The Book Next Door
Australian EAL/ESL materials for adults and young adults
2016 Nov 04

‘Welcome to Hope Street’ in the CPSWE / CSWE I class

Welcome to Hope Street: ESL Extras fun pre-beginner reading book with activities from Clare Harris at

Life isn’t neat. It’s all very well to know that Welcome to Hope Street is for prelim (CPSWE) learners, but what about when you have a mixed level class, with much more capable CSWE I beginners, who need to work on different learning outcomes. Can you use the book, but give them extension work? This was the question asked by … Continue reading

2016 Sep 13

It’s out! Extra Easy Puzzles for ESOL learners

At last, Extra Easy Puzzles is ready, and coming to a language bookshop near you. It’s at Beginner C level – aimed at learners in a beginner class, who are doing really well, or reaching the end of their beginner status. The sample pages are here on the website. If you want to read about why I wrote this book, I … Continue reading

2016 Aug 23

How well do ESL Extras travel?

ESL Extras in NZ

How well do learning materials travel? One of the reasons I love using Australian materials is their relevance to learners’ lives. At beginner levels especially, it’s much easier to show where Melbourne is on a map than to have to explain references to London landmarks, or British history. Is that a problem in reverse, though? I write with adult and … Continue reading

2016 Jul 28

SpellingWorks and other books from the past…

SpellingWorks cover

I often think of those jokey, cartoony ESOL books from the 80s, because for me they were such fun. Was it just that I was new to teaching, or was there something about teaching English with Streamline and Contact English? Of course, when I wanted to find examples of Contact English recently, I couldn’t, though we still have the wallcharts at work. … Continue reading

Extra Easy Puzzles: fun beginner ESL activities from Clare Harris at The Book Next Door

It’s already July, the month I’d hoped to launch the next ESL Extras book, Extra Easy Puzzles – and we’re still doing the last few tweaks. My wonderful editor found a glitch I hadn’t even spotted (not a typo, but something that made a puzzle hard to do). Isn’t it always the way that you can look at something a … Continue reading

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