TEFL Book Reviews
Reviews of books (and occasionally other resources such as software and games) of special interest to English teachers, edited by Alex Case. New reviews are added regularly. If you would like to review books for TEFL.net, please read this.
 Teaching English Grammar When offered the chance to review a book by Jim Scrivener, I jumped at it. When I first started in this industry Learning Teaching was my roadmap – he seemed to be able to explain fairly complex concepts very clearly, giving me the confidence to go out and teach and, perhaps most importantly, experiment. I can see Teaching English Grammar helping new teachers in exactly the same way with what is (for native speaker teachers at least) the hardest part of EFL teaching.
The book starts with a brief introduction in which the author sets out his aim to “save you time, energy and stress and help you to feel more confident, well-informed and one step ahead of your students”. There is then a brief section on key terminology, including useful potted guides on the use of timelines and finger contractions. This is a brief section mostly aimed at new teachers, but even an old-timer like myself found a useful tip – that teachers spend too long worrying about making lessons fun, when the real aim should be to make them engaging.
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 The Business English Teacher Those of us who have been teaching Business English for years find it difficult to find volumes on ESP methodology that are accessible and well justified. This is just what can be found in The Business English Teacher: Professional Principles and Practical Procedures. This volume, which can be used both by in–training and in-service teachers, is a compilation of good activities that work in the business classroom. The book has three main positive aspects: there is a clear interest in addressing international students; a detailed guide for current and prospective teachers; and an attractive collection of activities that address the students’ language- and content-oriented skills.
The book is divided into three sections that pay attention to first theory, then to practice and, finally, to development.
Part A addresses the organization and planning of Business ESP courses, including the contents and physical set up, along with basic considerations of vocabulary, language skills, grammar and so. This section also addresses the teaching principles such as how to choose the lesson objective, how to plan effective lessons, ways of
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 Professional English in Use: Engineering Part of the major Cambridge “in use” series, this addition is one title from the Professional English in Use sub-series that includes vocabulary for Marketing, Finance, Medicine, Law. Thanks to the burgeoning popularity of ESP, you name it, Cambridge are writing a vocabulary book for it.
There are 45 units, with 9 themes, such as Design, Measurement and Energy. There are two pages per unit, with the right and left fulfilling different roles: The left page has words in context and the right page has exercises for the target items.
The texts in which the words are given in context are from textbooks, magazines or other sources. The target audience includes both engineering students and professional engineers. The level is Intermediate and above (B1-B2 CEF), so although the texts may be largely authentic they’re probably edited to keep the incidental lexis level down. The texts by and large read like an explanatory text from a textbook. For example,
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 Perspectives on Language Learning Materials Development One of the most interesting things about this book is the breadth of its scope. It is divided into three sections: Materials Development and Naturally Occurring Discourse (four chapters); Technology and Materials Development (two chapters); and Tailoring Materials for Learner Groups (four chapters). Six of the ten chapters were originally given as papers at the MATSDA (Materials Development Association) conference held in Ireland in 2008. The second section is entirely composed of new articles (one by the co-editor of the book) and there is one new article in each of the other two sections. The authors work in many different environments, with learners from a wide range of ages and backgrounds, using many different types of material, and in countries as far apart as Japan, Pakistan, Tunisia and Venezuela.
One of the postulates here is that every language teacher is a materials developer, and it is for this reason that the book is a must-read for those of us who want to take things just that little bit further. Naturally occurring discourse is far more readily available now, in the age of internet, than it was in the past. The problem now is one of knowing how best to use the vast quantities of material available. The first chapter shows how the authors McCarthy and McCarten, well-known in the field of ELT publishing, used the Cambridge International Corpus to build a conversation management syllabus. The four macro-functions identified are: organising your own talk; taking account of the other speaker(s); listenership; and managing the conversation as a whole. Part of the problem of using a corpus of naturally occurring speech is that such conversations rarely fit the ideal textbook format of 50-word snippets. The authors suggest strategies for overcoming these problems, illustrating them with examples taken from their Touchstone series.
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 English Idioms in Use (Advanced) Idioms are difficult. They’re such an integral part of English yet students of all levels often struggle with them, and finding a way to systematically teach these kinds of expressions is a challenge for teachers. So where to start?
English Idioms in Use begins with an introductory section about idioms, how to use them accurately, how to play with them, and how to understand a humorous play on words. There’s also a brief look at idioms from places including Scotland and the US.
The next section considers idiom types, including proverbs, similes and clichés, before moving on to presenting idioms via topic area, covering themes such as conflict, transport, animals, body parts and literature. I was intrigued in the contents page to see a unit titled ‘Shakespeare’ and discovered that idioms such as ‘the green-eyed monster’, ‘at one fell swoop’, ‘eat me out of house and home’ and ‘wild-goose chase’ were actually used in Shakespeare’s plays.
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 Using Corpora in the Language Classroom From the same collection as From Corpus to Classroom, Reppen’s book is the perfect introduction to corpus linguistics from the classroom viewpoint. One possible quibble could be that the book is quite short, but even that can be seen as an advantage: it leaves the reader hungry for more.
The book follows the popular American textbook format: there are grey “Your turn” boxes at regular intervals to encourage active reading; and each chapter starts with an outline in the form of questions and ends with a brief recap of what has been learnt. This makes navigation easy, and the index is also quite useful, although sometimes frustrating: Word Pilot sounds fascinating but, alas, the only mention of it is to be found in the index, whereas Voice Walker is mentioned in the text, but is absent from both the index and the software list in Appendix B.
The book is divided into five chapters. The first provides a rapid review of what a corpus is, and what different types of corpora there are. From the beginning, the text is easy to read and abundantly illustrated, with examples of word frequency lists, KWIC (key word in context) concordance lines, screen shots of online corpora, and concrete examples of exercises based on corpus data or using corpora.
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 English Language Teaching Materials: Theory and Practice
English Language Teaching Materials: Theory and Practice is a very useful book for all teachers of English as a foreign language, and especially for experienced teachers looking for more specialised help with lesson planning or understanding course content. In addition, it is a great tool for those involved with (or considering involvement with) materials writing. The teaching materials covered in the book are wide-ranging and not just limited to textbooks. Of course, textbooks are covered, but so are realia, worksheets, specific exercises, and the methodology for using these materials. The book also covers the production and publication of materials.
The book is divided into chapters, in this case each written by a different author or group of authors. All the contributors to this work are practising teachers or academics from university departments, covering a range of English-speaking countries. Some names will also be familiar to those readers who often read research papers about EFL.
This last point is significant because the content of the book is very academic. The chapters are written more like journal articles than book chapters. Because of this, I would say that while the book is of use to all teachers of EFL, for those who are newer to the profession or those who do not have so much academic knowledge of language and language teaching, it may be quite heavy-going.
At the end of each chapter, there are points for discussion and other such tasks designed to enable the reader to reflect upon what they have just read and to give the reader a chance to put into practice the ideas and content of the chapter.
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 Macmillan Collocations Dictionary When it comes to English fluency, collocations are crucial to sounding natural, smooth and competent. Understanding how words work together adds meaning that cannot be gained in any other way and is essential for beginner-level students who wish to progress to the next level. The Macmillan Collocations Dictionary is an excellent book to help students develop their language skills in this way. The introduction describes how the dictionary can aid students in their IELTS study, but it is useful for those not taking this test as well. In particular, I think this book can really support writers looking to improve their academic or professional writing skills. I’m even considering making this a required text for my university academic writing course because it’s so easy to use.
Its main strength is the colouring and layout, which are simple and clear, meaning that it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it. The basic colouring includes headwords in red, simple definitions in black type and examples in italics. Multiple definitions are clearly numbered and collocates are bolded for easy identification. Under each word, different grammatical relationships (adj +N; V + N) are marked with a dot and additional listings of the same relationship are labelled with an arrow. Since the collocates are bolded, they visually leap off the page in a way that helps the busy writer efficiently identify the appropriate words to use. There are also occasional grey-and-red boxes that explain elements of usage in further detail and provide examples.
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 Global Pre-Intermediate Global is the new coursebook series from Macmillan. It consists of a student coursebook, an eWorkbook, a teacher’s book with resource CD, audio CDs, a version for interactive whiteboards and a regularly updated website. At first glance, Global doesn’t differ that greatly from the coursebooks that teachers the world over are accustomed to using, in that it is divided into themed units containing grammar, reading, listening, and vocabulary, along with speaking and pronunciation components. At the end of each unit is a ‘functional’ page to practise ‘useful’ English, a writing task and a review section.
So far, so typical. However, as you begin to dig deeper you begin to notice aspects of the book that make it quite unlike other coursebooks of a similar ilk (New English File, Cutting Edge etc). One of author Lindsay Clandfield’s stated aims is “for students to learn about English…We believe that (this subject) is
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 The TKT Course CLIL Module The TKT (the Teaching Knowledge Test) is a Cambridge ESOL test about teaching English to speakers of other languages and aims to provide teachers, both experienced and less experienced, with the tools and confidence to develop their knowledge and skills. No formal qualifications or preparation courses are required to take the test, but Cambridge recommend an intermediate or B1 (CEFR) level of English.
The TKT consists of three core modules, each of which is tested separately, on language and background to language learning and teaching (Module 1), planning lessons and use of resources for language teaching (Module 2) and managing the teaching and learning process (Module 3). In addition, there are three other optional modules, TKT Practical, TKT Knowledge About Language, and TKT Content And Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).
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 Learning One-to-One My favorite kind of professional text is books of practical techniques that are full of thoughtful, creative and interactive language tasks and activities. These kinds of books can range greatly in quality and usefulness, however. The most notable exception is the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series, guided by Scott Thornbury. Like all the other valuable contributions to teachers’ professional libraries that Cambridge has produced, Wisniewska’s Learning One-to-One does not disappoint. As the title succinctly indicates, this is a book for ESL/EFL instructors who work individually with learners, in person or at a distance. It fills a gaping hole in the field today, as many teachers have been trained to teach classes of English language learners (ELLs) but are being asked to pull learners out of mainstream courses for one-on-one support or to teach an individual online. This text orients teachers to both of those two types of environments, as well as the intellectual shifts necessary to teach one individual well.
After a brief introduction to this instructional format and its challenges, the book has two large sections entitled “Basic Principles” and “Activities”. These are followed by references and a slightly annotated list of useful websites. The text also includes a CD-ROM of photocopiable worksheets.
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 Business Vocabulary in Use I’m a fan of this series and the 2nd edition of this Intermediate level Business English vocabulary book provides clear explanations and practice exercises, which I feel are ideal for supplementary class materials or further self- study practice.
The book is clearly laid out with 66 Units practising different aspects of business vocabulary. There are 44 thematic lessons structured around the following main areas: Jobs, people and organisations; Production; Marketing; Money; Finance and the economy; Culture; and Business Ethics (the last two both being very brief sections). The other 20 Units are used for introducing skills practice including communication via telephone, fax and email, as well as more general business skills such as negotiations, meetings and presentations. The book has a reasonable amount of visual appeal and certainly offers a professional feel, which is important to attract the target audience.
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 Teaching English Language Learners through Technology The number of books on computer-assisted language learning or technology-based language learning has increased dramatically in the last two or three years. It seems like everyone now working in teaching methodology or preparing books for teachers has to complete or reshape the topic just a bit and “computerize” or “technologize” their titles. I have to say that by the time I received this book I had already reviewed many similar ones, at least in title and contents, so when I first opened this volume I was wondering whether I would really find anything new here. One heading that immediately caught my attention was “Not all ELLs [English Language Learners] are the same” (p. 32), about when and how to teach with technology. That was indeed new! In a way, I feel the same about the rest of this volume – it is not only another book on the topic, but also very versatile and adaptable to each individual’s needs.
The book is divided into three main sections. The first part (titled “Your English Language Learner”) consists of eight chapters, and each addresses different aspects of teaching needs or realities of different students such as the process of second language learning and teaching, the features of the best TESOL programs, how to orientate bilingual education, adjustment to different kinds of learners (one of my favorite parts of the book), technology-based language
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 Teaching and Researching Computer-Assisted Language Learning Teaching and Researching Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) was first released in 2003 but it has been revised and the second edition has just been released. For anyone who wants to conduct research or just has an interest in CALL, then this book is definitely a must have. There are so many CALL books out there and a large number of them are bogged down with large amounts of technological terminology that only the tech-savvy can actually understand. Thankfully this edition is not like that. Tech terms are explained in a very clear and easy-to-understand manner, and it is very interesting even if you know nothing about the world of CALL.
The book opens with a very detailed Table of Contents which enables you to find specific information and makes it possible for you to find what you are looking for very quickly. You don’t need to skim through every chapter as the contents are well set out and clearly labeled. Following the Contents is the Introduction, which I recommend reading as it contains a brief look into the world of CALL and outlines the book’s contents.
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 English Unlimited
English Unlimited (starter) is a fresh new approach to teaching and learning English because the main goal of the course is to achieve specific communicative goals which are then broken down into smaller goals that are the overt starting point for each of the ten units. Importantly, the goals are based on the CEF curriculum descriptors then adapted and supplemented from the authors’ research. This course has been planned to be practical, authentic, international and flexible.
It is practical because it has been designed around the CEF requirements for the course. Therefore when the students complete this course they will be able to move from this A1 level to A2. It is authentic because the author based it on the Cambridge International Corpus. This means that they searched the corpus for the most common words and expressions that can be introduced for this level of student. Likewise, the grammar and keyword sections have utilized this researched approach to authentic language. The author has made it a truly international course by using speakers of English with a variety of accents and features in every unit that address culture. Finally, it is flexible because the first six pages of each unit could be used for a 40 hour course and the additional two pages could be added on if the course length is 50 to 60 hours. Should the course be 90 hours, there is additional material in the teacher’s book for a further extension.
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 Connecting Reading and Writing Critical thinking is in vogue in the EFL/ESL field at the moment, and at a recent conference I saw myriad materials touting the development of students’ critical thinking skills. The question, however, is whether these materials actually follow through on their claims or are simply roses by other names with very little innovation. I can say that the Weaving It Together series from Cengage blends actual development of critical thinking skills, on multiple levels, with reading and writing development. The format across the four levels is similar, with increased difficulty coming in the length of readings (one page in level 1 and 2 up to three pages in level 4), writing products (paragraphs in level 1, paragraphs to basic essays in level 2, full length essays in levels 3 and 4), and level of analysis required in the tasks (level 4 ends with analysis and interpretation of fictional work). Levels 1 and 2 are appropriate for low intermediate (high school EFL) while level 3 would be appropriate for mid to high intermediate (university level EFL). Level 4 is solidly for high intermediate to advanced level learners, because the combination of analytical and linguistic demands will be more than lower level students can likely handle. These are also good texts for adult students, or for those in a university ESL classroom in which they are learning to write.
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 CLIL At first glance I thought this book would be another book about the recent TEFL buzzword “CLIL” that left me with more questions than answers. Luckily I was wrong. The book answered and resolved many of the doubts that I was harboring about Content and Language Integrated Learning.
The book CLIL draws on the extensive knowledge and experience of the authors to give a comprehensive overview of Content and Language Integrated Learning. It is divided broadly into three sections: the background to CLIL, classroom practice and, ways of sustaining and critically assessing CLIL.
It is written with Pre-school, Primary, Secondary and Vocational levels in mind and is divided into eight chapters. Each chapter deals with a relevant theme in CLIL, from an introduction to CLIL in the first chapter, to the last chapter on future directions.
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 Grammar for Business Traditionally, in-company classes are the most difficult for ESOL/EFL practitioners to find decent materials for. Business course books, even when well-written and presented, tend to spread the net a little too widely, meaning that some units tend to be useful for the students and the other half irrelevant to their particular situation. They also, for my money, have a tendency to skimp on the grammar. The alternative, to take a crash course in whatever the business may do and write a set of materials based around that, can be daunting and time-consuming. But in-company students tend to be demanding, and rightly so – they often pay premium rates for special treatment. That extra mile therefore often has to be travelled to keep them happy. One thing your DoS/Senior Teacher can do right now to help you out in such situations is to get hold of a copy of Grammar for Business.
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 Expressive English I am a fan of using games in my teaching and so I think this product is a great idea!
Basically, this product is a 52-card deck just like regular playing cards, going from Ace to King and with 4 suits. The only difference is that these cards have been created to practise English language points. The pack includes some brief suggestions on how to play, but the principle idea is to use the language pattern on the card in a sentence and to say it aloud to the other players. It can be incorporated into any card game you wish to use.
What does this mean in practice? Having tried this out, one example I can offer is to play a game of Rummy and challenge the students to make a sentence using the target language on the card whenever they exchange a card. Also, to win at the end they must have an appropriate sentence for each of their 7 cards. Runner-up places can be determined by correct sentences made from the cards that other players hold. Another suggestion, this time from Expressive English, involves using the cards for dialogue building, with cards being randomly drawn from the deck and students using the target expression to follow on from a previous statement to form a continuous dialogue.
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EAP Essentials is a comprehensive and pragmatic resource book for all teachers of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). The content is delivered in line with current learning methodologies – that is, it includes input sections followed by case study examples and tasks, many of which are reflective in nature, to involve the reader in a process of self-paced learning.
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