, and learner dictionaries in particular? Cambridge evidently believe there is one, or enough of one not to abandon one of their stalwart product lines just yet. But for how long?

Macmillan don't. The last Macmillan paper dictionaries have just recently rolled off the presses and, as from now, or next year at least, shall be a thing of the past.

Which is a shame, coz they were nice. Nice and red. But apparently not read enough for Macmillan to continue with them. Now the other major dictionary publishers are wondering whether they should follow suit I imagine. Only they know how much money they're making (or losing) on them or how much of a flagship product it is and how important it is to have a paper dictionary in their catalogue but I can't imagine, I mean it's unimaginable to think, isn't it, that one day there might not be a Cambridge or an Oxford paper dictionary out there.

The reason I'm going on at such length about this is for one thing because I was kind of asked to, and secondly, you know the learner dictionaries by now, surely. And I've reviewed enough of them to know that there's not much I could say which would surprise you so this will be a rather different review; a non-review, if you like, or a few random thoughts about the entire future of paper dictionaries themselves, if you prefer.

Personally, and this is not an informed opinion, I think there 'should' be a future for paper dictionaries at least for a few years to come. Not everyone has electronic devices surgically inserted into every orifice, and even those who do don't always want to use them all the time (surely). A paper dictionary is a reassuring, standard issue item of literary competence and I don't think any serious student or scholar or thinking person should be without one. I'm not of the youngest generation, however (at 47) and may not be totally in touch with reality any more.

Perhaps a sort of half-way house for the big publishers would be to go the route of selling electronic dictionaries a bit like calculators. Maybe they do already. So, instead of buying a huge heavy brick-sized tome, you buy a palm-sized, feather-weight digital device, for the same price or less, which cost the same amount or a fraction to produce in Taiwan or somewhere and everyone's happy (except the UK printers, that is).

Well, I could waffle on about this all day, but in the end progress will out and Macmillan have shown that the inexorable drift to purely digital has already started, as if we needed any more evidence.

When I worked with the British Council, I think it was, we had piles of dictionaries which teachers would borrow for certain lexically-based lessons or activities. These days I can hardly imagine a serious language learner without their own dictionary of some sort and given the already impressive weight of French kids' satchels (where I'm based), the lighter their dictionary the better. Which means digital.

Should I do a mini-review of the fourth edition of the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary nevertheless? No. I'll just say that it's great, as to be expected. Clear, pleasant and easy to use, with some 'goodies' sections such as the very useful top ten lists of words which are often confused, misused or misspelt at various CEFR levels. I've included plenty of pictures in this article for you to get the idea if you didn't have one already.

In the end, much as I hate to contemplate it, I think the sheer volume of stuff we will be expected to get through as time goes on, and the omnipotence and omnipresence of the computer in one form or another will render the good old paper dictionary redundant sooner rather than later.

Already you can have applications running which allow you to click on, or even just say a word and get instant definitions, synonyms and such like, so why should you even go to the effort of stretching out your arm when a finger will do? For a bit of sport perhaps?

Until then, though, books like the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary will carry on the tradition until market forces and technological advances allow us to simply cock an eyebrow at a word an have an instant definition there and then. It'll be a sad day for some but there's nothing like progress, and you can't stop it even if you try.

As a footnote, and to be fair to Cambridge in case you think I've painted them as some sort of ELT dinosaur, nothing could be further from the truth.

I don't think I'm giving away any secrets in telling you that not only are the Cambridge dictionaries, including this Cambridge Learner's Dictionary, available for free on-line, but you can even add their word definition boxes to your browser's tool bar or your website for virtually instantaneous enlightenment. And this has been available for years now.

In a way the definition of a word has become the equivalent of a simple phone call. It no longer earns the company any money but is used to sell more expensive services off its back.

How long before we see digital ELT books from publishers with built-in dictionaries as a de facto standard in the same way as internet service providers pretty much 'throw in' telephonic communication as an afterthought these days? I'll wait for the message from a publisher telling me they do it already...

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Cambridge Leaner's Dictionary" (Cambridge University Press)
© 2013 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Classroom Management Techniques" by Jim Scrivener (Cambridge)

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:47:00 +0000

Classroom Management Techniques

Jim Scrivener

Cambridge University Press 2012
ISBN 9780521741859

Publisher's Website

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Sample blurb: "Classroom management is about creating the right conditions for effective learning - whichever method you use, whatever your classroom is like and whoever your students are.
Classroom Management Techniques offers a huge range of down-to-earth, practical techniques that will help you make the most of your teaching space and get your students working in more focused ways."

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Jim Scrivener was one of my early ELT heroes thanks to his wonderful Learning Teaching manual published back in those days by Heinemann. I was still using it a couple of years ago on a TEFL Certificate course I was running here in Paris. This included some of his ideas on classroom management which he has now devoted an entire book to in the revered Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series.

Just for a change, let's organise this review by bullet points from the back cover and see what it's all about...

1) A complete and essential activity-based guide to ELT classroom mamagement.

Complete would be right; we're talking 300 pages of material, divided into logical sections as follows: The classroom; The teacher; The learners; Key teacher interventions; Facilitating interaction; Establishing and maintaining appropriate behaviour; Lessons. The Facilitating interaction chapter is further divided into Whole-class work, Pairs and groups, and The world, meaning interaction outside the classroom.

2) Includes techniques that are clearly presented and easy to implement, requiring minimal preparation.

Classroom Management Techniques claims it will 'inspire you to try out fresh ideas, from the basic to the more experimental' but it will only achieve this aim if the ideas are simple to put into practice and not couched in countless layers of impenetrable theory.

In this respect, the book seems to deliver with probably well over 50% of the pages consisting of grey 'Technique' boxes. Most of these boxes go straight to the point.

The Building rapport box, for example, offers eight instant principles such as be welcoming, encouraging and being approachable, treating each learner as an individual, and avoiding sarcasm, with a descriptive paragraph to accompany each point. The Effective eliciting box has nine points. The Giving instructions to lower-level classes box has 16. The Making your class more learner-centred techniques box has 21.

3) Analyses the classroom from three perspectives: the classroom, the teacher and the learners.

I remember back in the days of my language school in Greece creating some top ten lists of what makes an ideal lesson, teacher, student, classroom, language school and so on, and the first three sections remind me of this.

The classroom aspect looks at different classroom layouts and seating arrangements, which can be the difference in itself between a static, boring lesson and a lively interactive one. Also covered is teacher moving-around techniques and the sitting or standing question. Other issues are also treated like teaching in limited space and sharing classrooms, as well as the atmosphere of the class itself, with the emphasis being on making it as friendly and inducive to learning as posssible - no bare walls or curling student work from years ago, if you please!

The teacher unit offers lots of useful stuff such as being natural, listening attentatively, using your voice and facial expression as ~~a weapon~~ a powerful communication device, as well, of course, as the actual language you use. The first teaching practice sessions on any teacher training course are often eye-wateringly teacher-talk centred, and things like speed of delivery, complexity of language and random umms, errs and muttered asides are also dealt with in this section.

The learners unit covers learning students' names, mixed level classes, large classes, individuals and developing an overall learner-centred approach.

4) Presents a ground-breaking analysis of 14 kinds of teacher intervention, allowing you to really examine the way you communicate with learners.

This section, the Key teacher interventions chapter, looks at a lot of the ways we interact with our classes, and gives us techniques to understand them better and utilise them more effectively.

Topics go from the straightforward giving of instructions and telling the students things, through being supportive, eliciting, encouraging and praising, to the more subtle ideas of permitting emotion, being deliberately 'unhelpful', and 'vanishing'.

Whether it's questioning, checking learning and understanding, asserting authority or being catalytic (all section headings), the useful techniques are falling over themselves to be used and this section alone would probably be worth the asking price to any new teacher or one wishing to refresh their teacher intervention repertoire.

5) Shows you how to facilitate interaction in your lessons and get everyone talking.

Ahh, getting everyone talking (when you want them too); the holy grail of the communicative classroom...

The fifth unit deals with this in detail, looking at reducing unnecessary teacher blah-blah, getting students to listen to each other, the hand raising issue, pair and group work techniques, getting quiet students to participate and simply encouraging students to actually use English in their enthusiastic exchanges.

An interesting 'Interaction beyond the classroom walls' section offers a dozen 'techniques' (obviously) for getting students to use their English outside formal classroom time and strictures, such as doing surveys, arranging English trips and setting up links with English-speaking schools in the good old penpal exchange tradition but this time web-based.

6) Deals with critical teaching issues such as mixed level classes, difficult physical conditions and discipline.

The sixth unit is also worth its weight in gold, especially for teachers in potentially tricky group-teaching situations.

The first part looks at nipping negative behaviour in the bud by 'Setting the stage for positive behaviour', which is something I can only condone.

The following two parts look at small disruptions and serious discipline issues and I have to reiterate what I say in the conclusion that the depth of experience and wisdom makes for extremely enriching reading in this section.

7) Delivers real solutions for real classroom problems.

Whether or not this alludes to the seventh section doesn't really matter. It works both ways. Gems like the following are of the sort only an experienced, sensitive, and above all honest and realistic teacher could come out with:

Technique: Don't draw attention to what didn't happen
It's not usually a great idea to say to students, 'I was going to do something really interesting next, but I'm sorry we have run out of time'. It leaves everyone feeling that their teacher can't plan very well and that something important has been missed. If you run out of time, keep it upbeat, and let students focus on the things they have done which they enjoyed.

Throughout the book the feeling has been that the ideas and 'techniques' have been drawn from real-life situations and hold all the more authority and value for it.

One final example is the engrossing discussion on 'learners styles', including multiple intelligences, sensory preferences and the rest. The author documents them faithfully whilst suggesting with his tongue firmly in his cheek that we should take them with a pinch of salt and carry on giving the varied and enriching, all-student-encompassing classes we've always done (haven't we?).

To sum up, Classroom Management Techniques goes well beyond its remit as a simple 'keeping the class happy' manual. The depth of experience and sagacity virtually drips from its pages, in the most positive sense, all in the spirit of promoting learning in the most practical way possible.

This is one of those teachers handbooks which really deserves as wide an audience as possible. It's excellent. And in an admittedly archaic Star Trek reference, It's teaching Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it...

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Classroom Management Techniques" (Cambridge University Press)
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Oxford English Grammar Course" by Michael Swan & Catherine Walter

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:54:00 +0000

Oxford English Grammar Course
Intermediate

Michael Swan & Catherine Walter

Oxford University Press 2011
ISBN 9780194420822

Publisher's Website

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Sample blurb: "Learn and practise the grammar you need to speak and write in English: short grammar explanations are easy to remember. Colour makes the grammar clear; clear simple examples show how the grammar works; texts, articles, quotations and poems use the grammar; hundreds of exercises practise the grammar; internet exercises and grammar-and-vocabulary work; tests in the book and online."

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In the beginning, there was Raymond Murphy and his legendary In Use series of grammar explanation and exercise books. Well, ok, near the beginning. Then came How English Works and a little later the Good Grammar Book from fellow language gurus Michael Swan and Catherine Walter. And now we have the brand new Oxford English Grammar Course, of all things, from the same team. And just when we thought grammar had gone out of fashion forever.

So, so much for the communicative approach; there are some quarters, such as every serious student's book shelf, where a practical grammar book still very much has its place. And let's not be mistaken; the market is still huge, hence the publisher's obvious commitment to the hefty three-level Oxford English Grammar Course.

Now, Michael Swan and Catherine Walter have great senses of humour, and the cartoons they love to collect are again in evidence throughout this volume, along with colourful rule-highlighting and illustrations to liven things up. But that's about as far as the 'fun' aspect of the book goes. Make no mistake about it; underlying it all is the rigour you would expect from such an esteemed publisher and established couple of grammar gurus.

But where exactly does the Oxford English Grammar Course fall in between your standard course book and a straightforward grammar book like Murphy? After all, they do call it a course, so I assume we should treat it as one.

Well, to be honest, and much more so than their highly accessible previous volumes, and despite what I said about the cartoons and colours, this is serious stuff. Heavy grammar practice backing up highly concise and easy to absorb grammar rules. Indeed, the rules are never longer than a line or two before examples and exercises kick in.

When I say 'heavy' grammar practice, I mean lots of it, exercise after exercise, for the motivated student who enjoys learning, at least in part, in this rather regimented and repetitive way. This is a book for those who are taking their studies very seriously indeed and expect their materials to match their commitment.

Of course, it could be used just to dip into to sort out a point which is causing difficulty, or a unit could be photocopied by a teacher to complement whatever is being covered in class but somehow I don't see the Oxford English Grammar Course being used so much in this way. Perhaps pages could be given for homework I suppose. But although I see this more as a self-study book for the serious student, even the authors are not expecting learners to work through it from beginning to end, and of course they are right.

Back to the basics of the book then, and it's split into 22 fairly standard grammar sections, such as perfect tenses or infinitives and -ing forms. Each of these starts with a grammar summary suitable for this particular level and some Revise the basics exercises to consolidate what the students already know and set them up for what's to follow. Then come the units on the grammar points themselves. These are followed by yet more practice and a revision test at the end of the unit. There's an impressive amount of material there, I can tell you. Answers are at the back, as are appendices on usual stuff like irregular verbs, punctuation, contractions, word order and numbers.

Then there's the obligatory CD-ROM. What's on it? Let me see... ahh yes, more exercises. A handful for each of the 22 units. Surprisingly few actually, in comparison to the book itself, but then there are plenty of opportunities to practise your pronunciation by listening and recording your voice and listening back. And that's the whole point of the CD really - it's actually called the Pronunciation for Grammar CD-ROM - and the element which is often missing from traditional grammar courses. The exercises cover listening to identify what you hear, distinguishing between a question and a statement using intonation, strong and weak forms, and back chaining for rhythm (one of my favourite exercises with my own students!).

So hopefully that's given you a flavour for this major publication, and I haven't even seen the basic or advanced levels. Is it better than Murphy? It depends what you prefer. For me Murphy remains the reference and the gold standard in the field, and in terms of straightforwardness and clarity is still second to none. It has all the practice you want, but shoved at the end or into supplementary practice books (but hey, the OEGC also has a web site with even more online exercises to play with...).

The Oxford English Grammar Course is a different, weightier, more complex beast, even attempting to incorporate two different levels into the one book from what I understand. This may impress some but appear unnecessarily complicated to others. In any case, its pedigree is impeccable, the explanations beautifully clear and the exercises legion and very possibly legendary! One for the serious student looking for top-notch tuition, backed up by practice and tons of it. A very imposing new kid on the grammar block.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Oxford Word Skills"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Oxford Word Skills Intermediate" by Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:02:00 +0000

Oxford Word Skills Intermediate
Learn and practise English vocabulary

Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman

Oxford University Press 2008
ISBN 9780194620079

Publisher's Website

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Sample blurb: "Learn and practise English vocabulary: learn the words you need to know at each level (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced); see how the words and phrases are used in spoken and written English; practise using the vocabulary; revise what you've learned; improve your vocabulary-learning skills; learn the words as preparation for the major exams."

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Admittedly this isn't a new book, but it's new to me and Oxford have just given it to me so here are my thoughts.

It's basically a vocabulary practice book in the tradition of Cambridge's Vocabulary in Use series, and a very nice one it is too.

Each double-paged unit is based around the ability to do something, along the lines of 'I can talk about books' and 'I can describe animals and insects'. Variations include 'I can write a formal letter', 'I can express place and time', the slightly ironic 'I can get through exams' and the worthy 'I can understand American English'.

This positive approach is backed up by very cheerful units with plenty of straightforward illustrations, vocabulary, lots of exercises and sometimes a glossary.

The book's divided into sections, as follows: Learning; People; The world around us; Daily life; Getting things done; Describing things; Social and political issues; Media and entertainment; Work and study; Business; Social English; Language; and Styles of English. Each section has a review unit at the end.

There are little 'Spotlight' boxes sprinkled throughout the text helping us with tricky points such as the difference between steal and rob, or between wedding and marriage, or the fact that crime can be countable and uncountable.

The book's big high-tech innovation, which they proudly tout on the back cover, seems to be a piece of rather nice purple card with 'Oxford University Press' written on it which you can use to cover up the definitions of words in the units and test yourself!

Joking aside though, Oxford Word Skills comes with a CD-ROM which is again utterly straightforward and pleasant to use. A variety of exercises allow you to listen (and repeat) to all the main vocabulary and phrases from the book, and tests your understanding with drag-and-drops, gap-fills and so on.

The wide variety of topics covered make this a very interesting and engaging book, with something for everyone, from kids to business people, although it's unlikely someone's going to go through it from cover to cover, unless they are extremely rigorous and committed.

I noticed that in the 'I can talk about art and photography' section, which is one of my passions, there was no mention of acrylic paint (just oils and watercolours) and that film and negatives seemed to be mixed in rather incongruously with digital cameras. These are small points which nevertheless do point out the limitations of such a book, but at intermediate level a wide-ranging approach is probably more appropriate than lots of arcane detail which would probably be unnecessary anyway.

So all in all a very pleasant book to have on the book shelf, either in a learner's bedroom or a teacher's resource cupboard. Or should that be closet? I'm not very sure any more.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Oxford Word Skills"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Macmillan 'Global' English Course" by Lindsay Clandfield et al

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 18:42:00 +0000

Global
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced

Clandfield, Robb Benne, Jeffries, Pickering, McAvoy

Macmillan 2010

Publisher's Website

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As Macmillan's prime offering in the highly competitive general English for adults arena, Global (let's capitalise that 'g' for them for once and for all) had to be pretty special. And it is. A huge undertaking has produced a huge course with all the elements in place over six comprehensive levels, from Beginner to Advanced, to tick practically all the boxes. And there are a lot of boxes to tick these days.

Before getting on to the course itself, let me just tell you that each level includes, in addition to the course book itself, an online version of said book, an eWorkbook, audio CDs, a teacher's book and resourse disc, and a website.

So is Global any different from all the other general English courses out there? Well the publishers believe it is.

At the start of the Beginner's level is a list of six things the authors say they wanted for Global: real lives; international voices; intellectual curiosity; cultural knowledge; a global outlook; a different book.

At the beginning of the other volumes are 'six quotes that inspired Global', the last of which reads "If you are going to write another coursebook for the English language, please try to do something a bit different," from an English teacher who, curiously, wishes to remain anonymous. They could have quoted me!

Anyway, you're starting to get the idea. Here are the other five quote, for the record:

"True education means fostering the ability to be interested in something." - Sumio Iijima, Japanese physicist

"It is books that are the key to the wide world; if you can't do anything else, read all that you can." - Jane Hamilton, American author

"The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination..." - Derek Walcott, Caribbean poet

"The important thing is not to stop questioning." - Albert Einstein, German-American physicist

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." - Plutarch, Greek historian

Very good. And not the sort of thing you find at the beginning of every English course. So how have they translated all of that into good solid language learning? By providing content, and tons of it. By creating an incredibly comprehensive package full of fresh, everyday and yes, global items of interest. By covering all the skills, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and functional language as any modern course is expected to today. And by choosing topics based on real people and real lives for us to discover and perhaps identify with.

All of this results in a book which is fairly dense and intense, but very pleasant to look at nevertheless. Check out the page shots from the three levels to see if you agree.

My French contact in Macmillan was very happy to tell me that this series has just been adopted by the British Council here in Paris, and I can see why. The international and resoundingly modern and environmentally aware approach would be right up their street.

The influence of modern lives and five-second attention spans can be felt in their snapshots of each book, such as 'Global Intermediate by numbers: 10 units, 160 pages, 10 extracts from famous novels, 46 vocabulary sections, 37 explanations of English grammar, 10 functional English lessons, 15 accents from around the world in Global voices, 200 audio clips, 30 video clips, 150 interactive activities, 100s of curious and interesting facts'.

And if there's something I like, it's curious and interesting facts. There is something about Global that does make it feel a bit different from the other courses out there at the moment. A certain freshness blowing through its pages which is hard to pin down. Take the contents and chapter headings.

Each chapter is entitled 'Something & Something'. That is to say, from the Beginner's level we have Name & Address, Big & Small, Places & People, Day & Night, Life & Times. The Intermediate levels titles include Language & Culture, Lives & Legends, Supply & Demand, Love & Hate. The most advanced level offers us Fact & Fiction, Heroes & Villains, Time & Motion, and finally Local & Global. They must have had fun dreaming them all up.

It's a cute device and allows the first eight pages of each unit - oh yeah, count 'em - to be split into two double spreads on, for example, people who know each other (Friends) and two double spreads on people who don't (Strangers), two double spreads on internal organs and love (Hearts), and two double spreads on concentration, mindfulness, nature versus nurture and so on (Minds).

Admittedly, a few of the topics are a bit arbitrary, but hey, the idea's quite cute as I said and as good as any of the other publishers' offerings and far more imaginative than some.

The last four pages of each 12-page unit are devoted to functional language, global language issues and voices, writing, a unit review and a study skills section. Unfortunately, I didn't have the student's book recordings so I can't comment on their authenticity (but see below). The functional language sections cover all the usual areas such as requests and offers, giving opinions, starting a conversation, offering advice, making phone calls and expressing sympathy in the intermediate level, for example.

Probably most interesting is the Global English and Global Voices sections which appear in alternate chapters. The voices allow us to hear some of those 15 accents from around the world I suppose (21 at beginner's level, 16 at advanced). The global English part is based on a fascinating series of articles by language guru David Crystal covering all sorts of things, from Caribbean English to changing English to a global language for business to a world of Englishes, and much more.

I should mention than the Beginner's level has 15 chapters of six pages, with one page per unit devoted alternately to reading, global voices and a game. The unit review gets the last page.

Let me also mention the Global eWorkbook, which gets its own instruction booklet and comes cellophane wrapped with the student's book, or at least mine did. This part of what the blurb describes as 'a comprehensive range of interactive digital components for use in class, out of class or even on the move. These include extra listening, video material and online practice'.

The presentation is super-slick and worked perfectly after a short installation procedure and entering of an activation code. When all's said and done, of course, it's really just a glorified workbook, but quite glorious at that, with lots to listen to, watch and interactive exercises to complete. Some of the elements in the main menu left me just slightly baffled though.

Upon clicking on Portfolio, for example, we (the students) are offered some pretty scary self-assessment checklists and ominous Common European Framework can-do charts which I can't imagine many students spending a lot of time on. The Dictionary button sails us off to the web and Macmillan's online offering, while the Word Lists, Grammar Help and Writing Tips buttons all lead to the same little box of same.

The Language Practice button (are you still with me?) allows us to navigate through the exercises by unit or by language skill. Print and Work lets us to print stuff off and work with good old paper and pen. Listen and Watch buttons lead to what you would expect, On The Move offers some more recordings called Listen On The Move, the Watch button again, and oh my goodness, would you believe it, I've found the Class Recordings from the Student's book - oh happy day!

Then there's a Tests button which allows you to choose timed tests or set-number-of-question tests which seem to ask you to chose the test based on how many you think you will get right. And there's a huge Contents Map with various links to listenings, downloads, and PDFs. Hmm

I'd be interested to hear from students who use this eWorkbook, as it may be I'm finding it more complicated than it really is. My guess is that students will choose the sections they like best and work through those, slowing checking out the other sections when they're ready. It seems the richness of the material has tripped Macmillan up a bit, as this is the most complicated and least coherent main menu I've seen on a DVD of this type. They'll probably kill me for saying that, but it's also the only one I've seen with such a comprehensive instruction manual - because it sure needs it? - beautifully produced as it is. This is also available from the bottom menu by clicking the question mark.

Oh, I should mention that it keeps track of your progress too, which is pretty cool.

I've also checked out the web site, but not the online version of the book which I'd be interested in perusing also, to compare it with other publishers' efforts as much as anything else. I'm a big fan of the ones I've already seen. The site has quite a few resources as well as the expected commercial aspects, and interesting podcasts with authors and videos with David Crystal to name but some of the riches within. The author blogs seem to have had their hayday back in 2010 when the course was winning Duke of Edinburgh awards and suchlike but there remains useful content there today if you have a few minutes for a browse.

A recently released Business Class eWorkbook has been added to the suite for, well, business classes, but more on that later when I receive my copy...

And I think that'll about do it! A great, fresh course absolutely jam-packed with interesting content for the truly open-minded and enquiring global learner (and teacher) of today. Check it.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Macmillan Global English Course"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Macmillan Readers" Editor John Milne

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:34:00 +0000

Macmillan Readers
Micheal Jackson
Nelson Mandela
I, Robot
Slumdog Millionaire
Much Ado About Nothing

Founding Editor: John Milne

Macmillan 2008-2011

Publisher's Website

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Sample blurb: "Michael Jackson changed the face of modern pop music and dance. Over twenty years after it was first produced, Thriller is still the best-selling album of all time. This Macmillan Biography looks at Jackson's early life from becoming a child star with the Jackson 5 to the height of his career as an international superstar."

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There are plenty of readers for learners of English out there and among the best collections are the Macmillan readers we are looking at today.

In their own words, 'This series provides a wide variety of enjoyable reading material for all learners of English. Macmillan Readers are retold versions of popular classic and contemporary titles as well as specially written stories, published at six levels.'

Macmillan have supplied me with one classic (Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing), one contemporary classic (Asimov's I, Robot) and a modern best-seller and hit film of course (Vikas Swarup's Slumdog Millionaire).

In addition I asked to see two biographies, one from the political field (Nelson Mandela) and one from popular culture (Michael Jackson).

The books are very straightforward and fairly 'meaty', without any in-text help or notes at the bottom of the page for understanding. I know that some people want notes and others abhor them, so it comes down to personal choice in the end.

Each chapter has a series of simple questions along the lines of 'Why was Michael angry with Berry Gordy?' and 'What happened when Michael was filming a Pepsi commercial?'. These are followed by a few pages of glossary and around ten pages of different exercises based on the text. These can be used in class or as homework if the book is being used by a teacher. In addition the story is recorded on CDs which come with each title.

The stories are illustrated with a few pictures and written in a clear, easy to follow style. The strong point of this series is its well-chosen titles and range of topics: classics, modern, biographies, sporting histories and the latest films; the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, is just out! The solid text without interwoven exercises, however, would make these volumes more suitable for the more mature, serious reader who enjoys feeling they are reading a 'real' English book and not one 'dumbed down' for learners.

Talking of movies, or films as us Brits would say, some of the titles are in American English (Michael Jackson, I, Robot), and the rest in British English. An interesting exercise would be to see if students can identify specific Americanisms or Briticisms in the stories and supply the equivalent in the other version. By the time they get up to levels 5 (intermediate) and 6 (upper) they should be well able to do such an exercise.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Macmillan Readers"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'Business Advantage Advanced' by Handford, Lisboa

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:19:00 +0000

Business Advantage

Advanced Student's Book
Michael Handford & Martin Lisboa

Cambridge University Press 2012

ISBN 9780521181846

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: "Business Advantage is based on a unique syllabus that combines current business theory, business in practice and business skills - all presented using authentic, expert input. The course contains specific business-related outcomes making the material highly relevant and engaging."

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When I wrote an in-depth review of the intermediate and upper-intermediate levels of Cambridge's new Business Advantage series earlier this year, I was pretty excited about it.

Now the advanced level is out and it's just as competently put together as the other two, as you'd expect from Cambridge.

There's no point me writing a full review of it as I pretty much exhausted everything I had to say last time. Suffice it to say that everything I discussed applies here and I'll leave you with some pretty pictures from the advanced level.

Read the full review

In case you don't pop over to the other long review, I finished it up thus:

"To sum up, then, I find Business Advantage an excellent new course, thoroughly up-to-date, with an inventively authentic business-focused approach. Cambridge describe it as 'the course for university and in-company learners, equipping them with the language they need to succeed in a business environment', and I'd say that's currently just about right. Well worth checking out."

And it's orange.

Read the full review

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Business Advantage"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "A Handbook of Spoken Grammar" by Paterson, Caygill, Sewell

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:01:00 +0000

A Handbook of Spoken Grammar
Strategies for Speaking Natural English

Ken Paterson, Caroline Caygill, Rebecca Sewell

Delta Publishing 2011

ISBN 9781905085545

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: "Spoken English is now recognised as having its own 'grammar', which is not covered in traditional language practice material. Using recent corpus research into spoken English A Handbook of Spoken Grammar teaches learners to speak more naturally, through the patterns that native speakers use when speaking English."

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'How to use Oh, Ah, Wow, Ouch, etc.' has to be my favourite chapter in Delta's Handbook of Spoken English. I like the units on things and thingies too though. In fact, there's a lot of refreshing new stuff in this volume you wouldn't normally see in a lot of standard English course books.

The thing is, they're treating the way we actually utter English, and it can come as something of a shock to see the way we speak written down. So much so that it could almost be off-puting for traditionalists, so diametrically opposed is it to the typical po-faced grammar and high-brow vocabulary we are used to seeing in student texts.

And yet we really do speak like that. My use of 'stuff' at the start of this review is a case in point. How often would you be taught 'stuff'? Almost never. And how often do we use it in day to day conversation? Loads.

The Handbook of Spoken English, then, is about English like what it is spoke. No, not to the point of introducing bad grammar but certainly covering many extremely common spoken structures which are rarely seen in the written form.

Sort of and kind of, loathed by many, get comprehensive coverage. As do I mean, you see and the ubiquitous you know.

It's not all about idiomatic language and phrases either. The way we really use reported speech is broached, no doubt much to the chagrin of those cute traditional transformation charts we're so fond of dishing out to our students. Learners discover the common and frequent uses of had better, have got to and be supposed to. Natural native speaker use of so, which is so common, is covered, as are genuine ways of expressing interest such as great!, fantastic!, perfect!, absolutely! and the so British brilliant! So you see, there's more to this book than meets the eye.

The Handbook of Spoken English claims to be primarily intended for self-study, but by its very nature I think teachers could easily exploit many of the activities for fun and profitable interactive class work.

Functions such as sounding more polite, exaggerating, making statements work as questions and making short responses to agree or show interest, all covered in-depth in the book, are ideal candiates for pair and group work exercises.

There are twenty four-page units packed with examples and exercises, and the layout is modern and not too dense, considering the amount of material they cover. The book's aimed at intermediate level and above, and I can see even quite advanced students benefitting greatly from this when their experience of actually using their English is limited.

One of the great problems many students have is feeling confident when using their English to engage in natural conversation and even just having the language to be able to do so. Understanding what is being said by native speakers is another huge stumbling block and the more familiar students can become with natural spoken English the better.

The Handbook of Spoken English can help students get used to all the intricacies of the everyday language not usually covered or insisted upon in their standard course books. As such it would make a useful supplimentary resource for teachers. The package is completed by an answer key and an audio CD so that students can listen and practise for themselves.

This volume is part of Delta Publishing's Natural English series, which is 'a series of language practice books for students who aspire to use natural, fluent English'. I've managed to get my hands on two other titles in the series, covering phrasal verbs and collocations, so look out for reviews of those soon here on the ELT Resources Review.

It's funny that these sorts of titles are still struggling to come out under the big editors, although admittedly Delta comes under the Heinle-National Geographic umbrella nowadays. It's almost as though spoken English, which when all's said and done is where written English originally came from, is still a taboo subject.

I dunno about you, but my students love feeling they are not only understanding what is being said to them but able to produce natural English too. All strength to Delta's editors for their efforts to make that a reality.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "English for Football"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Headway Elementary Fourth Edition" by Liz & John Soars

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:46:00 +0000

Headway
Elementary Student's Book (4th Edition)

Liz and John Soars

Oxford University Press 2011

ISBN 9780194769129

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: "The world's most trusted English course... A perfectly-balanced syllabus with extensive resources at all levels: In-depth treatment of grammar; Integrated skills throughout; Full student and teacher support in print, online, and on disc."

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Some things never change. Or not a lot. And if they did we’d be totally thrown. Headway is one of these things. It’s even rather difficult to know why they bother bringing out new editions, so similar are the contents, just the way we like them.

OK, there are changes, and I’m not even going to pretend that I’m familiar or going to make myself familiar with the differences between the third and brand new fourth edition of the Elementary Student’s Book I’m contemplating as I type. There’s very little point.

Either you already know what Headway’s about or you simply need to know that it’s something of a gold standard by which all other ELT course books can be judged.

It’s no longer innovative or ground-breaking, it’s simply… Headway, familiar, reliable, warm and cuddly old Headway just the way we like it. Or not.

Headway is utterly safe and innocuous and is still an Oxford University Press best seller. Its play-safe formula of straightforward explanations and exercises is still striking the right chords today, it would seem, as all those years ago when it first appeared, in a large number of teaching situations.

Granted, it’s now totally inappropriate in an equally large number of contexts, particularly those where English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has taken hold, but that’s fine. Everyone knows when and where Headway will probably work well and where it won’t.

Restless teachers try edgier titles; those who like to play safe stick with what they know best. It’ll always be like this and that’s why Headway still has its role to play, with its heavy focus on the four skills, on grammar and vocabulary and functional language in the most familiar and predictable way possible. It's the Murphy of course books.

Of course, the bit at the back has been updated, with a sizeable writing section amongst all the usual suspects dealing with grammar, pairwork and the quaintly titled ‘Tapescripts’.

Talking of which, there’s an ‘iTutor’ DVD-ROM (but no tape in sight) at the back of the book which is probably the most interesting aspect of the new course for those of us who know it well.

I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised by this. Not only did it open immediately, which is more than can be said for some publishers' offerings which need you to install all sorts of esoteric elements, but it was incredibly easy to use.

You can surf by chapter or by skill, and there are exercises, readings, listenings and video, and a good old everyday English section to boot. This offering seems to be pitched just about right - plenty of things to do, including grammar reference activities, word lists and printable instructions and progress sheets, but not an overwhelming number or level of complexity - it's very easy to get the hang of things and simple and fun to work your way through the units and exercises.

Significantly, however, the student's DVD-ROM doesn’t include the Student’s Book recordings which precludes it somewhat from the increasingly popular self-study market approach. Something for the fifth edition, perhaps.

I haven’t used Headway for ages, but if I had to start a new course with this book tomorrow it would be like slipping on a comfortable old pair of slippers, with just a hint of a toe starting to poke through but nothing to worry about for now. The DVD makes up for any short-comings, which there aren't really, given what I've already said above. See you at the fifth edition!

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Headway Elememtary Fourth Edition"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "Bookworms Club - Stories for Reading Circles" Editor Mark Furr

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:26:00 +0000

Bookworms Club
Stories for Reading Circles

Edited by Mark Furr

Oxford University Press 2007/2009

ISBN 9780194720007 (Bronze)
ISBN 9780194720083 (Diamond)

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: "In these seven short stories there are marriages and murder, mistakes and mysteries. People fall in love, and fall out of love; they argue, and they talk, and laugh, and cry. They go travelling, they go dancing - they even see ghosts. Oll of human life is here..." (from the Bronze edition).

"In these stories we find the strange and the familiar, the comfortable and the chilling - the friendship between a boy and his grandmother, cheating men, unhappy women, cold-blooded murderers, and a man who flies in a shadow-land of ghostly spirits..." (from the Diamond edition)

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It sounds mind-blowingly obvious but it's the first time I've seen the principle applied so rigorously: activities to turn the usually solitary process of reading into a truly participative and interactive classroom activity.

Admittedly, there is still solitary reading to be done, and this isn't intended to take up class time but is given for homework or free time. What's innovative is the assigning of clear roles to groups of six students to allow them to discuss the stories they have read in a constructive and engaging way in class.

The roles are shown here. The Discussion Leader guides the discussion and makes sure everyone has a chance to speak. The Passage Person finds interesting passages and asks the group questions about them. The Word Master looks out for new words or key phrases from the story. The Connector looks for connections between the story and the outside world. The Summariser identifies the key points necessary for understanding and remembering the tale. The Culture Collector looks for similarities and differences between the story's culture and that of the reading group.

As you can see, each student has a clear role to play in the discussion and role sheets with notes and questions help the learners prepare beforehand.

Various other worksheets encourage the students to understand and appreciate the stories fully, including the main theme and context, the key events, important vocabulary and narrative structure, and the author's background. These are all available for free download from the Oxford website, and there are even badges to allow students to fully slip into their roles.

The stories, as suggested by the blurb above, are engaging and despite being adapted or 'retold' as Oxford put it, from various sources, they are thankfully free from any cringy over-simplification, which can spoil the teacher's enjoyment of them, and possibly the student's too.

There are five levels covering 'stages' 1 to 6, which seem to be roughly pre-intermediate to fairly advanced. Each collection has seven stories and if you thought Bronze, Silver and Gold would pretty much tie things up, think again. The series also has, slightly confusingly, Platinum, Diamond, Coral, Pearl and Ruby members, but not necessarily in increasing order of difficulty.

The stories are short and pleasant enough to actually make quite good bedtime reading, even for native speakers, and the variety and scope is admirable.

For a class where reading, vocabulary building and understanding story structure is important but the teacher wants a far more communicative approach than usual, the Oxford Bookworms Club Stories for Reading Circles will be ideal.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Oxford Bookworms Club - Stories for Reading Circles"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: "The Company Words Keep" by Paul Davis & Hanna Kryszewska

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:22:00 +0000

The Company Words Keep
Lexical chunks in language teaching

Paul Davis & Hanna Kryszewska

Delta Publishing 2012

ISBN 9781905085200

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: "The Company Words Keep is a practical guide for teachers, showing how the latest insights into 'language chunks' can lead learners to acquire natural and fluent English. Here is a new methodology based on the Lexical Approach: a theory of language, of learning - and of teaching."

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Some girls are bigger than others, said The Smiths. Some girls' mothers are bigger than other girls' mothers, they concluded in the same song. And I never understood what they were on about. Well, not exactly. But I knew those lines by heart and could sing them from the imaginary sloping rooftops of my mind anytime.

Some ELT titles are also bigger than others, and I have a feeling that The Company Words Keep may be one of them. Slim as it is.

And therein lies the paradox. A little company like Delta Publishing (nibbled, but not yet digested, by a monster like Heinle-National Geographic) producing titles which can still include casual throw-away references to Deep Throat tossed in alongside weighty linguistic head-nods (see Nattinger and DeCarico (1992, Lewis (1993) and Hoey (whoee?) (2005)) and you'll see what I mean.

The Company Words Keep continues Michael Lewis' legacy and is all about chunks of words which we recognise and remember easily. In this much it is a joy, because it validates basically everything we've ever intuitively known or sensed when a really crappy learner one day comes out with a word and intonation-perfect utterance, against all the odds, because it's from one of their favourite songs.

But I'm rambling here, the beer must have got the better of me, which Paul Davis can surely understand, this being one of his declared back cover predilections.

The book comes in three parts. The first is pretty much summed up in its opening volley: "The company words keep. Not grammar. Not words. Word partnerships. Lexical density. Fixed expressions. Bits and pieces. Chunks." This leads into 14 fascinating pages covering all aspects of the topic such as what exactly a 'chunk' is and how long or fixed it is, along with sections on Chunks and language, Chunks and language materials, Chunks and language learners, Chunks and language learning and Chunks and language teaching. Chunks, you will have gathered, are very much the order of the day.

The basic premise is that almost over and above grammar there are more or less set expressions which we would do far better studying and knowing than taking part in your average English lesson. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it. This last paragraph probably contains about five already: basic premise; over and above; more or less; would do far better; a lot of sense; etc. Oops, is my prose that clichéd, really?! Or just that natural. It makes you think, doesn't it?

The guts of the book consists of activities in classic recipe book style divided into sections thus: In the beginning, In the coursebook, In action, In authentic contexts, In data., taking learners through the process of discovering chunks of language for the first time right the way to doing their own research into the topic.

The thing all these activities have in common, over and above concentrating on chunks, is that they're pleasingly fun, for teacher and students, in a way which isn't necessarily habitual for this sort of work.

The last part of the book elaborates on what we know about... you guessed it, chunks, looking specifically and interestingly at Chunks and the coursebook, Chunks and classroom research, Chunks and feedback, Chunks and children, teenagers and adults, and The Web.

The Company Words Keep is one of those books which you can either take with a pinch of salt, or allow to spark an utter paridigm shift in your approach to teaching, which I'm sure Delta and Paul and Hanna would be pleased to hear me say. The middle road is more likely - a lexicalisation of your teaching - including and drawing attention to more expressions and 'off the peg' formulae which can be immediately used to beneficial communicative effect. The book gives you all the tools, both intellectual and practical, to allow you to do this, and with panache.

Go for it, I say. In a manner of speaking, believe it or not, at the end of the day, a large amount of what we say consists of those sacred chunks. Why fight them?

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "English for Football"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: '400 Ideas for Interactive Whiteboards' by Sharma, Barrett, Jones

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 21:10:00 +0000

400 Ideas for Interactive Whiteboards

Instant Activities using Technology
Pete Sharma, Barney Barrett, Francis Jones

MacMillan Education 2011

ISBN 9780230417649

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: 400 Ideas for Interactive Whiteboards provides a wealth of resources to help teachers integrate the digital board into their classrooms. It provides practical ideas for using regular programs and software, for teachers new to this area, as well as suggestions on how to create specifically-tailored resources for teachers with greater levels of expertise. The clear organisation means that activities are categorised according to skills focus, makng them easy to locate. It also contains suggestions for project work, 'learning to learn' activities, and 'the connected classroom'.

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Having recently reviewed both 700 Classroom Activities and 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom from the same publisher, I'm getting fairly familiar with the format, as I imagine you are too.

Don't think that means I have nothing to say, however. I'm sure I'll find something!

Indeed, this book sent me scurrying for a book I reviewed two years earlier called Activities for Interactive Whiteboards from Helbling and the differences between the two titles are quite striking. You could almost say that the Macmillan title is a logical progression and complement to the Helbling work, with two more years of whiteboarded-up teachers and classes to call upon for inspiration.

The book's a fairly meaty beast and the best way I imagine using this is as a dipper-into recipe-server when you want something to spice up your standard course book. Having said that, whiteboard-ready course books are one of the topics covered in 400 Ideas for Interactive Whiteboards, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

While the Helbling book was simply divided into three sections for image-based, sound and video-based, and text-based activities, Macmillan's latest offering is an altogether more complex beast.

There are four large chapters, covering Using Regular Programs, Using The Whiteboard Software, Using Published Materials (which I mentioned just above), and Creating and Adapting Your Own Materials. Each of these chapters is then subdivided into sections, including, in most cases, Grammar, Vocabulary, Speaking, Listening, Writing, Reading, Pronunciation and sometimes Games, Learning To Learn and Projects.

'Regular programs' refers to things 'already out there' such as Flickr, Google Maps, Wikipedia, You Tube, Audacity for recording and Word for word processing, to name but a handful of the best known.

The 'whiteboard software' involves exploiting some of the fancy features that come built in such as dragging and dropping, concealing parts of the board, highlighting, zooming or adding notes and links to other web-based content.

'Published materials' is where the course book publishers have created Interactive Whiteboard (IWB, as we say at the chalk..., err, pixelface) editions of their courses, often with neat features such as being able to immediately play recordings by hitting an icon next to the text. These can often be enriched with the aforementioned IWB features.

Finally, 'Creating and adapting materials' is about teachers taking it to the next level of personalisation by using the built-in IWB tools to design worksheets and interactive exercises of their own.

Needless to say, each of these sections contains a lot of suggested activities or 'ideas' - they've got 400 to fit in, after all. Most of these are stand-alone one-hit-wonder types, but because of their clear organisation it's easy to go directly to the section which interests you most and find something to enrich the lesson at hand.

Each item starts with notes on level, interaction pattern, aim, language focus and, importantly, the technology you need to actually do the activity at all.

Then follows what you need to prepare before the class, the procedure to follow, things to do afterwards to extend the activity, variations and comments. And all of this generally on around a page or less but everything you need is there, and as usual with these Macmillan books, the variety of ideas is extremely impressive.

As well as individual chapter introductions there's a useful general intro to the whole book covering the practicalities, features, benefits and even challenges in using an IWB.

One final thing well worth mentioning is the eight case studies we find at the end of the chapters. These allow us to understand how specific teachers in clear contexts have integrated IWBs into their teaching environments.

So 400 Ideas for Interactive Whiteboards proves itself to be an invaluable addition to the rather limited amount of teacher-friendly literature on the matter. Any motivated teacher serious about exploiting this technology to the full owes it to themself to get this book.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review' ~ Book Review: "400 Ideas for Interactive Whiteboards"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'English for Football' by Boyle & Chersan

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 06:53:00 +0000

English for Football

Alan Redmond & Sean Warren

Oxford University Press 2012

ISBN 9780194579728

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: "English for Football is... the ideal quick course for anyone who needs to communicate in English with players, coaching staff, journalists, agents and fans. It is also suitable for students interested in a career in the football industry as a player, an official, an administrator, or a trainer. [It] will help you communicate effectively across the world's favourite sport."

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I was over the moon when I discovered the existence of this book, although, to be honest, at first I thought it must be some sort of joke. English for Football? Who are they trying to kid. I imagined a book of two halves, the first devoted to classic footballing clichés and metaphors, and the second a sing-along section to the fans' favourite off-colour chants.

How wrong I was, and naive too, as I realised upon reading the blurb above, the About The Book section and especially Sir Alex Ferguson's Foreword. So, conceding that there are no easy reviews, I'll risk feeling sick as a parrot, not just being here to make up the numbers and, well, at the end of the day, put this thing under the microscope. Brian.

As Ferguson says, "Just as in business or science, in football too, people increasingly tend to use English to communicate." I must say there's an interview with him in an old ELT course book and most of my students haven't got a clue what he's saying, but that's beside the point.

The point is, football is international - probably one of the most fluid international environments you can imagine actually - and the interest in and scope of the profession is vast. I really hadn't thought of the countless thousands of students doing sports oriented courses where football terminology could be highly relevant, never mind the communication problems of foreign players and managers trying to get their messages across to groups of bemused, slack-jawed interlocuters.

I still have a problem imagining your average international footballer sitting in an English class going through this book, but I guess the self-study approach could work very well for a newcomer to an English speaking environment, and the book is well suited to this.

To do things backwards somewhat, there's a CD-ROM (at the back) with both all the listenings from the book and interactive exercises covering grammar, vocabulary and useful footballing expressions. There are transcripts for all the recordings, each of the eight units has its own test/consolidation page and the answers are given too. There is, therefore, no teacher's book or additional CD to purchase, but Oxford do claim to provide 'teacher's notes and extra resources' on the web, although I couldn't find any for this title.

There's a good range of accents on the CD, both native speaker and foreign, and the speech is surprisingly natural for this fairly basic level. The interactive part is basically a set of three multiple choice and gap fill exercises for each unit. Standard consolidation stuff.

And as to the book itself. There are eight frighteningly colourful units, as I said, and what at first glance looks like a bit of a mish-mash of material turns out to be fairly well organised under the following chapter headings: It's My Club; Defender; Midfielder; Striker; Goalkeeper; Scout; Manager; The Greatest.

Each of the eight-page units has a trio of themes, such as Midfielder: Formations; Midfield maestros; Number 10, Manager: A manager's job; Manager or coach; Goalkeeping coach. The first three or four pages deal with these topics and the second half of the unit gets into the language and skills needed to flesh out the student's English abilities with a bit of grammar and functional language thrown in for good measure.

The joyful presentation (all those colours and boxes and photos) almost takes over from the pedagogical aims of the units, but I suppose they must have done in-depth studies on what was going to keep a footballiing student's attention focused and gone with what they concluded.

I should say it's bang up to date too, with Leo Messi and Christiano Ronaldo featuring prominently. Anything less would seriously damage its credibility if you ask me.

As for my conclusion, well first of all I think this book is in a group of one - it's the first of its kind that I've seen - so it'll be interesting to see what the other major ELT publishers come up with if they decide to take their ESP offerings in this direction. Knowing them it shouldn't take them long if they do. If there's one thing they hate its their competitors having something they haven't got. I imagine we could expect golf, tennis, sailing, horseriding, judo, and why not tiddly-winks titles in the foreseeable future. Is this the start of a new ESP goldrush I wonder?

I was slightly disappointed in the end not to find any footballing clichés or chants, but the Express series is far too professional to include such frivolity, and the final result, as one would expect from a publisher of the calibre of Oxford, is very pleasing indeed.

P.S. Am I still allowed to publish this review if I say that I can't stand the game..? Only kidding, my son, only kidding.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "English for Football"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'English for Law Enforcement' by Boyle & Chersan

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 20:47:00 +0000

English for Law Enforcement

Charles Boyle & Ileana Chersan

Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2009

ISBN 9780230732551

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: English for Law Enforcement is a language course designed to meet the communication needs of 21st century law enforcers, including customs officers, military police, security personnel and police officers. Starting at CEF level A2, it equips students with the langage they need to operate effectively in English in a range of standard law enforcement contexts.

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"Task 2: Listen again. Write the names of the speaker(s) who:
1) was beaten and locked up by their captors... 3) is afraid that their family could be in danger... 6) was forced to work as a prostitute..."

The last time I opened up an ELT book to be confronted with such surreally hard-hitting topics was LTP's ground-breaking and controversial Taboos and Issues back in 2001 which still remains a quirky classic in my eyes.

That was before the days of highly career-specific ESP publications like Macmillan's English for Law Enforcement, however. Nowadays the least likely of industries are getting their own specialised titles and this is a great example.

Of course, questionnaires on human trafficking or cartoon strips about getting beaten up are the most gruesome side of the topic. The vast majority of the book covers less scary subjects, with chapter headings such as Traffic and Vehicles, Out in the Community, and At the Police Station showing the more mundane side of the profession. Other chapters like Drugs and Alcohol, Civil Disorder and Organised Crime don't shy away from the grim realities of the work of a modern law enforcement officer though.

English for Law Enforcement is a sister title to English for the Military, which I reviewed recently, and much of what I said then goes for this title too. It's beautifully laid out, with tons of variety and colour making it quite the jolly read, despite some of the less than joyful topics being covered.

Each chapter again follows the rather cool Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta structure of four double-page spreads, covering all the language skills and a great deal of fascinating profession-specific topics in detail with great variety and panache. As an idea of the breadth of the material included, opening the book at random reveals sections on Interpol Notices, Protective Equipment, Identity Parades, Domestic Abuse, Assault at an ATM, The Big Match (football), and Kebab Shop Attack, to name but a few.

There's a 12-page set of Pairwork Files at the back, which emphasises the interactive nature of the course and I can imagine this stimulating lively exchanges between participants and I'm quite sorry I won't have the opportunity to use the book myself in the foreseeable future. So interesting is it, I'm tempted to wonder if any of the units could be included in a more general English language course, but I fear the topics are a bit to profession-focused for this to be the case, unlike the more abstract approach of a book like Taboos and Issues, which I mentioned earlier.

But highly specific professional titles are all the rage at the moment, and I can't see the trend slowing down for the time being. For example, if you wished to come at football from another angle than hooliganism and crowd unrest, you could check out a new English for Football title from Oxford I'm excited to be reviewing shortly. But I digress.

I almost didn't slip what I though was just the CD of the recordings for the exercises in the book into the player. When I did, though, I realised that is was, in fact, an 'integrated self-study CD-ROM including interactive language practice and consolidation of key language points', no less. It has a good variety of straightforward language comprehension and testing exercises and is a worthwhile addition to the package. As for the actual recording for the exercises, I only have the tapescripts at the back to go on, so I can't tell you how realistic or otherwise they are. I assume they are actors reading them, judging by the slightly slower than natural and crystal clear presentation of the recordings on the CD-ROM I do have to go on.

Macmillan's English For Law Enforcement is a model of its kind and I can fully understand why it won a prize for innovation as it proudly touts on its front cover. If I were teaching any of the individuals mentioned in the blurb (customs officers, military police, security personnel, police officers...) I'd definitely be including English for Law Enforcement in my armoury.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "English For Law Enforcement"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'English Grammar in Use Online' by Raymond Murphy

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 10:59:00 +0000

English Grammar in Use (Online)

A self-study reference and practice book for intermediate learners of English
Raymond Murphy

Cambridge University Press 2012

ISBN 9780521189392

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: This new edition with answers:

has a fresh, appealing new design and clear layout, with revised and updated examples
is arranged in a tried-and-trusted, easy to use format, with explanations of grammar points on each left-hand page and exercises to check understanding on the right
is perfect for independent studying and the study guide helps learners to identify which language points to focus on
contains lots of additional practice exercises to consolidate learning

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"English Grammar in Use Online"

~ COMPETITION ~

FIVE 12 MONTH SUBSCRIPTIONS TO WIN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO ENTER: Easy! Write to competition@hotchpotchenglish.com and say 'ONLINE'!
~ CLOSING DATE: Sunday, 16th September at MIDNIGHT! ~

Raymond Murphy’s English Grammar in Use hardly needs any introduction. It’s the ‘world’s best-selling grammar book’ according to the cover and who am I to disagree.

The red (Essential Grammar in Use) and blue (this one) ‘Murphys’ have been standard issue in every staff room or teachers' resource cupboard I’ve ever come across and I can’t see that changing any time soon.

The reason for their success is their simplicity. Each double page spread is a unit covering one grammar point or aspect of English. The explanations and examples are on the left and the straightforward exercises are on the right. All well and good and a stunning success, often copied but rarely bettered throughout the English language teaching publishing world.

But that’s not the reason I’m holding a brand new copy of the fourth edition (with answers and CD-ROM) in my sweaty hands today.

No, the reason we’re taking another look at English Grammar in Use doesn’t even need the book, because the entire thing is now on-line in a super-duper interactive version and rather splendid it is too.

To cut a short story even shorter, the whole darn book is there: every unit, every exercise, every supplementary activity and piece of reference material.

Not only that but some lucky people had the task of recording the whole thing orally so you can click next to virtually every sentence and hear it beautifully read in the best RP or something resembling it. I couldn’t have done a better job myself, and doubt that I’d have lasted the course given my attention span.

The interface is crisp and clear – even more so than the book actually. The main reason for this is increased space on the page - the sentences aren't so squished together and this increases readability immensely.

An additional aid to clarity is the ability to hide the details of the examples you are not working on from any page. And finally, the exercises are 'called up' from below the relevant explanation and open in new windows which obviously makes total sense as learners will want to refer back to the explanations as they work.

Other interesting features include the ability to bookmark your favourite (?) grammar exercises to get back to them easily, a search box and a little notepad for your own ideas attached to each page.

There are now a ridiculous number of follow-up exercises, both under the Additional Exercises tab, and in the English Grammar in Use 'Extra' section, which is also supplied as a CD at the back of the paper version with its 300+ extra exercises.

This latter element didn't actually work when I tried it but I'll no doubt get a panicky message as soon as this review goes live assuring me in the nicest possible terms that it does and that the fault is all mine or my computer's, which I'll be perfectly happy to accept. After all, a product this slick wouldn't be let loose with such an important element missing or malfunctioning, for sure.

I was a little sad to see that the handy and colourful little pull-out Grammar Reference booklet at the back of the book has been replaced by an altogether sterner Grammar Words detachable section, also part of the on-line package (but not so easily detachable). The Appendices still cover the basics if learners need them however.

My only slight niggle in all of this excellent adaptation is that the loading of exercises and certain interfaces is sometimes less than instantaneous. That isn't a euphemism for 'bloody slow' but you certainly have a few seconds to wait for most of them. In these times of instant gratification even a couple of seconds can seem like an eternity these days! Cambridge tell me they are aware of this and are working on it so it should speed up soon and isn't a major problem anyway.

I shouldn't forget the Study Guide either, which I've often used as a bit of a diagnostic test with students in the past. This points students in the direction of the units they need, and I should also say that all the units are linked to related pages making it as easy as possible for the user to navigate around the monster.

So a real success I would say, and if something like this existed for French or Spanish I'd certainly get myself a copy forthwith for my own purposes. This product almost makes redundant a thousand on-line ELT resources sites specialising in English language grammar exercises and explanations I'm afraid (for them) and for the self-motivated learner into studying alone and into the Murphy format, the online version of English Grammar In Use is the obvious path forward.

Finally, those nice people at Cambridge are offering five (5 - FIVE!!!!!) year-long subscriptions to English Grammar In Use Online for five lucky winners. See the box below for details, and thanks Cambridge for that.

"English Grammar in Use Online"

~ COMPETITION ~

FIVE 12 MONTH SUBSCRIPTIONS TO WIN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO ENTER: Easy! Write to competition@hotchpotchenglish.com and say 'ONLINE'!
~ CLOSING DATE: Sunday, 16th September at MIDNIGHT! ~

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "IELTS Express"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'Business Advantage' by Handford, Koester, Lisboa, Pitt

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:15:00 +0000

Business Advantage

Intermediate & Upper Intermediate Coursebooks
Michael Handford, Almut Koester, Martin Lisboa, Angela Pitt

Cambridge University Press 2011 / 2012

ISBN 9780521132206 / 9780521132176

Publisher's Website

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Every time one of the big publishers releases a major new course I'm always intrigued to see what they've come up with this time.

Here we have a definite biggie - Cambridge University Press - bringing out a brand new business English course called Business Advantage at the intermediate (B1) and upper-intermediate (B2) levels to start with. An advanced level C1-C2 volume is on its way. You can tell it's for business from the number of times they mention the word in just one part of their back cover blurb, quoted above, can't you?!

It's almost always the huge publishers who bring these things out these days, given the vast amount of resources required to create a new English course worthy of the name. Oxford University Press, Macmillan Education, Pearson Longman, Heinle... the usual suspects. But what makes a new coursebook series successful? It seems to me there are two main reasons.

The first is that it's new. As simple as that. Teachers, and students too for that matter, get bored with the same approach and layout, and presentations can feel stale after using them for a few times and the desire for something fresh sets in. Publishers love having new coursebooks to push and reactions to them are usually interested at least if not downright positive.

The second reason for a new English course's success is more of a conditional one. A new coursebook is an opportunity to try out new approaches, page layouts and course structures, as well as introduce innovative elements such as student's DVDs or interactive on-line content.

So how does Cambridge's new offering, Business Advantage measure up? Taking into account both of the above points, including a genuinely fresh angle, attractive layout as usual (if fairly dense), and a clearly delineated unit structure, Business Advantage goes straight onto the short list of books any Director of Studies should be considering today to refresh their teaching syllabus.

Let's take a closer look. Each course book is divided into 14 units which are further subdivided into seven categories common to both levels: Business Environment; Managing People; Managing Cultures; Managing Operations; Marketing; Accounting and Finance; Strategies and Decision-making.

The units from each category follow a logical progression and development across the two levels. The intermediate book has units on Motivation and Human Resources in the Managing People section, and the upper-intermediate level units deals with Rewarding Performance and Fostering Creativity. The Marketing section covers Marketing Strategy and Customer Relationship Management at intermediate and E-marketing and Branding at upper. A nice coherent approach so far. But what about the units themselves?

Each unit, as hinted at in the blurb above, is divided into three sections: Theory, Practice (based around a real-world case study), and Skills. For each of these there are clearly identified areas of focus, key language, reading and listening input and speaking and writing output.

An example from the skills part of The Learning Organisation unit from the intermediate book would be: Focus - taking an active part in negotiations; Language - giving an opinion, agreeing and disagreeing; Input - an external meeting between a vehicle manufacturer and their supplier; Output - negotiate a deal.

So much for the structure, which is clear and satisfying. What about the approach. For me this is one of the things which makes Business Advantage a definite contender for a language school's new business English course main support.

What Cambridge have done, in fact, is decide to market this as teaching business through English, as opposed to the more common English-through-business approach, and this is the first time I've seen it attempted, and achieved, so explicitly.

The difference is perhaps subtle, but vital, especially for the image of the course in today's increasingly sophisticated business world. Few managers and other professionals these days can deal with the idea of 'going back to school' like little kids, kicking their short-clad legs under the desk as some teacher tries to teach them the present perfect, unsuccessfully, for the umpteenth time.

Business professionals need to feel they are coming at English from their camp, from the world of high-powered deals and tricky problem solving, building on what they know - their business skills - and incorporating just one more business skill - English - into their armoury. Or, failing that, if they are new to the professional world, it is much more satisfying to be learning business skills as English slips in through the back door as it were.

That seems to be the approach Cambridge have chosen here. The Theory sections are about business theory, not linguistics; supply chain management, not subordinate clauses. The Practice sections come to the language through and after the case studies with Dell, Unilever, IKEA, Cisco Systems... have been thoroughly introduced, not before them. And the Skills sections are once again back to business competences: taking part in meetings and negotiations, proposing solutions, presenting facts and figures, international team building, over and before (but including) the language needed to perform these functions effectively.

Personally, I'm keen to try these courses out on real-world victims and see how they cope; I think the results will be encouraging if I know some of my clients well.

But is this all enough to really make Business Advantage stand out from the crowd, which includes some other very worthy competitors from the other 'biggies' already mentioned. Let's quickly look at what else the course has to offer.

For a start, I haven't mentioned that each of the seven sections at each level has a special two-page writing unit to deal with key business skills such as writing proposals, responding to complaints, describing graphs and formal versus informal e-mails.

Then there are the student's DVDs. Each student's book includes this series of seven case studies on the seven section topics, but not the same ones as the case studies in the book units themselves. The areas covered are very varied, including business angels, wind farms, electronics, banking and brand names and plenty more. I didn't notice much difference in the comprehension difficulty between the two levels' DVDs, but then all the interviewees were speaking naturally and fairly clearly, so I suppose they decided not to grade them particularly for this purpose.

A short commentary from a business school student adds to the variety of English and ideas on offer for each DVD case study. These are intended for student self-study along with special worksheets on the website but could just as easily be exploited in class if necessary. I found the video scripts on the website too, along with some additional activities and bilingual word lists from the course currently available in French, German, Italian, Polish and Russian.

At the back of the student's book they get all the audio scripts from the units as well as the answers in a clear nod to the self-study market. They don't get the listenings themselves, however, and would have to buy these separately if they wanted the full home-study package. I had access to the upper-intermediate class audio CDs, by the way, and found their level to be quite appropriate and the spoken English highly, if not 'perfectly' natural but fine for the purpose with a good variety of accents into the bargain.

Finally, we come to the part I've been most looking forward to (of course I look forward to reviewing course books, are you crazy..?) - the Classware component.

This, and I quote, 'allows you to access and manipulate all the core content from the Student's Book, including video, audio, images and text, from a single electronic platform'.

In other words, it's good to go with interactive whiteboards or just computers and a projector and you can make notes, zoom, hide stuff, save things and even combine your own materials with the published content.

Sounds good. And it is, great fun. I thoroughly enjoyed playing around with the Classware component and envisage using it with both classes and one-to-one students as an exciting new element for them to experience. It did take a bit of messing around with the two CDs they supplied but after it was up and running it was pretty intuitive (I didn't read or need any instructions, which is lucky, because there weren't any...).

The bits I enjoyed most were starting the listenings instantly and toggling the audio scripts on and off, and, in particular, adding my own pictures, page jumps, web links and useful notes to the pages to be brought up with a click - brilliant!

You can save them all as 'sessions' and open them up as and when necessary. You could have different sessions for different classes using the same book, with their own personalised notes added as you go through the lessons. I could go on, but the advantages of this techology are multiple and the possibilities endless.

To sum up, then, I find Business Advantage an excellent new course, thoroughly up-to-date, with an inventively authentic business-focused approach. Cambridge describe it as 'the course for university and in-company learners, equipping them with the language they need to succeed in a business environment', and I'd say that's currently just about right. Well worth checking out.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Business Advantage"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: '500 Activities for the Primary Classroom' by Carol Read

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:02:00 +0000

500 Activities for the Primary Classroom

Immediate Ideas and Solutions
Carol Read

MacMillan Education 2007

ISBN 9781405099073

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom is an indispensable collection of practical activities for teaching English to primary-aged children. It aimes to develop an awareness of the complex factors involved in working effectively with classes of children and to lay a solid foundation in primary language teaching skills.

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"700 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES"

~ COMPETITION ~

5 COPIES TO WIN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO ENTER: Easy! Write to competition@hotchpotchenglish.com and say '700'!
~ CLOSING DATE: 21st August, 2012 ~

Unlike its earlier stablemate, 700 Classroom Activities, Carol Read's book positions itself as much more of a 'handbook', 'the definitive handbook for all primary teachers and teacher trainers', no less, whilst still offering its eponymous 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom.

The tone is set by the rather meaty 12-page introduction which is excellent reading for new and needing-reinspired teachers alike.

After an introduction to the book itself and how to use it there's a 'Working with children section' which explores ideas on 'creating optimal conditions for children's learning'. The (literally) Child-centred C-Wheel model is introduced, followed by descriptions of each of the eight cutely coordinated C-chosen categories: Context; Connections; Coherence; Challenge; Curiosity; Care; Community and Creativity.

Having done a Primary Teacher Training Certificate with Carol at the British Council in Paris a few years ago I can assure you, without going into too many details, that this is the real deal and a great introduction to the topic.

This is followed by sections on 'Managing children positively', 'Relationships', 'Rules', 'Routines', 'Rights and responsibilities', 'Respect' and 'Rewards'. After the C-Circle I'd have thought there was definitely scope for an R-Rectangle there Carol!

The judiciously weighty intro finishes with general guidelines for setting up activities and then we're ready to rock and roll into the... introduction to the Listening and Speaking Activities section.

In effect, each of the activities sections has a three-page introduction giving specific information and hints and tips on the types of actvities therein. As well as a Listening and Speaking section there is Reading and Writing, Vocabulary and Grammar, Storytelling and Drama, Games, Rhymes, Chants and Songs (my favourite), Art and Craft, Content Based Learning, the appropriately up to date ICT and Multimedia, and that old chestnut, Learning To Learn.

As with the companion title for older learners, 700 Classroom Activities, there's far too much here to get into describing individual exercises. Therefore I'll do what I've done before and open at random and cite a few activity titles:

From the Games section: Jumping Beans; Hopscotch; Abracadabra; Pass The Secret; Feely Bag Games; Name Games; Can I Cross Your River, Mr Crocodile?

From the Rhymes, Chants and Songs section: Clapping Chants; Instructions Rhyme; The Name Rap; Animal Noises; Spot The Rhyming Words; Counting Songs; A Rhyme A Month.

From the Content Based Learning section: Mixing Colours; Metal, Plastic, Glass or Wood?; Characteristics In Common; Bug World; Life Cycles; Growing A Plant; The Water Cycle.

From the ICT and Multimedia section: Email A Friend About A Book; Weather Check; Class Email Group; Subtitle Options; Repeat What They Say; A Visitor In Town.

From the Vocabulary and Grammar section: Secret Letter; Word Tennis; Sentence Chains; Physical Line-up; Monster Adjectives; It Looks Like...; Beep!; Mime The Grammar.

Apart from the delightfully kids-oriented approach to each subject, the activities include extremely clear instructions and necessary information, including Level, Age, Organisation, Aims, Language Focus, Materials, Procedure and very useful Comments and Suggestions allowing you to adapt or prolong activities or their themes based on your own teaching situation.

The aforementioned Learning To Learn section is also one of my favourites, as it allows children to become aware of and to an extent take charge of their own learning aims and progress towards them. Teachers, in particular, will find this section invaluable, especially in the eyes of the parents I would imagine, as it allows you to show explicitly what children are learning and the successes they are achieving in their own words and creations.

Activities include Setting Goals, Grammar Mind Maps, Vocabulary Networks and Clines, Class Contracts and Classroom Jobs, Things That Help Me Learn, How I Like To Do Homework (!!!!!), Self Assessments, Learning Diaries and so it goes on.

It's doubtful that all of these could be done with a single class but I'm sure that's not the intention. Teachers would probably pick three or four of these techniques and try them out with their class to see how it goes, but the resources are valuable and worthy ones.

To sum up, 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom is a superb resource for any teacher looking to spice up their lessons, discover hundreds of new things to do with their classes and re-energise themselves in the most fun and satisfying way possible.

P.S. For the next week we are giving away 5 copies of companion volume 700 Classroom Activities - see below for details!

"700 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES"

~ COMPETITION ~

5 COPIES TO WIN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO ENTER: Easy! Write to competition@hotchpotchenglish.com and say '700'!
~ CLOSING DATE: 21st August, 2012 ~

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review' ~ Book Review: "500 Activities for the Primary Classroom"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'Campaign - English for the Military' by Mellor-Clark & Baker de Altamirano

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 20:07:00 +0000

Campaign

English for the military
Simon Mellor-Clark
Yvonne Baker de Altamirano

Macmillan Education 2004

ISBN 9781405009805

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: Campaign is designed to meet the English language needs of military personnel engaged in all operations, including peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and training exercises.

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I know it might look like I'm living behind the times, reviewing a book first published in 2004, but it's new to me, ok, and I'm always on the lookout for interesting materials to review I haven't come across before.

Which is why I was intrigued by the somewhat ahead of its time Campaign: English for the military, Student's Book 1.

It's actually a fascinating book, which cleverly weaves the English language and the needs of the military together with aplomb. Admittedly, the 'From the blurb' section doesn't mention one of the key eventualities of military personnel in the form of soldiers - combat - but practically everything around the topic is covered in appreciable detail for this level, elementary, and much more besides.

Each of the 14 units is cunningly divided into Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot and Golf sections.

Alpha introduces the topic and the key vocab in typical English language course book style.

Bravo and Charlie cover basic grammatical and lexical areas.

Delta deals with everyday English including non-military situations like shopping and socialising.

Echo and Foxtrot move into more functional language as well as more advanced vocabulary groups and pronunciation.

Golf, finally, revises the language learnt and provides consolidation of structures 'n' stuff.

As for the topics themselves, I'm no expert, so I couldn't claim for an instant to know whether they are the most relevant, but they've been 'vetted by officers from the American, British, French and Spanish armies', according to the publishers, and provide an accurate reflection of military life and language, so who am I to argue?

Indeed, they sound fascinating, and would be a welcome change from teaching bankers or lawyers (sorry guys). Random headings include Military Inventions, The Assault Course, Casualty Evactuation, Rules of Engagement, Working With People From Other Countries, Crash Landing, Terrain Analysis, The History of NATO, Aircraft, Vehicles and Naval Ships, and the eyebrow-raising Camp Orders.

I was disappointed not to see what I would consider vital expressions in this last section, such as 'Ooh, straighten your helmet, lovey, it's all wonky..' (cue canned laughter), but seriously, the book's got all angles covered as far as I can see, for an introductory, low-level text.

I just have one nagging question, despite wishing I'd had this book when teaching officers and soldiers from the French army at Versailles a few years ago: how many army personnel actually have the time to do '120 hours of classwork in the Student's Book backed up with 80 hours of revision in the Workbook?

Well, maybe they do for all I know, which is little, and in any case this is an excellent resourse to consider for any teacher working with the military needing inspiration and extra materials over and above what they may have been provided with or are able to produce themselves.

As ever I welcome any and all elucidating comments below to fill in the glaring gaps in my knowledge of military English, whether you've used the book or wrote it. At ease.

P.S. Watch out for a review of the sort of sister volume English for Law Enforcement, also from Macmillan Education, coming on these pages shortly.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "IELTS Express"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: '700 Classroom Activities' by Seymour & Popova

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 09:21:00 +0000

700 Classroom Activities

Instant Lessons for Busy Teachers
David Seymour & Maria Popova

MacMillan Education 2005

ISBN 9781405080019

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: 700 Classroom Activities provides an instantly accessibly repertoire of practical teaching ideas. It contains a range of activities, including both familiar favourites and new ideas at a range of levels from elementary to upper intermediate. The clear structure makes it easy to find activities to supplement coursebooks, and comprehensive instructions make them easy to use. All of the activities are ready to teach, with no photocopying required.

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"700 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES"

~ COMPETITION ~

5 COPIES TO WIN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO ENTER: Easy! Write to competition@hotchpotchenglish.com and say '700'!
~ EXTENDED until Friday: 24th August, 2012!!! ~

Short, juicy, delightful, delectable. It's hard to believe that within this relatively slim volume there is as much collected wisdom as any teacher might wish to have in a lifetime of teaching, never mind a month of Sundays.

All the classics are there, along with a plethora of marvellous new ideas, all immediately actionable, all photocopiless (new word, sez my spellcheck), all valuable and fun. And if that's not what any new or experienced teacher needs, I don't know what is.

It's extremely difficult to review a book of teaching ideas without either listing examples, which would be self-defeating (especially considering there are 700 of them), or just saying that it's good, or not, which would be banal.

To try and get around this problem and create an article worth reading nevertheless, I'll open the book at random and tell you what I find. Appropriately enough, it's called...

Bare Necessities
In pairs, brainstorm a list of the twenty most important things that you need on a day-to-day basis and put them in order from most to least important. See how your list and order compares with another pair.

What is the bare minimum that a person needs to survive? List a few other things that people say they need, but that might not in fact be necessary.

I can already imagine hilarious discussions as to whether tooth brushes and underpants are part of the bare minimum...

As it happens this is a good example of the feel of the book, if the majority of the activities are a bit longer and with more exercises incorporated.

It also illustrates the approach of getting the students talking and extending the activity when language ability permits.

700 Classroom Activities does have a certain structure to it; it's divided into four sections: Conversation; Functions; Grammar; Vocabulary. These sections are further divided, so under functions you'll find groups of activities relating to Ability, Advice, Buying and Selling, Complaining and Criticising, Deduction, Describing and so on.

The grammar section offers an excellent range of activites for all the main structures such as the first, second and third conditionals and even stuff like reported speech and relative clauses.

The vocabulary section gets into things like Parts of the Body, Phrasal Verbs, Exclamations, Holidays, Numbers and a bunch of other stuff. You get the idea.

The real magic of 700 Classroom Activities is that you can virtually pick it up and go, if you're looking for a specific communicative activity, or simply open it at random and have an off the hoof activity which will have your students thinking you're a cool, organised and prepared teacher, which of course you are, you are...

Personally, if I were starting over, and I was in a book shop and spotted this title I'd snap it up in a jiffy. And take it from there. Dare I say that's maybe all I'd ever need? No, probably not!

"700 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES"

~ COMPETITION ~

5 COPIES TO WIN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO ENTER: Easy! Write to competition@hotchpotchenglish.com and say '700'!
~ EXTENDED until Friday: 24th August, 2012!!! ~

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "IELTS Express"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'IELTS Express' by Hallows, Lisboa & Unwin

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:05:00 +0000

IELTS Express

Intermediate & Upper Intermediate Coursebooks
Richard Hallows, Martin Lisboa & Mark Unwin

Heinle Cengage Learning 2011

ISBN 9781133313069 / 9781133313021

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: "IELTS Express is a two-level preparation course for candidates studying for the International English Language Testing System examination (IELTS). IELTS-type tasks and practice activities provide students with the essential skills they need for exam success.

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It's a funny old exam, the IELTS, and quite a tricky one if you ask me. Because it's testing both English language skills and aptitude to study or survive abroad in an English speaking environment, it's sometimes difficult to know where it's coming from, or in any case how to approach it.

Oh well, that's probably just me, and of course it's part of the Cambridge ESOL stable so its credentials are impeccable. You just have to pass the thing, and to do that you need to prepare, in this case, as much for this particular exam as for the English you are likely to be tested on.

IELTS Express does a good job of this using a resonably clear and attractive layout - i.e. not too cluttered - and certainly covers all the question types you are likely to come across in the test itself.

Each of the two books can be used on a typical 30-40 hour short preparation course, and extended by many more by using the accompanying workbook and teacher-found supplimentary exercises.

The intermediate book covers both the General and the Academic exam, while the upper intermediate book focuses more on the latter, both books providing practice tests for their areas of concern.

Each book is divided into eight units, with the lower level volume understandably covering more general topics such as Studying Overseas, Shopping and the Internet, Transport and Inventions, and Attitudes to Food.

The higher level book takes more serious, or at least more businessy topics as its unit starting points, including Education, The Workplace, Climate and the Environment , and Growth and Development.

Needless to say, each unit has sections devoted to a couple of the skills - that is to say papers - tested in the exam - reading, writing, listening and speaking, all closely integrated into exam-type exercises.

Regular 'in the exam' and 'exam strategy' boxes inform the future candidates of the sort of things to look out for.

Each book also has a couple of pages of 'language bank' containing many beautifully concise yet sophisticated expressions to help students' written and oral presentations flow with ease. If they only mastered all of these how much better their English would be just from those two pages!

All in all, then, IELTS Express seems to be an excellently written and presented brace of titles ideal for anyone going for a satisfactory grade in this more and more popular English test, especially for those hoping to study, live and work abroad.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "IELTS Express"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'Digital Play' by Kyle Mawer & Graham Stanley

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:17:00 +0000

Digital Play

Computer games and language aims
Kyle Mawer & Graham Stanley

Delta Publishing 2011

ISBN 9781905085552

Publisher's Website

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From the blurb: "Digital Play is a pioneering book on the use of computer games in language teaching, in which the authors share their expertise in training teachers in innovative classroom practice with their excitement for teaching with technology. It offers:
- guidance on taking on the challenge of the digital revolution
- insight into how learners engage with gaming outside the classroom
- advice and activities for effectively bringing the world of gaming inside the classroom

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Kyle Mawer and Graham Stanley are two gaming enthusiasts who, after seeing the potential of computer games of various sorts in language teaching, went on to post their ideas on the Digital Play blog before finally researching and writing this book.

The principle is eminently attractive: learning language through playing, in this case, already phenomenally popular computer video games of one kind or another.

The practical aspects, however, are another story altogether. I speak from experience of letting classes of kids lose in the computer room; aims and rules are worth their weight in gold, I can tell you.

That's where Digital Play comes into its own. The start of the book is all about the concepts behind computer games and learning. Successive sections link computer games up with society, education, language learning, language teaching and language aims. Each section is fascinating and revelatory in its own right, as we realise the extent to which 'virtual' on-line worlds have become virtual reality for a vast number of people.

As someone who has more or less avoided these things I'm keen to discover exactly where we are with them now. I have to admit to two waves of on-line gaming addiction though.

The first was Second Life, the virtual world where you move your little 'avatar' around, build things, buy things, 'socialise', and so on. You very quickly get dragged into spending some decidedly unvirtual money and finally having a 'bad experience' (the 'land' I was renting to hold my three stunning art and photography galleries was sold off behind my back, ironically, to a games emporium developer) and moving on to other things.

The second round of addiction affliction was a game called Farmville, highly dependence creating, not to mention contagious - the whole of my family was rapidly spending hours clicking on virtual fields to grow virtual crops to buy virtual windmills and all sorts of nonsense. I've been 'clean' for several months now, unless blogging falls into that category of dangerous computer pastimes.

Anyway, after a dozen pages of good solid scene-setting, we have a glossary covering a mind-boggling number of game genres, including adventure, first person shooter (FPS), dressing up, arcade, singing and music, simulation, puzzle and role-playing games to name but a few. So that's what people do in their spare time and when they're arriving late for work...

Then there's an equally comprehensive list of sites about and supplying games, and then many actual games themselves, under the triple whammy heading of Some great games, great to play, great to use, so I can only assume they are.

The second part of the book, divided into four sections entitled Game on!, The non-connected classroom, The connected classroom, and Multiple connections, is where we get down to business. Ninty-odd half to one-page lesson plans take us through one of the aforementioned games from a teacher's perspective. There are indications for what to do to prepare the students, guide them through the games and follow up afterwards, all concisely presented in short bulletpointed lists.

The main skills focus of the exercises is given for each in terms of reading, writing, listening and speaking, and the variety of ideas presented is admirable and goes far beyond just playing the game in English or describing what they did afterwards which would be a recipe for lazy language teaching and inefficient learning.

The third and final part of the book is for teachers who would like to take things to the next level. Notably on integrating their new digital teaching passion into an existing, possibly inflexible syllabus. Ways of developing further are also covered, including new teaching paradigmes for the 21st century, reading up on the extensive existing literature right the way through to creating your own games and activities. The important aspect of computer room management gets a nod and we should remember that the authors' Digital Play blog often provides further ideas based on the concepts covered in the book.

Visit the Digital Play blog here

I've just checked the Digital Play blog and discovered that not only is there fresh content weekly, but that the book has just won a prestigious British Council prize, so well done to all concerned. It seems that all play and no work makes Kyle and Graham smart boys indeed. Just joking about the no work part, obviously.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: "Digital Play"
© 2012 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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