Good Teaching Materials

[woliveri]

Can anyone suggest good teaching materials here in Shanghai or China in general.

Till now the materials I have found have been full of errors and of poor quality (too simple).

I need materials for General English at intermediate and Advanced and Business English at the same levels. Books are preferable.

Thanks.

[toml37]

You might try the Foreign Bookstore on Fuzhou Road. Several blocks from Raffle City. They have a selection of teacher resources from NA and EU. Hope this helps

[Rincewind]

I use a range of books in my classes.

'New Concept English' by L. G. Alexander (Published by Longman) is a very popular range. Book 1 is suitable for Primary school children, Book 2 is often used at the Middle Schools and private schools for 11 and 12 year olds. Book 3 gets more advanced and book 4 is quite difficult.

'Side by Side' by S J Molinsky and B. Bliss (Published by Longman) is also popular and many of the parents of my students ask for classes using this book. It's well illustrated and have a range of books and tapes form elementary up to advanced levels. This book is particularly good at grammar exercises but I find the basic book introduces some long words too early and the vocab list doesn't list all the new words in the exercises so I often get caught out if I don't prep the class very carefully. This range I use for 8 to 12 year olds.

'Go for it' by David Nunan (Published by Thomson) is a book my school has used during the last year. It's well structured but a bit light on exercises. I really just use it as a subject guide to base my lesson plan on rather than use the book it's self.

'Interchange' by Jack C. Richards (Published by Cambridge University Press) is a good choice for teaching older teenagers and adults. I've been using this book in classes for about 6 months. It comes with a CD and there are also web based exercises from the publishers site. It take things quite gently with plenty of exercises to complete.

'Pass Cambridge BEC...' range by L Wood, P Sanderson, A Williams and C Lloyd-Jones (Published by Summertown) is a good quality selection of books for teaching Business English. They start form just above beginner (but below intermediate) level and continue to advanced. They have plenty of material to use in your classes and are well structured. Though they are designed with a certain Examination in mind, they would form a good basis for any student studying business English.

You should be able to get these books in almost any bookshop in china. There should be no need to go to a foreign specialist to to a major city to find them.

[wushijiao]

Thanks for the detailed write up Rincewind.

I also use "Working in English" by Leo Jones. (Posts and Telecom Press). This is a great book if you have to teach a "Spoken Business English" class. The book is designed to give students plenty of practice in the common situations that they would encounter in the business world (meetings, phone calls, dealing with misunderstandings...etc.) The back of the book also has a bunch of activities that are great for practicing speaking in pair work.

Here's a picture:

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=8892116

[magores]

What about materials for very young kids?

I teach children ranging from 2 -10 years old.

It's the 4 - 5 year olds that good material is hard to find.

"Pingu loves English" was actually really good for this age range, but Pingu level 1 is no longer available. Pingu level 2 is actually a huge jump in required ability for the kids. There should have been a level 1.5

"Fun Fun English" actually has pretty good English (eg "real English"), but all the characters have Korean names. (Ding-soong, Ar-chi, etc). Not exactly what I want. And, it's a little higher level than I would like. Starting at age 5, rather than age 4.

Another problem that I see is that many books are designed to be taught across a school year... 9 months (or more). I'd like to see something that can be done in 6 months, but without having to sacrifice/rush.

I would love any suggestions you all might have.

[Rincewind]

I have 2 kindergarten classes each week but I've not looked at using a book for very young children. Instead I rely on flash cards and just take a topic from a book but use my own injinuity to create the activities.

[wushijiao]

What about materials for very young kids?

I was listening to podcasts about ESL, when I came across "Super Simple Songs".

http://www.supersimplesongs.com/

Basically, the idea is that some traditional songs (designed for kids who are native speakers) are just a bit too hard, in parts, for young kids learning ESL. So, they made a bunch of simple songs that are easy for kids to learn, and many of which also have great activities built in with them.

You might want to check it out.

[magores]

Rincewind

-I do the same with the "every day" kids. But, for the specifically-English classes (once a week), the parents expect a book. Something that their kids can take home and look at/listen to.

wushijiao

-Thanks. This does look interesting.