ELT Resources Review

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From the blurb: "Practical Grammar is a three-level British English Grammar course for self study or use in the classroom. The series takes students through key aspects of English grammar from Elementary to Upper Intermediate levels."

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I'm happy to see level 3 of Practical Grammar from Heinle coming out at last, but I'm not sure how to review it. Having covered levels 1 and 2 in some depth a few months ago on this very blog, it's a little tricky to find an original angle and the temptation is to just quote the back cover blurb or simply file it on the shelf and review a more original title instead.

But that would be betraying my hard won reputation for reviews which spit syllables in the face of other boring ELT web site critiques, so let me think about this for a moment...

No, on second thoughts I'll just quote the back cover blurb and file it so I can get on with reviewing a more original title instead.. ;-D

I loved the first two books in any case, and this one is equally pleasing. Apart from being a welcome alternative to the venerable Murphys, Hewings and Swan & Walters of this world, Practical Grammar is fresh-looking, well thought out, and full of funny coloured illustrations, which gives it a ton of brownie points in my book.

What often happens as grammar books mount the echelons is that they get wordy, weighty, dense and terribly dry. Whilst no doubt purists and pedants will claim that the depth and substance isn't there in PG3, I'm always sceptical as to how many people actually plough through every last example in these things anyway.

So to the blurb. There are 100 double spreads, divided into groups of five, with every fifth unit being a test of the last four. And just for that I like this book a lot.

Each set of five units covers a specific area of English grammar, such as adjectives and adverbs, if clauses, verb + something or other, modal auxiliaries, reported speech, passives or prepositions. And the fun doesn't stop there either! At the back of the book you'll find ten more progress tests covering ten units each, with is a real boon for teachers. And as Stephen Fry so rightly said in this seminal sketch, 'We're always on the lookout for enormous boons'...

Back to the blurb though, as I desperately struggle to keep this 'review' on track... the language is presented through realistic conversations, newspaper articles and the aforementioned ubiquitous cartoons. And is the language 'natural', as the back cover claims? It's not bad.

The level of this member of the Practical Grammar series is given as 'Intermediate to Upper Intermediate', B1 to B2 in the Common European Framework system, and corresponding more or less to the Cambridge FCE exam. The first two levels covered the KET and PET exams so I'm detecting a pattern here.

Apart from the usual carefully structured series of examples, explanations and exercises given in each unit, what else is there that might potentially make Practical Grammar Level 3 stand out from the crowd?

Well there are two audio CDs which are great for listening practice and pronunciation work, but probably the most interesting 'extra' is the exciting pin code which 'allows access to MyPG for extensive additional online practice for use at home or in self-access centres'.

OK then! I'm sitting at home on the sofa on a rainy Sunday evening and I'm going to see with you, as I type, if this thing actually works, here I go!

22.12: Open front cover and peel away label to reveal pin code. First attempt FAIL! I succeed in removing the first layer of the label, which is what I thought I was supposed to do, without revealing any pin code at all. Will now attempt to peel off the remaining thick and jolly well stuck part without destroying the book completely in case the secret code is lurking there.

22.16: SUCCESS! It was there right underneath the whole thing! Shall now try to find the web site address.

22.19: Have discovered that the instructions are on the inside front cover just above the label, having scoured the rest of the book for them. What a silly place to put them, I ask you...

22.21: I've made it through the first part, entering as an independent student, but am now faced with a rather scary form to fill in; good job I'm an upper-intermediate student, what? ;-)

22.26: SUCCESS. Err, kind of. I made it through the password creation and secret question and all that stuff, but a rather worrying message is now telling me that System Check has found some problems with my browser - Safari (Version 535.1). 'We're sorry. The system check of your computer has identified one or more items that need further attention before you can enjoy all of MyELT's features. Don't you just love computers. Aparently I need to update my version of Mozilla. Which is strange considering I'm currently using a product called Google Chrome. Oh well, I'll click the button marked 'Enter MyELT' anyway and hope for the best...

22.42: SUCCESS! I got in all right in the end despite the doom-laden message and had some moderate fun sampling bits of the exercises based on the first five units. And they're not bad at all. It's all fairly straight forward stuff, but that's probably exactly what learners want. And I was pleased to find both listenings and opportunities to record your voice, with a much appreciated absence of totally useless voice oscillation graphs: you just listen to an example, record your voice and then compare it to the original - much more sensible.

Oh, and you get grades and everything, and can do the exercises as often as you like. And there's lots of them.

So there you have it. My hopefully somewhat less than utterly boring review of Heinle Cengage Learning's latest grammar practice book offering. And I like it. If you're in the market for such an item I think you should seriously check it out. Now where's that funky book on teaching on-line I really wanted to get my darting digits into..?

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: 'Practical English Level 3'
© 2011 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'Financial English with financial glossary' - Ian MacKenzie

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 10:58:00 +0000

Financial English

with financial glossary & possibly spiders (2nd edition)

Ian MacKenzie

Heinle Cengage Learning2012

ISBN 9781111832643

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From the blurb: "Financial English is a language practice book for anyone learning about or working in finance. It is designed for students preparing for careers in business and finance as well as for people already working who wish to improve their English in this specialised field. It is suitable for learners at Intermediate level and above."

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Look out - if the mergers and takeovers don't get you, the leveraged buyouts surely will.

Financial English from Heinle Cengage, with or without a financial glossary, was never going to be a sexy English language book, so let's get that idea out of our heads straight away.

Unfortunately, the cobweb-shrouded world of figures and financial data doesn't lend itself to such frivolity as coloured diagrams, daisy-fresh layouts and fun role-plays on every other page.

The book is green. Well, I mean the print is, which is one positive step away from boring old black I guess. And I realise suddenly I've done Heinle a terrible disservice: they have tried to make it sexy: there are cartoons! OK, they're not side-splitting (insurance company manager to secretary: "This letter is brief, clear and concise - do it again!" :-) but the gesture is appreciated.

The guts of this book, though, is serious graft as we chug through the labyrinth of money market terminology, via a series of pretty hefty texts followed by vocabulary analysis and straightforward comprehension exercises.

I must say, there's no actual language teaching here as such. The passages seem to assume almost complete mastery of the forms of English, concentrating exclusively on language as it relates to finance. The publishers consider this book suitable for intermediate level learners and up. Well maybe, but as often happens we come up against the classic ESP problem: are we teaching them finance or English? Should an English teacher or a market trader be giving English lessons based on this book? And if it's to be used for home study, will the students manage, and will they actually do all of the exercises?

These questions constantly bother me every time a highly specialised book like this lands on my doormat.

Actually I haven't got a doormat, I've got a strange French letterbox which sits in a hole in the fence allowing the postman to insert the object in question into a hole in one side and me to extract it from the other. Only the internal access is extremely hampered by an enormous spider-infested tree-thing which seems to have claimed said letterbox as its own. The result is that to obtain my mail I have to practically become one with the arachnabush, no doubt picking up a few thousand spider's eggs on the way which then come back to scare the living daylights out of the entire family as we sleepily perform our daily ablutions.

I'm sorry, where was I? Oh yes, Financial English (not forgetting the glossary). And it was just starting to get interesting.

Anyway, I've promised myself to write far shorter reviews in future so that I can get more of them out there, so I'll more or less wrap up here, I think you probably get the idea.

As the publishers say, it's a language practice book, not a course book, and as such it contains a large amount of relevant material for its intended audience: those preparing for careers in business and finance or those needing to brush up or Anglicise their lexical knowledge base.

The book would make a good back up for a more interactive course or for homework exercises and supplementary reading, but as the sole support it would be a little... dry. You'd need a dynamite teacher to make this stuff come alive, I'd say.

I noticed there's a unit on the sub-prime crisis, by the way, with a whole bunch of juicily gloomy expressions to gnaw on like credit crunch, housing bubble, collaterized debt obligations, mortgaged-backed securities, toxic debt, trash cash and the like. Shudder. Scarier than spiders for many.

Oh, and did I mention that there's a financial glossary? Twenty four pages of closely woven text for some seriously fun inter-crisis reading.

I'm not knocking the book, mind you. It's going straight onto my language school's shelves and will be a useful resource for my poor teachers who tear their hair out trying to find suitable material to satisfy their demanding (and serious) Parisian banking and insurance students. I'm sure it'll stimulate some discussion. Especially explaining the squashed spiders - I'd like to be fly on the wall in that lesson.

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: 'Financial English with financial glossary'
© 2011 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'Primary Music Box' - (Sab Will - Cambridge University Press)

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:13:00 +0000

Primary Music Box

Traditional songs and activities for younger learners

Sab Will

with Susannah Reed

Cambridge University Press 2010

ISBN 9780521728560

Two Sample Units

Download PDF / Quick View

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From the blurb: "Are you looking for an enjoyable, educational way to use songs in your classroom? Do you need materials which are quick and easy to prepare? Then Primary Music Box is for you! Containing over 70 photocopiable worksheets to accompany the collection of traditional songs on the audio CD, it brings music and English language learning to your pupils in a fun, accessible way."

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"PRIMARY MUSIC BOX"

~ COMPETITION ~

10 COPIES TO WIN!

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~ SIMPLY COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW HERE TO ENTER ~

DISCLAIMER: The creator of this site WROTE this book! Obviously we can't 'review' Primary Music Box as we would another title, and have therefore opted for another approach: an exclusive interview!

So, with the help of a close ELT friend, we offer you an exclusive interview with Sab Will, author of Cambridge University Press' latest title for teachers of kids, Primary Music Box; ladies and genteelmen, we give you... well, you know... that guy.

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ELT Resources Review: How does it feel to see your first English Language Teaching book published?

Sab Will: It feels strange... but good. Better than I expected.

ELT-RR: What was the thinking behind Primary Music Box?

SW: Well, it was a long time ago now - the time it takes for these things to see the light of day is... surprising - but I think I actually suggested three possibilities to the publisher.

ELT-RR: Which were?

SW: A music-based title, obviously. Then I think a computer or internet-focused idea, and then... umm, perhaps a story or poem-based book. Honestly, I can't remember any more!

ELT-RR: So tell us a bit more about Primary Music Box. What inspired you to write the book?

SW: What I really wanted to do was 'invent' some gaps in the already excellent Cambridge Copy Collection series for kids. When you see so many great books in an established series, it's difficult, and intimidating, to think that you could have something more to offer, especially as a new ELT author, but luckily one of my ideas caught someone's attention!

ELT-RR: OK, two questions in one now! First of all: why music? And secondly: why kids?!

SW: Ah! Well the question why music is easy! Music has been one of the driving forces of my life, ever since I was very young. I actually used some of my old LPs for inspiration and songs like Waltzing Matilda, Oranges and Lemons and There Was An Old Lady came directly from them.

Having a young daughter also helped and my father can spontaneously recite the words to about a million songs and poems so there was plenty of material out there for me to call on.

And then, in the field of language teaching, I have no doubt that music is a marvellous way to introduce an element of surprise and pure pleasure into the langage classroom whilst still, albeit sneakily, introducing new language structures or consolidating old ones.

ELT-RR: And what about children? As a music lover, why did you decide to devote so much time to a book destined to be appreciated uniquely by English-learning kids and their teachers?

SW: I think music is timeless and ageless, and given the right circumstances anyone can enjoy practically any musical or rhythmic form. And of course seeing the joy of children enjoying music without realising they are actually learning new language is a magical experience. From the moment we are born our mother sings us nursery rhymes and lullabys and even laments our misdeeds in a sing song voice...

For me, music is the first language of life, even if it's just the gentle hum of our parent cradling us to sleep, which for most of us, even though we might not realise it, accompanies us throughout our lives. Otherwise, why would the music industry exist? People saying stuff in silly, unnatural voices would have no meaning if music didn't take us back to our earliest moments and to our most primordial needs. Like comfort and safety and love, for example.

ELT-RR: OK, so tell us more about the book itself: who is it aimed at and how can teachers get the most out of it?

SW: Well, at the time I first started talking to Cambridge I'd been running a couple of special holiday courses I'd created for the British Council here in Paris called something like Learning English With Pop Music and Learning English With The Internet, and I was looking to take these ideas further. I was already very familiar with the structure of the Cambridge Copy Collection books and loved them, so it seemed natural for me to suggest a new title along those lines.

ELT-RR: It's a pretty classic teachers resource book layout, isn't it?

SW: Yes it is, but it's extremely well done, and the team at Cambridge are really second to none. There are 36 units - 36 songs, in other words - divided into three levels which correspond quite closely to the Cambridge Young Learners tests but which are suitable for any child from six to twelve, say, who is learning English.

Each song has a really comprehensive page of teacher's notes, with step by step instructions on how to work through the exercises. Then there are two pages of games and worksheets and I have to say that the illustrators have done an incredible job. The illustrations are the best I've seen in any book in this series, so I'm very proud and grateful for that.

ELT-RR: How long does each song and its exercises take to do?

SW: Well each lesson is divided into three parts and you can either do them one after another in one go, or spread them over three separate sessions. It's up to the teacher to decide what the best approach is for their particular class. Each part generally lasts around 20 minutes on average, so we're talking about an hour's worth of song exploitation in one way or another, without taking into account any of the suggested follow-up activities the teachers might want to do.

ELT-RR: Which are your favourite songs?

SW: The ones with great tunes and those that hark back to my own childhood, like Kookaburra, and Dingle Dangle Scarecrow, and She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain, and The Animals Went In Two By Two, and Waltzing Matilda. Not forgetting the funny ones and those I've used with my own students like I Found A Peanut and There's A Hole In My Bucket and There Was A Princess Long Ago - the list just goes on and on!

ELT-RR: What do you think of the actual recordings, which in the end are the true core of the book!

SW: I'm absolutely delighted! Now that I´ve got a new baby son I find myself constantly putting the CD on and enjoying all the songs just as much as I ever did along with him! It´s really due to the singers, which include lots of wonderful kids' voices as well as adults, and Cambridge's non-dumbing-down approach which has left the songs pretty much as they were meant to be, although we did gently simplify the lyrics sometimes to fit our purposes...

ELT-RR: So are you happy with Primary Music Box, now that it's finally out there

SW: It's superb. Obviously it's a niche market but I really think that in that niche market it's a great book - one of the best.

ELT-RR: Is that the author or the marketeer speaking there?!

SW: No, seriously, I truly believe that this is an excellent product in the market it's intended for, which is anyone or any organisation which has to teach a group of 5-12 year-olds English in an enjoyable and engaging way. After all, I've got a deep love of music, from current stuff right the way back to traditional English folk songs and even nursery rhymes, and I put all my passion into producing these lessons based on classic and traditional songs and chants. Actually, I'd walk around for days with the latest song I'd been working on in my head, and although it was driving me nuts I'd be smiling to myself thinking 'YES! This is going to work!'

ELT-RR: Did you need a historian's knowledge of English heritage or children's folklore and poetry to produce this book?

SW: That would have been useful, now you mention it! But all I can claim is an upbringing in a traditional, if somewhat displaced, Scottish household where I listened to a mixture of British and international children's classics as I grew up, coupled with a bit of the poet's soul which seems to have crept into me...

ELT-RR: Why displaced?

SW: Well, my parents moved down from Scotland when I was two, so although I can never bring myself to say I'm English, I did grow up there, but I can't really say I'm Scottish either, although I was born there. And now, after 17 years in France, I have to factor the Gallic and European influences into the equation! Maybe I'm just a child of the universe, as Barclay James Harvest said.

ELT-RR: And the poet's soul?

SW: I've been writing poems for quite a few years now, like Michael Swan, the grammar guru, with whom I occasionally exchange verse. But poetry is still very much a creative personal outlet for me, as opposed to a commercial enterprise or a vulgar attempt to project my worries or even my sense of humour onto the world. I wouldn't wish that upon anyone!

ELT-RR: Can we see your other creative work anywhere?

SW: It's funny you should ask that! I certainly consider my on-line English endeavours to be reasonably creative, and you can access most of them from the Hotch Potch English site home page, including the four ELT blogs I'm currently running.

If anyone's interested in my secret life away from ELT, they can start somewhere like the Paris and I Photo Chronicles blog and through the links on the right discover all my latest Paris street photography and abstract art as well as the poetry that we just mentioned.

ELT-RR: Obviously a book like Primary Music Box doesn't come out on its own! Who were the main people involved?

SW: You're more right there than you can ever imagine! I'd like to thank Maria Pylas and Liane Grainger from Cambridge University Press in particular, for being an incredible pillar of strength during the production of this book. If you ever try to produce something similar, it would be better if you had a rock solid production team behind you! And Maria and Liane were it!

ELT-RR: And do you have any final message for teachers around the world who will be using your book in the months and years to come?

SW: Absolutely! I very much hope that teachers will enjoy using the songs with their pupils and they should feel free to adapt the materials in any way they see fit. I'm a firm believer in placing most of the responsibility for students' learning in the hands of their teachers. On the Teacher Training Blog I run in conjunction with my work as course director at the TEFL Paris Teacher Training Centre, I regularly publish short, accessible articles on teaching principles at Certificate level, such as The Three Pillars of Being a Great English Teacher, which aim to give teachers a friendly background and more in-depth insights into the profession. These are open to all teachers to read and comment, and I'd love to hear from anyone who is using Primary Music Box in their classes.

So thanks and 'Good Luck' to anyone who's using the book, don't hesitate to get in contact with any questions or suggestions you may have, and don't forget that just by leaving a little comment on this interview you could win one of the ten copies of Primary Music Box being given away (see below), so what are you waiting for?!

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Sab Will is a freelance teacher, teacher trainer and writer, currently running a TEFL Certificate course near Paris. He is also a well-known Paris street photographer, abstract artist and poet. The 'well-known' bit only applies to those who know him well, however.
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"PRIMARY MUSIC BOX"

~ COMPETITION ~

10 COPIES TO WIN!

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

~ SIMPLY COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW HERE TO ENTER ~

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: 'Primary Music Box'
© 2010 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English

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Book Review: 'Seeds of Confidence' - Competition Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:49:00 +0000

Seeds of Confidence

Self-esteem activities for the EFL classroom

[READ THE REVIEW]

~ COMPETITION WINNERS ~

And now, it is with great pleasure that we can reveal the five lucky winners of the wonderful Seeds of Confidence competition (see box below), with fab prizes kindly provided by Helbling Languages.

You will be contacted shortly with details on how to claim your prize. And do let us know what you think in the comments section.

"SEEDS OF CONFIDENCE"

~ COMPETITION ~

AND THE 5 LUCKY WINNERS ARE...

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Linsey Dargan
(from Scotland)
Caroline Stevenson
(from France)
Edwin Darlow
(from New Zealand)
Egbert Roelofs
(from The Netherlands)
Jessica Pian
(from The USA)

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Congratulations, and keep entering our comps!

NEW COMPETITION COMING SOON!

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Hotch Potch English: 'The English Language Teaching (ELT) Review Blog" ~ Book Review: 'Seeds of Confidence' - Competition Winners

Created & written by Sab Will

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Visit Hotch Potch English ~ The Unique English Teaching Website

Book Review: 'I Used To Know That: English' - (Michael O'Mara Books)

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Mon, 31 May 2010 01:04:00 +0000

I Used To Know That: English

(stuff you forgot from school)

Patrick Scrivenor
Series editor Caroline Taggart

Michael O´Mara Books 2010

ISBN 9781843174776

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From the blurb: "While it's true to say that the English language is full of traps and pitfalls for the unwary, an understanding of certain essential rules can make all the difference to spoken and written English. Succinct and accessible, I Used to Know That: English will teach you everything you should have learned at school..."

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"I USED TO KNOW THAT"

~ COMPETITION ~

3 COPIES TO WIN!

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~ SIMPLY COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW HERE TO ENTER ~

Hot on the heels (or should that be 'suffixes') of the wonderful My Grammar and I (or should that be 'Me'?), already reviewed here, comes another marvellous little English language opus from quirky publisher Michael O'Mara Books. And this time they are offering three lucky readers (3) of the ELT Resources Review Blog (that's you lot) a copy absolutely free - just comment on this review to take part!

So how, you may be wondering, does I Used to Know That: English - stuff you forgot from school (or should that be 'stuff you've forgotten...'?) differ from the similarly-named My Grammar and I (or should that be 'Me'?) - old-school ways to sharpen your english?

Well... the first obvious difference is that the former was co-written by Caroline Taggart, while the new volume is by a certain Patrick Scrivenor, with Ms Taggart named as the Series Editor.

"...help is at hand in the genial form of Patrick Scrivenor, whose mantra is, wherever possible, 'keep it simple'. He admires accuracy, but despises pedantry."

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The publicity material claims that I Used to Know That: English 'does for grammar what Eats, Shoots and Leaves did for punctuation, clearing up confusion with a light touch. The problem is that My Grammar and I also pretty much did the same thing!

In a desperate quest to distinguish usefully between these two worthy titles, I'm clutching at two reviewer's straws.

"Since you should avoid them but cannot, you might as well know what adjectives do."

The first is that I Used To... is slightly less jovial and a bit more instructive in its approach. I feel it takes the stance that prosepctive purchasers would genuinely like to hear what it has to say with a view to improving their daily utterances. My Grammar and I more firmly fell into the category of entertaining stocking-filler, as much to amuse (in an erudite way) as to educate. Evidence of this is that there is no learned pun or joke in the title of the present title.

This is not to say that I Used To... is dry or musty in its approach - far from it, and we'll be getting to that later.

The second difference I can find is quite simply as any writer would want it to be: English is such a deep, rich source of rules and their exceptions, weird word groups and viciously arcane spelling conventions, that a new author will necessarily bring a whole new bunch of fonohlojicul fun to the elucidation table... Hell, I reckon I could write my own book in this darn series too!

One of the delightful aspects of this book is (or should that be 'are' ;-) the constant examples and humorous quotation which illustrate the points being made. I've likewise punctuated, or 'pricked' this review with a few choice snippets from the book, not necessarily representative, to liven it up a bit!

"Not all dogs are fierce, not all men are fat and not all women are beautiful - not, at least, until you reach the age of seventy, when this situation magically remedies itself."

The book is divided into six broad categories, and bookended by a very pleasant foreword by the aforementioned Ms. Taggart, a short scene-setting introduction by the author, and a telling afterword by the same. I say telling, because in it he justifies what I recognised as I perused the book as sometimes surprising pedantry and stubborness in terms of just what 'correct' English is. Surprising because we are these days used to people telling us that English 'just is' and that the rules are made to be broken because they're all fundamentally flawed anyway, and certainly not adhered to, what with regional differences and neologisms from the States and rap music and goodness knows what else.

And yet Mr. Scrivenor reminds us that without knowing the rules in the first place, it is very difficult to break them with any degree of sophistication or cleverness which would, after all, be much less satisfying from a clever-dick intellectual smart-arse (or should that be 'ass'?) point of view. That last point was in my words, not the author's, by the way.

"GRAMMAR. The science of speaking correctly'
- Dr Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language

'Let school masters puzzle their brain
With grammar and nonsense and learning,
Good liquor, I stoutly maintain,
Gives genius a better discerning'

- Oliver Goldsmith, 'She Stoops to Conquer'

Good liquor does not seem to have helped Goldsmith with his first line. Presumably the singular 'brain' is there solely to rhyme with 'maintain'.

The six chapters are as follows:

Parts of Speech: I shall probably be modifying my TEFL Certificate session on this topic to incorporate a few of the apposite examples given here about nouns, adjectives, conjunctions, the decidedly weird adverbs and all the other members of this boisterous bunch.

Grammar: A short section which nevertheless covers the chosen topics (phrases, clauses, sentences, subjects and objects...) in a certain depth.

Spelling and Pronunciation: Covering gems like the nine ways of pronouncing 'ough', the 'ize' or 'ise' dilemma, and where to stress multi-syllable words (good luck!).

Punctuation: A lengthier section, true to this book's mission to sort out our written English above all, covering traditionally scary stuff such as the comma, the apostrophe and the unexpected three lengths of dash (or should that be 'hyphen'?).

Clear Usage: Which at first reminded me of Fowler's Plain English, or even Gowers' Plain Words, but which ultimately distinguises itself, within the constraints of this volume, with a more modern treatment of wordiness, clichés, double negatives and using foreignisms, to name but a few.

Pitfalls and Confusions: This final section is an alphabetical list of short entries on easily misused words or commonly confused word pairs. Affect and effect, childish and childlike, egoism and egotism, factitious and fictitious, principal and principle, and sensual and sensuous would be examples. The school boys' favourite, organism and orgasm, alas, would not.

"They spell it Vinci and pronounce it Vinchy; foreigners always spell better than they pronounce."
~ Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad

The blurb's way of summarising the above is:

I Used To Know That: English includes:

Parts of speech, from nouns to conjunctions
Spelling and the traps you can fall into
Sentence construction
Punctuation, including those pesky apostrophes
Syntax
Clear usage - and how to avoid common pitfalls
How to pick your way through jargon and gibberish

So, having now finished this review, I must admit I'm a bit nervous about publishing it, and thereby opening it up to the scholarly scrutiny of the Very Revered Mr. P. Scrivenor himself (not to mention the equally enthralling Ms. C. Taggart). Even that last sentence makes me cringe in anticipation of imminent eminent writers' wrath, and the number of anomalies I'll get slapped down for..!

Whatever the result, I offer up this humble commentary on this jolly little book, and hope it will be bought copiously and won thricely by you here good readers. Good Luck and, above all... Good Grammar (exceptions notwithstanding).
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"I USED TO KNOW THAT"

~ COMPETITION ~

3 COPIES TO WIN!

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

~ SIMPLY COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW HERE TO ENTER ~

Visit the Web Site
For more great stuff for
Students, Teachers & Lovers of English
from
Hotch Potch English

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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: 'I Used To Know That: English'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2010 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English
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Visit Hotch Potch English ~ The Unique English Teaching Website
http://www.hotchpotchenglish.com/
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Book Review: 'My Grammar and I' - (Michael O'Mara Books)

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Sat, 29 May 2010 13:41:00 +0000

My Grammar and I
(or should that be 'Me'?)

Caroline Taggart and J. A. Wines

Michael O´Mara Books 2008

ISBN 9781843173106

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From the blurb: "Can you tell when a sentence contains more clichés than you've had hot dinners, or if it's tautological and pointlessly repetitive? Is a preposition necessarily a bad thing to end a sentence with? Are you able to immediately spot a split infinitive? Or understand how, being accidentally misplaced, you can wreak nonsensical havoc with your modifiers?"

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If I only had a penny... sorry, I mean if I had only a penny... no, no, that's not it... ah! if only I had a penny for every book on the English language that has a schoolboyish giggle at the phrase ´dangling modifier´ I´d probably be a quid or two the richer by now.

'[It is] impossible at the present juncture to teach English grammar in the schools for the simple reason that no one knows exactly what it is.'

~ Government Report, 1921

My Grammar and I, a delightful recent discovery of mine, from the marvellous Michael O´Mara Books, is no exception (they refer to them in their chapter heading as 'Dangly bits') but in this case they are justified. The whole book takes a very pleasant tongue- (or should that be dangly bit?) in-cheek look at one of our most precious and least understood national institutions: the English grammar system (if, indeed, there actually is one - personally, I'm sceptical).

So, what a pleasure it is to hold this little volume in my hands. From the textured cover to the soft grain of the pages; from the well-chosen typeface to the inner front cover's 'A gift for... from...' nameplate; from the lovely musty aroma as you hold it to your nose (you do sniff your books, don't you?) to the gentle humour of the entries... everything is designed to offer you some enjoyably intellectual fodder from yesteryear with a modern twist: nostalgia.

Rules of yore rub avec-seriffed shoulders with decidedly up-to-date irreverence and cheeky asides. Right up our street, this is. (Try saying 'rules of yore rub shoulders' fast a few times, by the way, and I'll send my personal copy of the current title straight off to anyone who can prove they didn't get their tongues in a twist! See below, by the way, for an exclusive photo of My Gramar and I and Me, - totally grammatically correct, I assure you...)

What the authors have succeeded in doing is interweaving amusing quotes and examples with the actual guts of the book, which is English grammar and how to do it. I imagine My Grammar and I is the grammar book most grammarians of the not too dusty variety would secretly like to have written all along. I know it's certainly the sort I enjoy reading most.

The above quote from a government report of 1921 opens the introduction and sets the tone of the book. The snappy four page history of English grammar is quickly followed by a classic list of Grammar Rules (to avoid), including the following:

Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
Remember to never split an infinitive.
Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.

And seven others. I especially likes number 3 because to constantly include comments in brackets (as I do, however irrelevant) is one of my recognisable (if possibly irritating) trademarks.

Various devices keep the pages turning at a flurrying pace. Funny, punny or simply intriguing section headings guarantee a zappy intro to each new language point:

Say what? (or, Parts of Speech)
What a to-do (or, Verbs)
Thou and thee (or, Pronouns)
Kind of funny-looking (or, Adjectives)
Do I get time off for good behaviour? (or, Sentences)
A big no-no (or, Double negatives)

And, of course, the aforementioned Dangly bits (or, Misplaced modifiers).

Little boxes or highlighted sections scattered throughout the book variously contain apposite quotes,

"The English speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know, but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; (4) those who know and approve; (5) those who know and distinguish... Those who neither know nor care are the vast majority, and are a happy folk, to be envied by most of the minority classes."
~ H. W. Fowler, Modern English Usage, 1926

funny one-liners,

"We spent most of our time sitting on the back porch watching the cows playing scrabble and reading."
~ From 'So where does a comma go?'

and assorted oddities and words of wisdom:

Smart Alec: Since pronoun is a noun, why isn't proverb a verb?

Swot's Corner: Capital letters are sometimes referred to as 'upper case'. This is because manual typesetters kept these letters in the upper drawers of a desk - the upper type case. More frequently used letters were stored on a lower shelf, thus 'lower case' letters.

See Me After Class: Each comparison needs only one comparative: more better is bad, more betterer is even worser.

As you can see from these choice tidbits, the funny, often absurd side of English is never far from the fore, as well as the deliciously overriding temptation to play with our words. But let's make no mistake about it: the topic is grammar, and more than almost any other book I've seen recently, My Grammar and I really does help us understand the basics and more in a thoroughly accessible way.

It's true that most of the points are introduced briefly in a paragraph or so, followed immediately by plenty of examples in the place of wordy explanations, but hey! I know some people who think that's the best way to learn! And how many lay readers do you know who are ready to sit through a boring grammar lecture anyway? So I reckon Ms Taggart and the interestingly named J. A. Wines (does she really?) have got it about right. For this lay 'Me'-er (or should that be 'I') anyway.

And lest Ms Wines be offended, that name quip comes from someone who has suffered their fair share of 'hilarious' name-related jokes from an early age. Imagine having 'Will' as your last name growing up at a typical English school and all the jollity that can provoke...

Visit the Web Site
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Hotch Potch English: 'The ELT Resources Review Blog' ~ Book Review: 'My Grammar and I'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2010 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English
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Book Review: 'Practical Grammar - Levels 1 & 2' (Heinle Cengage)

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Fri, 21 May 2010 07:02:00 +0000

Practical Grammar

Level 1

by David Riley & John Hughes

Helbling Languages 2010

ISBN 9781424018086

Practical Grammar

Level 2

by John Hughes & Ceri Jones
Helbling Languages 2011
ISBN 9781424018055

Publisher's Website

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From the Blurb: "Practical Grammar is a three-level British English Grammar course for self study or use in the classroom. The series takes students through key aspects of English grammar from Elementary to Upper Intermediate levels."

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"PRACTICAL GRAMMAR"

~ COMPETITION ~

5 COPIES TO WIN!

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

~ SIMPLY COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW HERE TO ENTER ~

Will Heinle's brand new Practical Grammar series finally be the one to dethrown the venerable (and long in the tooth?) Murphy from the top of the grammar exercise book ratings? Only time will tell. But if they fancy themselves as the ultimate Murphy-mashers they have some serious work to do.

At first glance, Practical Grammar looks to have a lot going for it: attractive, fresh approach; regular review units; ten progress tests; the almost obligatory full CD-ROM and on-line back up package.

A closer investigation reveals a stack of positive features counterbalanced by only a couple of points, probably subjective, which I'll mention just so you know. I'll tell you straightaway, unusually, that I like the look of this package so much I'm immediately going to show it to my teacher trainees and suggest they put it on their list of highly recommened grammar exercise books for their students.

Well let's get right back to the significant challenge any new grammar exercise book has to face these days: that of distinguising itself from the well-established and respected titles already on the market. How does Practical Grammar shape up against the competition?

Well.

No, I mean it shapes up well! It really does. To be honest, it follows a well-worn format too: left-hand page - introduction of grammar point through a usually visual context followed by a presentation of the structure; right-hand side - exercises to practise what was studied on the left-hand page.

This is not new. But I think it still works well, and Heinle obviously think there's life left in this type of essentially self-study volume. Indeed, as with English course books, they are simply evolving. There is an exercise in practically all of the 100 units which involves listening to the audio CD (no fancy multi-media shenanigans just yet), and a book purchase also gets you a code which allows you to access a special companion website.

I must be very special because my copy of Practical Grammar 2 didn't have a special code where it said it should have, but level 1 did, and I duly went through the rather boring process of signing in and logging on for a series of exercises I'm never going to do - such is the dedication of this reviewer.

The on-line exercises themselves are not very spectacular, and to be honest I'd just stick with the book and the audio CDs unless you're a fan of the usual drag and drop rearranging of words, gap fills, and so on. What was interesting was a little glimpse I got of the teacher's area, where you can run entire classes and see how the students are progressing which seemed to have lots of potential. You might want to check it out here if you can suffer the EX-TREM-LY clear and slow Middle American narration.

Back to the book then, and let's just finish with highlighting a few more key features, as claimed by Heinle!

Real language in natural situations: it's true that some of the exchanges are refreshingly natural as opposed to awful unrealistic ELTese:

Sam! Telephone! - Who is is? - It's Greta. - Can I call her back? I'm having a shower. - Greta? Sam's having a shower. Can he call you back?

And that's in Unit 31 (Present continuous) of level 1.

Listening and pronunciation: the two audio CDs are well recorded and not spoken painfully slowly, but naturally, and provide a valuable aural element to the units.

Key vocabulary: most units have a 'Key vocabulary' box somewhere highlighting, well, you guessed it...

Tips: these regularly point out typical features of English and common mistakes.

Regular review and progress tests: as mentioned before, these are a boon for teachers and valuable for consolidating and testing progress.

Apart from that, let's mention the use of real pictures as well as those cute little cartoons, and thoroughly up-to-date icons of modern culture such as iPhones and blogs and shots which look suspiciously like Apple computer windows.

If I had to make a criticism, it's perhaps that there aren't so many crystal clear examples and diagrams for each grammar point. The intros to each unit are always eye-catching and illustrate the points in a non-condescending way, but the rest of the explanations are not always paragons of clarity in the way the established titles are. But this is the price you pay I guess for trying to introduce new approaches to people who will always be comparing you to the status quo. And change, as we all know, is both necessary and inevitable. I think another word for it is progress.

Curiously, as a sign of how far ahead of the times they are, the level 1 book, which I received way back in 2009, is copyrighted 2010. and the level 2 book, which has just been published, is copyright 2011, whereas I do believe I'm typing these words on the 20th of May, 2010. Can a friendly publisher tell me what that's about..? Not trying to make our books seem newer than they really are, are we? I'm sure there's a perfectly rational explanation!

So if you're looking for a very fresh new presentation of the major grammar points of English, for beginners and intermediate level students, I would certainly give Practical Grammar from Heinle a go. Level 3 will be coming out in a few months. And see below for our great new competition to win five copies of level 2, simply by leaving a comment here! Thanks for reading, and see you soon.

"PRACTICAL GRAMMAR"

~ COMPETITION ~

5 COPIES TO WIN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ SIMPLY COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW HERE TO ENTER ~

_______________________________________________________________________________

Hotch Potch English: 'The English Language Teaching (ELT) Review Blog" ~ Book Review: 'Practical Grammar'

Created & written by Sab Will

_________________________________________________________________

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Book Review: 'Seeds of Confidence' - Veronica de Andres, Jane Arnold - Helbling

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:54:00 +0000

Seeds of Confidence

Self-esteem activities for the EFL classroom

by Veronica de Andres & Jane Arnold

Helbling Languages 2009

ISBN 9783852722009

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From the introduction: "Seeds of Confidence presents current thinking on a very important aspect of the affective domain - self-esteem - and provides teachers with motivating, creative activities for use in the classroom to develop both language skills and learner confidence. As has been said, confidence leads to competence."

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"SEEDS OF CONFIDENCE"

~ COMPETITION ~

5 COPIES TO WIN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ COMPETITION CLOSED - SEE WINNERS HERE! ~

Having recently reviewed another title in Helbling's 'Resourceful Teacher' series, I'm tempted to just say: 'if you liked Teaching Chunks of Language, you'll love Seeds of Confidence' and have done with it. But let's have a closer look and see if this new addition to the decidedly humanistic-flavoured series of teacher resource books merits another positive review.

Starting from the admirable stance that the more confident a learner feels, the more likely he is to succeed in his language learning and performance, Seeds of Confidence offers a slew of simple yet engaging activities which allow teachers to bring a touch of real human warmth to their language classroom.

Maybe I'm romanticising a little. After all, most communicative teachers these days try to make their learning environments pleasant and positive places to be. What Seeds of Confidence does is present a series of mini-lessons, lasting anywhere between five and fifty minutes, assembled to address specifically identified areas of self-esteem - or indeed lack of it - which may contribute to a language learner's success... or lack of it.

What's fascinating about this sort of book, and this was the case with our recently reviewed Teaching Chunks of Language and Provoking Thought titles, is that we get a privileged glimpse into a parallel universe of academia which impacts on our own rather more practical world of teaching. Once again, there is an absorbing introduction to the topic of self-esteem which describes the fundamental components of the issue around which the book is structured: security, identity, belonging, purpose and competence. A chapter's worth of motivating exercises are proposed under each of these headings, including full instructions, many illustrations and plenty of diagrams and tables to be used in class.

The CD-ROM which comes with the book has all the necessary worksheets and some accompanying music and simple videos to use with some of the units. Download a sample unit (pdf) here.

I don't think the authors would claim that all of their activities are ground-breaking; I recognise many firm favourites in there such as throwing a ball around to animate question and answer sessions, or learning people's names by associating something funny or interesting starting with the same letter - 'I'm Sab and I was born in Scotland...' - I do it at the start of every teacher training course ( well, almost every one). But what they have done is pulled together these disparate classics and placed them in a valuable and valid context for the teacher who is interested in this type of approach to exploit, or at least try out.

Again, the mini-introductions to the chapters give more detailed information about each of these fascinating areas, followed by a large number of practical suggestions for 'building a sense of belonging', 'building a sense of competence', 'building a sense of security', and so on, in the classroom. These include, respectively:

Create a notice board with photos of each student to help them be identified. Play bingo with students' names, or play other games which encourage students to call each other by name.
Create different ways to celebrate success and achievement of goals. Encourage students to discuss ways to celebrate; they could take turns to participate in a Celebration Council.
If new students come to your classroom, encourage other students to go over the classroom rules with them and explain the justification for having the rules.

Now, much as I'd love to start talking about the ideas behind the banner heading of 'self-esteem in the classsroom', that's not my brief and I suggest you get hold of a copy of Seeds of Confidence (perhaps by taking part in our competition on this page) if you want to know more! However, I do want to discuss in a little more detail how relevant these ideas, and more concretely these activities, are to the average English teacher, if there is such a thing.

Strangely enough, I'm being distracted from this review by the second of the leaders' debates in the UK this evening. What I'm seeing is that half the time they are arguing with each other, and the other half of the time they are agreeing. What they're arguing about is the way of doing things. What they are agreeing on is the final desired result. They all want a strong economy, more jobs, international security, and so on. What they disagree on is how to obtain those things.

And we can draw a parallel here. I think all teachers want their students to succeed. What they often differ on is what classroom activities and approaches will achieve that. The humanistic, affective, self-esteem supporting classroom approach put forward by books like Seeds of Confidence and series like 'The Resourceful Teacher' books from Helbling is one which many people both admire and agree with in principle but often find difficulty putting into practice. Many factors are responsible for the awkwardness some teachers experience in implementing slightly unorthodox new approaches, including pressure to produce exam success to make their school's statistics look good, resistance to moving away from what is historically considered to be a 'serious' language lesson, and so on.

We are living in interesting teaching times, and have been for quite a few years now. We have a growing and admirable body of teaching resources which place the learner firmly centre stage and I for one welcome this wave and hope it continues, as will be clear from many of the reviews published on this blog. However, we can't change a well established, highly academically-minded approach overnight, nor perhaps should we.

Instead, it's up to us as caring communicative teachers to pick and choose our materials carefully and creatively. Thankfully, most English teachers today work in institutions or situations where they have at least some degree of autonomy and ability to inject interesting and why not unusual activities into their lessons to freshen up an imposed curriculum and to spice up their lessons. Books like Seeds of Confidence are great places to find those activities and ideas.

"SEEDS OF CONFIDENCE"

~ COMPETITION ~

5 COPIES TO WIN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ COMPETITION CLOSED - SEE WINNERS HERE! ~

_______________________________________________________________________________

Hotch Potch English: 'The English Language Teaching (ELT) Review Blog" ~ Book Review: 'Seeds of Confidence'

Created & written by Sab Will

_________________________________________________________________

Visit Hotch Potch English ~ The Unique English Teaching Website

Book Review: 'Teaching Chunks of Language' - Lindstromberg, Boers

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:28:00 +0000

Teaching Chunks of Language

From noticing to remembering

by Seth Lindstromberg & Frank Boers

Helbling Languages 2008

ISBN 9783852720562

GREAT FREE RESOURCES FROM

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From the introduction: "Teaching Chunks of Language is an original new resource book for teachers of EFL/ESL students at intermediate-advanced level. It shows how to help students work out the origins and reasoning behind the choice of words that occur apparently at random in so many chunks of language in English. This not only helps the students remember them but also work out the most likely choice of words in semi-familiar chunks. So students can make real progress in this traditionally challenging area of language - highly satisfactory for them, and for you as their teacher."

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Well, I think that appropriately chunky introduction pretty much sums everything up nicely, so I can just dive right in to describing some of the interesting activities Messers. Lindstromberg and Boers have dreamt up for our greater teaching pleasure.

Whenever I get sent a new ELT book, and particularly one like Teaching Chunks of Language, from the Helbling 'Resourceful Teacher Series', which generally approaches things from a little left of centre, I'm like a kid in a candy store. With so many inventive activities, it's quite difficult to know where to start.

The book is divided into four sections, after a very comprehensive nine-page introduction explains just what chunks of language actually are, and how we can easily introduce activities into our lessons to help our students learn them.

A chunk of language, by the way, just in case you were wondering but too scared to ask, is simply a bunch of two or more words that often go together. Examples from this paragraph so far which would probably qualify as chunks include by the way, just in case, and too scared to ask. To be honest (there's another one), chunks of language are everywhere. These may be typical linguistic structures (as far as I can tell), common collocations (attend a meeting) or the familiar idioms and similies which already have a place in many coursebooks (go through the roof, sick as a parrot). Chunks are apparently stored in the brain as a single unit and can therefore be produced with as much ease as a single word, thus making our speech more fluent and efficient.

Current teaching wisdom generally considers it a good thing to include some of these word chunks in our lessons explicitly to help learners gain an additional measure of the fluency enjoyed by native speakers.

The first section of Teaching Chunks of Language deals with getting our learners to actually recognise chunks as chunks, and start to find ways to efficiently learn them. The second section takes it to the next level and looks at grouping chunks into thematic areas to help increase memory retention. The next unit is about the vital area of reviewing what has been studied to fix the word groups more firmly into long-term memory. And finally, there is a very useful 60-page collection of photocopiable materials and handouts to go with the earlier exercises.

The inside presentation is fairly sober - this is a black and white teacher's resource manual, not a singing and dancing course book - and it's for the teacher to make the activities sing and dance off the page I suppose. There are a few drawings and pictures to cheer things up a bit, and the handouts are varied and reasonably clearly designed, if, perhaps necessily, wordy.

A handful of activity titles will give you a rough idea of some of the content:

From the Basic chunk teaching activities section: Priming with Chinese whispers / Remember my change / Filling in a story skeleton / Between listening gap fills

From the Teaching sets of chunks section:

Things that make sounds / Weather phrases / Body idioms / Seeing the deep logic of word partnerships / Noticing patterns of sound repetition

From the Reviewing and Quizzing section:

Memory slips with hints / Review posters / Guess my chunk / Test me easy, test me hard / Blanks with big fat hints

What Teaching Chunks of Language attempts to do is make the Lexical Approach - that of focusing on words and word groups in particular - more accessible and applicable to the modern communicative language classroom, and I feel it is rather successful in that with this well thought out range of activities to compliment other parts of the language lesson.

Michael Lewis, author of the original The Lexical Approach, did actually suggest ways of focusing more on prefabricated multi-word chunks in class with his more practical Implementing the Lexical Approach: Putting Theory into Practice, but it is fair to say that there isn't an enormous catalogue of books which approach this important aspect of language learning in a thoroughly practical way.

Although we can all recognise the existence of set phrases such as for what it's worth or from time to time as legitimate and frequently occurring word groups, it is still considered somewhat subversive to construct a lesson exclusively around multi-word chunks. Some of Lewis' original 'dangerous ideas', such as language being grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar, the grammar/vocabulary dichotomy being invalid, and the need to replace the good old Present-Practise-Produce paradigm with an Observe-Hypothesise-Experiment cycle still prove difficult to swallow by many, even after all these years.

I sometimes smile to myself as I hammer home the obligatory PPP approach on the TEFL Paris certificate course I run, thinking how simple it all seems at the start of this wonderful career called English teaching, and how much more there is to discover if you really want to delve deeper. Bye bye for now.

HOTCH POTCH ENGLISH

_______________________________________________________________________________

Hotch Potch English: 'The English Language Teaching (ELT) Review Blog" ~ Book Review: 'Provoking Thought'

Created & written by Sab Will

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Book Review: 'Provoking Thought'

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 17:46:00 +0000

GREAT FREE RESOURCES FROM

Provoking Thought

Memory and Thinking in ELT

by Hall Houston

Anthimeria Press 2009

ISBN 9780439251997

Author's Website

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From the introduction: "This book, Provoking Thought, is a resource book of activities for the language classroom. The activities are designed for an ESL/EFL context, but they can be adapted for teaching other languages."

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Within three minutes of opening and perusing Provoking Thought my head was spinning with ideas for approaching some of my favourite, but rather tired, activities in new ways. The section on brainstorming was the first I stumbled upon, and straight away I was fascinated by a single paragraph which gave 15 examples of quick brainstorms which can 'ease students back into speaking English after speaking their native language for many hours outside of class.' Great for introducing the topic of today's lesson. Here they are:

- Draw a small blob on the board. What is it? (an amoeba, a lake, an island, etc.)
- Words that start with the letter B
- Words that rhyme with cat
- Fill in the blank (e.g. He was surprised to see a _____ in his chair.)
- Things that make a loud noise.
- Things that are expensive
- People you admire
- Bands you think are overrated
- Things you have in common with the people in your group
- Places you want to visit
- Things you can buy with less than €5/$5/£5
- Collocations of 'time'
- Words that are four syllables long
- Different ways to say goodbye
- Familiar advertising slogans

This single section gave me more ideas for my brainstorming sessions than I've had in years. A sign of the inevitable staleness that sets in without us even noticing when we do the same thing for too long. And this wasn't even one of official activities in the book, but part of the informative and well-written introductions to each of the five parts of the book, namely:

1) Thinking
2) Memory
3) Creativity
4) Critical Thinking
5) Organising Ideas on Paper

Let me say immediately that Provoking Thought reminds me of the classic Cambridge and Oxford series of somewhat serious teachers resource books before they went all sexy and ring-bindery and photocopiable: a rather dry-looking prosaic presentation of an exceptionally inventive and inspiring collection of activities to make our lessons sizzle. Let's hope the lack of a punchy presentation doesn't limit the book's appeal too much, because people would be missing out on a brilliant collection of out-of-the-box and totally engaging humanistic teaching gems.

Funnily enough, often the newest and most radically wolfish ideas are presented in sheepish clothing simply because the young Turk in question doesn't have the funds or contacts to get his provoking thoughts out in any other manner. Or because he wants to keep control of his intellectual property. As a bit of a UTO* myself, I fully appreciate and admire this endeavour.

Not that Mr. Houston is unknown to the English teaching world. As his second book shows, he has both a deep understanding of typical teaching issues and an unerring knack of imagining thoughtful activities to stimulate our students' imaginations and keep their motivation high.

Each of the five sections offer up to 24 unique activities clearly explained for the teacher to quickly integrate them into their lessons. The extensive introductions to each section are engrossing reading in their own right, and give us important background on the theory and practice of making the activities work well.

In addition, there are interviews with three internationally renowned thinkers on memory, creativity and critical thinking, which really add to the richness of the book. An interesting list of brain-churning websites completes this compact package.

If I actually started talking about the endlessly intriguing topics the author has imagined, such as Remembering the Past, PowerPoint Review, E-mail Competition, Courtesan, Warrior and Observer, Five W's and H... I wouldn't know where to stop and would probably start seriously breaching his copyright!

So, if you want to zap up your lessons with tons of highly inventive new ideas, I'd certainly recommend Provoking Thought to all educators in need of inspiration or simply on the lookout for offbeat new teachbites. The TEFL Certificate trainees at TEFL Paris are going to be my first guinea-pigs and I'm sure that Provoking Thought: Memory and Thinking in ELT, isn't going to gather much dust on our teachers resource shelvesstay on the shelves very long!

*Unidentified Teaching Object

HOTCH POTCH ENGLISH

_______________________________________________________________________________

Hotch Potch English: 'The English Language Teaching (ELT) Review Blog" ~ Book Review: 'Provoking Thought'

Created & written by Sab Will

_________________________________________________________________

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Book Review: 'Britain for Learners of English'

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:14:00 +0000

Britain

for Learners of English

by James O'Driscoll

Oxford University Press 2009

ISBN 9780194306447

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From the blurb: "Britain for Learners of English: This book provides all the information a student of Britain and British culture needs to know.

What's it like living in Britain today? Find out about the country and its people in this new edition of Britain. All the information is completely up-to-date and illustrated with new colour photographs."

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Leafing through the pages of Britain for Learners of English procures a strange sensation in one who has abondonned his homeland for the continent more than 15 years ago. It's all in there: our dual house political system; our quirky Queenie and entourage; our disparate and dwindling religious institutions; that other great disseminator of belief - the BBC; right down (or up) to the Sun, fish 'n' chips, bingo holidays in Skegness and practically everything else in between which goes to make the British so, well, British.

Britain for Learners of English does have a quite specific brief. it's for 'Learners of English who need to know more about Briatain', and, as such, it does a sterling job. Make no mistake, though, this is no cheery modern general English course book, although it is somewhat cheery, with its appropriately illustrated articles on all aspects of British life and culture.

No, this book falls much more comfortably into the traditional 'text book' category, reminiscent of university courses which would use a 'course text' and where there was much less interaction than in your average modern communicative English class. Which is probably one of its target audiences anyway, people studying a British culture module as part of a wider qualification. And for this it would seem to be very apt.

In the aim of stimulating discussion, I suppose, each chapter ends with three or four questions along the lines of:

Why does the British Prime Minister continue to 'advise' the Queen when everybody knows he or she is really just telling her what to do? (from 'The Future of the Monarchy')

What aspects of Christmas in Britain, and the customs associated with it, are different from those in your country? (from 'Holidays and Special Occasions')

It is often felt that newspapers' invasion of privacy goes too far. Legislation to control it has sometimes been drafted, but has never become law. What problems are there in Britain with getting legislation like this approved? What arguments can be put forward in favour of keeping the status quo? How is the press controlled in your country? (from 'The Media')

There's one question from the Holidays and Special Occasions chapter I can't fathom at all: There is a science fiction story in which beings from outer space fly over Britain one night and conclude that planet earth is full of barbaric, cruel people. Which night was it?

Can they be referring to the 25th December? Publishers / authors please elucidate!

There are also suggestions for future study such as reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol, or watching Question Time on the BBC, or looking up cricket on the internet. Ahh, cricket... how terribly, terribly British (well, English)!

An interesting distinction is made between the terms country, nation and state, country relating broadly to all of Britain, nation pertaining more specifically to the regions or people of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and state bearing more political and governmental connotations. And indeed, the main regions that go to make up the UK of GB and NI are well covered, with information on history, culture and autonomy, along with one of the most intriguing features of this book: how people actually feel about all this (and each other!).

Britain for Learners of English has, therefore, two main thrusts: facts and feelings. And it's this clever interweaving that makes each chapter a particularly interesting read.

One of the best ways of knowing what to read if you don't have to read from cover to cover is by looking at the index. You immediately see lots of tempting and intriguing references such as whips and Whigs, masculinity and the Manic Street Preachers, smog and slavery, Punjabi and prostitution. I have to confess a twinge of sadness that neither Marmite nor cheddar cheese has made it into the list, and nor has deep-fried Mars Bars or porridge or caber or spurtle, but haggis and kilt have (my origins are Scottish in case you hadn´t guessed), and for less obvious reasons so have booze cruise, swingometre and Tiggywinkles. 'Go figure', as our transatlantic cousins would say.

Alternatively, you can just read all the wonderful little side-column boxes and discover weird and wonderful facts along the lines of this...

What's in a name? In England, the notion of the honour of the family name is almost non-existent (though it exists to some degree in the upper classes, in the other three British nations and among ethnic minorities). In fact, it is very easy to change your family name - and you can choose anything you like. In the 1980s, one person changed his surname to Oddsocks McWeirdo El Tutti Frutti Hello Hippopotamus Bum. There was no rule to stop him doing this. All he needed was £5 and a lawyer to witness the change.

and this...

A nation of gamblers: In 2006, around £25 billion was wagered - that's around £500 for every adult in the country. By far the most popular form of gambling was the national lottery, in which 57% of adults took part. the chart below shows the percentage of people who gambled in other different ways...

and this...

The Fat Duck: People say horrible things about British food. so it was something of a shock when, in 2005, an international panel of more than 600 chefs, food critics and restaurateurs named no less than fourteen British restaurants in the world's top 50.

Number one on the list was The Fat Duck in Berkshire (between London and Oxford). This is the restaurant which introduced the world to such delicacies as sardine-on-toast sorbet, bacon and egg ice cream, snail porridge and orange and beetroot jelly. With a menu like this, British food does not look so boring after all!

So whilst BFLOE's brief is for learners of English who need to know about Britain, it would actually make an interesting resource for learners of English who don't need to know so much about Britain, and even for people like myself, native speakers, who just want to brush up a bit and enjoy looking in this well informed mirror to see what we really look like, inside our heads and out.

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Book Review: 'Vocabulary Matrix - Understanding, Learning, Teaching'

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:04:00 +0000

Vocabulary Matrix
Understanding, Learning, Teaching

by Michael McCarthy, Anne O'Keeffe and Steve Walsh

Heinle Cengage Learning 2010

ISBN 9781424052530

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From the blurb: "Vocabulary Matrix: Understanding, Learning, Teaching is an innovative resource for language teachers, particularly those who are pre-service or new. This dynamic guide to the methodology of vocabulary instruction offers clearly written theory and keeps a compelling focus on practical teaching applications."

The complex matrix within which words exist is made accessible as readers are led through the life-cycle of a word. Supported by corpus-based evidence and real classroom data, the book explores what words mean, how they relate to other words and how they function in different ways within society."

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Ahh, the gentle joy of language, and those wonderful people who write about it, eh? To the desert of dry, dusty lugubrious lexical liturgies comes a refreshing splash of colour in the black and white world of words. Well, the cover’s colourful in any case, and the inside, whilst not exactly a rainbow of hues, offers much stimulating stuff for inquisitive English teachers.

Vocabulary Matrix, in effect, takes a thoroughly practical approach to teaching vocab. More than we could ever imagine, the stream of consciousness (and sometimes apparent nonsense) which continually pours from our mouths is actually organised and regimented to a high degree. The average native speaker is, for the most part, blissfully unaware of all this underlying structure to his spontaneousness, and gets along just fine. We language teachers, on the other hand, are often faced with some embarrassingly tricky questions, and what’s more are expected to have answers to things like:

Why do we say 'A big black dog' and not 'A black big dog'?
Why do we say 'kick the bucket' or 'pass away' when we have the perfectly good verb 'die'?
Why do we say 'attend a meeting' but not 'attend an appointment'?
Why do we say 'I like English too' but not 'I like too English'?
Why do we pronounce the ough differently in the words cough, tough, though, through and bough?
Why do we say 'She’s very short' and not 'She's very low'?

And on and on. Tempting as it is to reply, as if to a child who doesn’t need to know more, that’s just the way it is, or because I say so, we English teachers really need to do better. Vocabulary Matrix offers us ways of doing so.

Each of the nine chapters takes a theme such as Words and their meanings, Collocations, or Idioms, and splits it into three clear sections. For example:

3	Collocations 28
Part A	What do we know about this? 28 What is collocation? 28 What types of words collocate with each other? 29 Collocations and word frequency 30 Weak and strong collocations 30 Collocations and meanings 31 Collocations and register 33
Part B	What are the problems for learners? 34 How well do learners learn and use collocations? 34 Learning special registers 35
Part C	How do we teach it? 36 *Chapter Review 38*

We are introduced to each concept in an entertaining and often enlightening way, through thought-provoking mini-tasks, clear explanations and hundreds of examples:

From Part A of Words and their meanings:

We agree, in English, for example, that dog means a four-legged animal that we often keep as a pet and that can be used for hunting and so on.
We also agree the meaning of dog in relation to what it is not. For example, it does not mean a small, furry, four-legged feline animal with a tail and claws. For that, we have the word cat. Nor does it mean: [see pic below]
When we see or hear the word dog, we also connect it to the concept of a dog by its shape and sound. It is not bog, log or dig, etc.

They say in the blurb that the book is perfect for pre-service and new teachers, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be interesting for all teachers who want to keep up in the latest thinking on vocab teaching, novice or not. I’m certainly going to recommend Vocabulary Matrix to my TEFL Certificate trainees, but also to anyone who has a real interest in how we use words when we speak, and just as importantly, why.

Other notable aspects of this fascinating little book include the chapters on Words and Their Forms, Word Relations, Words in Text and Discourse, and Words in Society, all eminently readable. Then there are useful Vocabulary Files which are 'instructive teaching points and factoids' according to the publishers, and a ten-question review section to finish each chapter.

Finally, there's a fairly hefty glossary and bibliography, without forgetting full answers to all the tasks and review sections. So, all in all a sweet little methodology package for all teachers who want to discover or refresh their knowledge of the wonderful world of the English word in a highly practical fashion.

Visit the Web SiteFor a Fun Free English Lesson Sample & Morefrom
Hotch Potch English

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Hotch Potch English: 'The English Language Teaching (ELT) Review Blog" ~ Book Review: 'Vocabulary Matrix - Understanding, Learning, Teaching'

Created & written by Sab Will

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Book Review: 'Macbeth - the ELT Graphic Novel'

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:25:00 +0000

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Macbeth - The ELT Graphic Novel
William Shakespeare
Script by John McDonald / Adapted for ELT by Brigit Viney
Heinle Cengage Learning 2009
ISBN 9781424028702

Publisher's Website
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From the blurb: "This full colour graphic novel presents 'The Scottish Play' adapted so that intermediate language learners can enjoy Shakespeare too.
Macbeth is one of the most dramatic of Shakespeare's tragedies and this version will give learners a new and satisfying view of the genius of Shakespeare's story telling."

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Discovering Macbeth - The ELT Graphic Novel from Heinle Cengage reminds me of the first time I saw Wallace & Gromit in 'The Wrong Trousers' adapted to English teaching. It was as though the heavens had opened and rays of happiness, joy and nice bits of cheddar and stilton were pouring down on tired English teachers everywhere.

Once again the ELT clouds seem to have parted and I can already imagine cackling curses from wicked witches (in simplified English, of course) echoing around creepy classrooms even as I type.

At least three target readerships immediately spring to mind:

First of all, any foreign language class with a bit of English literature on the syllabus is a no-brainer: they need this book!

Then there's the native speakers who are obliged to tackle the classics but who are finding the Shakespearian idiom less and less accessible. This could be an excellent way to fire up today's youth to appreciating the timeless lessons of life and human folly within the Bard's plays without tears.

I don't see why adult learners shouldn't also find this book both accessible and stimulating. The increasing popularity of the adult-themed graphic novel (as opposed to the more immature-sounding 'comic'), linked to the gravitas of Shakespeare, means that a more mature audience could be within this title's sights.

And to be honest, to the categories above I could quite seriously add 'and everyone else', such is the pleasure to be had in (re)discovering this marvellous classic in such an enjoyable way. I sat on the train and read it right the way through the other day, and am secretly hoping it's going to be a trilogy...

The illustrations are truly sumptuous. Although I'm no expert in the art of the graphic novel (practically considered a true art form where I live in France, by the way), we are talking stunning layout, glossy colours, punchy illustrations, superb printing quality and production. This book is a beauty by any standards, and I'm afraid I have to say that it puts most of the 'for ELT' produced equivalents to shame.

Macbeth - The ELT Graphic Novel is actually an ELT adaptation of a publication from Classical Comics who themselves produced three versions of the play in this richly illustrated form. One of these versions actually squeezes all of Shakespeare's original speech into the bubbles. The next converts it to modern English without shortening the speeches. And the third pares down the modern English version to the absolute minimum while still retaining the full essence of the story. The ELT version goes yet another stage further in the simplification process, but actually manages to still keep the excitement up, as well as adding ELT-appropriate descriptions of plot, character sketches and a useful three page glossary.

Particularly fascinating are the comparisons between the original text and the ELT version with a useful 'Meaning' column which allows even those of us who haven't got a clue what he was on about to nod wisely as we explain to our students the 'deeper meaning' of the text and pretend we knew all along. An example:

Act 1 Scene 5 - Page 20

Shakespeare's Original: 'Yet do I fear thy nature: It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.'

ELT Version: 'But you're too kind to do what you have to do to become king.'

Meaning: Lady Macbeth says this as she reads a letter from her husband. In it, he is telling his wife about how the three witches predicted that he will be king. However, Lady Macbeth believes her husband is too weak, too kind and too gentle to do what he must do to become king: murder Duncan.

Another interesting feature of this edition is a page on 'The Real Macbeth'. As an avowed philistine I enjoyed learning more about the truth behind one of Shakespeare's most famous characters and also the history of the country of my birth - Scotland. Macbeth is often referred to amongst cognoscenti as simply 'The Scottish Play'. Here's a sample:

"Scotland in the eleventh century was a cruel land to live in. It had many wars and mass killings occurred often. Whoever ruled Scotland had to protect family, community and the land from any enemies. However, many of a ruler's enemies were actually the people closest to him. These enemies were usually unhappy and jealous relatives, who wanted to be king themselves."

The 'Real Macbeth' family tree enlightens us as to the true context of the happenings described in the play, and a 'Link Map of Characters in Shakespeare's Macbeth' makes the sometimes opaque relationships clearer to the lay reader.

An audio CD accompanies this title and again manages to avoid the too-common cheesiness of many ELT recordings. Speech is natural and heartfelt, the sound effects are just right (horses braying, clashing of swords during fights).

Most of the characters have gentle Scottish lilts with the witches being slightly more exaggerated, which gives a nice sense of atmosphere, and only the narrator wields an albeit conspiratorial neutral southern English accent. All in all, there's not much to tell you that it's an ELT adaptation of a super-simplified English adaptation of a modernised English version of the original Shakespearian text. Well done to all concerned at Heinle Cengage and the actors too!

As you can see, I couldn't resist including quite a few shots of the book I took myself, before I realised that there were loads of graphics available on the Classical Comics site, if not the actual Heinle site - come on Heinle - don't hide your light under a bushel and get some visuals out there!

There are actually a few other ELT graphic novel adaptations of English classics in the same series, but I'm going to keep mum about them until I get my grubby hands on some review copies of my own.

Which brings me to thinking that I should reintroduce some sort of awards ceremony for titles we've review over the course of the year. I say 'reintroduce' because those of you old enough to remember will remember the legendary TEFL Farm (my first web site for English teachers more than ten years ago and its coveted 'Golden Cowpat'! Bring back the Golden Cowpat, I hear you all cry! I do believe that Wallace & Gromit - The Wrong Trousers was the first official winner too!

I'm thinking of potential categories and I guess Macbeth - The ELT Graphic Novel would fall into the Best ELT Adaptation category (and immediately win it too, I imagine).

Visit the Web Site
For a Fun Free English Lesson Sample & More
from
Hotch Potch English

_________________________________________________________________
Hotch Potch English: 'The English Language Teaching Review Blog" ~ Book Review: 'Macbeth - The ELT Graphic Novel'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2009 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English
_________________________________________________________________
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Book Review: 'Cambridge English for Nursing'

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:58:00 +0000

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Cambridge English for Nursing
by Virginia Allum & Patricia McGarr

Cambridge University Press 2008
ISBN 9780521715409
Publisher's Website
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From the blurb: "Cambridge English for Nursing is for intermediate to upper-intermediate level (B1-B2) learners of English who need to use English in a nursing environment. The course can be used in the classroom or for self-study.

Cambridge English for Nursing is designed to improve communication skills and specialist language knowledge, enabling healthcare professionals to work more confidently and effectively."
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One of the great joys of teaching English to adult professionals is that you come into contact with a vast array of different people, personalities and working lifestyles. The stories I've had shared with me from air traffic controllers, Africa-based oil-company reps and international glue salesmen in the course of my English teaching career would probably fill a book in their own right.

And as English language teaching materials get more and more industry specific, we are having to deal with a lot of very specialised terms and in particular functional language of the sort offered by one of Cambridge University Press' latest books, Cambridge English for Nursing.

Having given quite a detailed description of the style of this series when reviewing the Cambridge English for Job-hunting title, I'll allow myself a rather more anecdotal approach here if you don't mind.

I was a bit harsh in the aforementioned review, complaining that its six long and rather unexciting units with their equally laborious listenings could have been made a bit more accessible and snappy. Cambridge English for Nursing, with its ten 8-page units (as opposed to six 13-page slogs) and the colourful medical diagrams and pictures immediately make it more accessible.

The job-hunting title struggled to jolly up its pages with assorted stock pics of pens hovering over pads and people looking pensive. Cambridge English for Nursing gets right to the nitty-gritty with juicy diagrams of the inner workings of the pancreas, a universal pain assessment tool and a pretty graphic set of gruesome wounds to admire. Oh, and there are a couple of photos of pens poised pensively over pads for good measure...

The exercises themselves are as excellently imagined as ever from Cambridge, and the scope of language and medical situations covered is almost mindboggling to the lay English teacher. I don't know for sure, but I imagine that this title will be extremely well received by teachers working in hospitals or for university-level nursing courses where the students need to be able to cope competently in a wide range of medical situations.

The page layout is particularly successful in this title, always colourful and nice to look at, with a great variety of tables, boxes, drop-shadowed notebook pages and so on to keep the learners interest levels up.

The listening material is as comprehensive as it is eye-opening for the non-specialist teacher. I'd love to have been a fly on the editor's wall as they discussed just what sort of conversation would most naturally illustrate all the necessary language involved in giving a urine sample or cleaning someone's bowels out. A sample of what they came up with:

Frances: ...That's why it's called a midstream urine sample. Do you understand what I mean?

Mrs Faisal: Yes, I think so. Let me repeat what I have to do so I'm sure I've got it right. I pass some urine into the toilet and then some more urine into the container.

Frances: Yes, that's exactly what I want you to do. We want to get the middle part of the stream of urine. Just one more thing. - tighten the lid before you give me the specimen container, please.

Mrs Faisal: Oh right, I can see why that's important.

While it's rather cringe worthy to listen to the obviously contrived exchanges like this, plaudits to the authors for just managing to imagine scenarios where these sorts of conversations don't sound totally ridiculous.

The ten units in the book cover Patient admissions, Respiratory problems, Wound care, Diabetes care, Medical specimens, Medications, Intravenous infusions, Pre- and Post-operative patient assessment, and Discharge planning.

The focus is firmly on real-life communicative skills needed by nurses, with bang up to date material organised sensibly. Each unit contains, and I quote:

discussion of the nursing topic
listening activities reflecting everyday nursing scenarios
a focus on communication, for example giving advice sensitively
a medical focus, for example describing how the heart works
charting and documentation - medical forms and how to use them
abbreviations and acronyms used in healthcare
an online glossary with a pronunciation guide

Cambridge English for Nursing can be used if studying alone and the units are stand-alone and can be done in any order. It would also make a good course book as part of a nursing qualification where English is important.

A great deal of thought and effort has obviously gone into producing this book, and the authors and editor are to be praised for this.

I hope you enjoy using this book, and do tell us how you get on with Mrs Clarke's enema in unit 8 - I'm dying to know!

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Hotch Potch English: 'The English Language Teaching Review Blog" ~ Book Review: 'Cambridge English for Nursing'
Created & written by Sab Will
Copyright 2009 Sab Will / Hotch Potch English
___________________________________________________
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Book Review: 'Cambridge English for Job-hunting'

noreply@blogger.com (Hotch Potch English) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:55:00 +0000

Cambridge English for Job-hunting

by Colm Downes
Cambridge University Press 2008
ISBN 9780521722155