A Brief Booklist
If you've visited a TESOL convention or browsed through Amazon, you'll know that there are many thousands of TESOL-related books in print. Unfortunately, most of these books are not worth the paper they are printed on - and certainly not worth the valuable time you might spend reading them! Many of them are based on outdated approaches to language teaching. Others are written by people who are far removed from the TESOL classroom and so they contain activities that simply don't work with real students in real classrooms.
The list below is very short. This is because I have limited it to books that I and/or teachers that I've trained have found to be really useful when preparing and teaching lessons.
__________________________________________________
Resource Books
Discussions That Work
This is the new version of one of two Penny Ur books that I think no teacher should leave home without. It is full of great activities that practice free speaking (sometimes called oral fluency or conversation practice). All the activities have been tried out many, many times over the years and they all work well.
Grammar Practice Activities
This is the second book by Penny Ur that I think all ESOL teachers should own. The focus this time is on activities that you can use to provide your students with (mainly oral) grammar practice. I have been using the book since the first edition appeared decades ago. The current edition is even better!
Play Games with English
Colin Granger has produced three books in the series "Play Games with English". Each book contains numerous picture worksheets that can form the basis of useful and motivating pairwork for students at various levels. The activities provide practice of a whole range of language areas - vocabulary, verb tenses, word order, etc. I don't use all the material in the series but each book contains at least 6 or 7 activities that I use over and over again.
Pronunciation Pairs
I'm not a big fan of books on how to teach pronunciation but I like - and use - this one. It shows how to help students recognize and pronounce American English sounds and how to discriminate between similar sounds. It contains lots of useful exercises and practice materials that can be used with students at Elementary and Intermediate levels.
American Headway
Yes, I know that John and Liz Soars' American Headway is a series of coursebooks rather than resource books. But what is a good coursebook but a collection of useful teaching materials? And these are very good coursebooks!
The American Headway series comprises 4 student books (for levels from Beginner to Upper Intermediate). Each book is full of activities that students will enjoy and benefit from.
Note:
The New Headway series is for British English courses and it comprises 6 books (for levels from Beginner to Advanced). These books, too, are full of useful materials and they are very widely used in language schools across Europe.
The American Headway series comprises 4 student books (for levels from Beginner to Upper Intermediate). Each book is full of activities that students will enjoy and benefit from.
Note:
The New Headway series is for British English courses and it comprises 6 books (for levels from Beginner to Advanced). These books, too, are full of useful materials and they are very widely used in language schools across Europe.
1,000 Pictures for Teachers to Copy
I'm always seeing teachers struggling to explain an English word verbally when a simple drawing would be much faster and much clearer.
If you aren't good at drawing, this book is for you. Andrew Wright shows you how to produce really simple drawings that are really clear!
If you aren't good at drawing, this book is for you. Andrew Wright shows you how to produce really simple drawings that are really clear!
__________________________________________________
Reference Books
How to Teach English (New edition with DVD)
Every TESOL-related book that Jeremy Harmer has written is worth reading. For years I recommended that my trainee teachers read his "The Practice of English Language Teaching". I now recommend that they read "How to Teach English" instead, partly because it comes with a DVD of lesson clips that show various classroom techniques in use.
Note:
"The Practice of English Language Teaching" is still available and is still worth reading!
Note:
"The Practice of English Language Teaching" is still available and is still worth reading!
Learner English
When planning and teaching lessons, it is really useful to know something about your students' native languages. This allows you to predict many of the problems that the students will have in English and enables you to plan ways of helping them to overcome these problems. Unfortunately, most of us don't know much if anything about the first languages of many of our students. That is where this book comes in. It has chapters on all the main languages or language groups. Each chapter describes salient features of the language and contrasts these with the equivalent features in English. So, for example, it shows you which sounds exist in both English and the other language, and which English sounds the other language doesn't have.
Practical English Usage
In my opinion, this is by far the best grammar reference for most ESOL teachers because it is detailed, it is comprehensive and it is easy to understand. This is the reference that I use if I want to research a grammar point for a lesson.
One of the best features of the book is its index. With most grammar books, it is difficult to look up items if you don't know their technical names. Let's say, for example, that you want to look up words that end in "ing" (like "working" and "eating"). Unfortunately, you don't know that they're called gerunds or present participles. With Swan's book, this isn't a problem: You can just look up "ing" in the index. (Of course, you can also look under "gerund" and "present participle".)
One of the best features of the book is its index. With most grammar books, it is difficult to look up items if you don't know their technical names. Let's say, for example, that you want to look up words that end in "ing" (like "working" and "eating"). Unfortunately, you don't know that they're called gerunds or present participles. With Swan's book, this isn't a problem: You can just look up "ing" in the index. (Of course, you can also look under "gerund" and "present participle".)
Longman Advanced American Dictionary
For TESOL purposes, you need a specific ESOL dictionary, rather than a general dictionary like those published by Random House or Webster's.
This dictionary is very user-friendly and it's now the only one I consult when I'm planning lessons or workshops.
This dictionary is very user-friendly and it's now the only one I consult when I'm planning lessons or workshops.
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
When I taught British English, this is the dictionary that I found to be the most useful. If I went back to teaching British English, I would go back to this dictionary, too.
