How well do ESL Extras travel?
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
Maybe Next Year: from ‘ESL reader’ to ‘today’s lesson’?
“I’ve got a Social English class, so how can I use Maybe Next Year as the key material? (Oh, and I have prelim learners in with beginners, and the volunteer is going to be away…)” Sometimes we see reading materials as simply ‘reading’ – students read the story, answer the questions, do the worksheets, and we’re finished. On to the … Continue reading
SpellingWorks and other books from the past…
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
Coming soon: Extra Easy (ESOL) Puzzles
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
The ESL Small Publishers Independent Network: ESL-SPIN
If you’re interested in books written by other Australian EAL/ESOL teachers, look out for the ESL-SPIN table at your next event, and come and say hello to some members of the ESL Small Publishers Independent Network. We’re all long-term teachers and writers, creating the resources we’d like to use ourselves… then being challenged by the need to let people know about … Continue reading
