Your Favorite (English) Teaching Books

[Grim Ironjaw]

Sorry to bring business to our funhouse, but I've got a modest budget for new books which I have to use up in the coming weeks or else it vanishes.

What are your favorite books for teaching or studying English? Textbooks, reference books, supplementary activity books, etc.

I teach at a university, with students of varying levels.

[Primarch]

Personally I really like the Interchange range of books for teaching english conversation. They come in 4 different levels (absolute beginner to advanced) and contain up to 40 lessons worth of material assuming a 1-2 hour period and some supplementary activities.

Usually I use business textbooks so beyond that I cant really offer much advice.

[Colonel Voss]

Interchange is good.

I also like the Talk A Lot series for conversation and interaction oriented day. Each lesson is stand alone so you can pull out and use as needed.

True Stories in the News series is good reading and discussion books.

[The Underdweller]

Interchange is good. Another similar type of "all purpose" English textbook is Touchstone - I've only taught #2 but it was pretty good for my pre-intermediate class.

The best grammar reference book (for teachers, not students) is Swan's Practical English Usage. For students, Raymond Murphy's Grammar in Use has good grammar explanations and comes at various levels.

If you know the specific subjects you are teaching (TOEIC, reading, etc.) I can probably think of a few more things. Good luck!

[Spevna]

For textbooks I like the New Headway stuff. They also do some nice teacher resource books with useful handouts/activities and such.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I have used all these books and my English still sucks.

When I was and English teacher long ago I liked a book called Nice Talking With You, by Tom Kenny (at least for English conversation classes).

I find if you have the author explain what he was thinking when he wrote it you can use the book much better. Even the best teachers guides do not give you enough insight on how to teach a book.

If I were to teach English or any other language I would work with either a graded reading system (false beginners ) or a form of entrainment media such as a television program or movies (for more advanced learners).

[Grim Ironjaw]

Thanks a lot, everyone.

I teach communication, and basic writing.
Many of my students take TOEIC, and though I don't teach prep courses or anything like that, I should probably become more familiar with it than I currently am.

[The Underdweller]

For sentence and paragraph writing, the "Weaving it Together" series (I think I used #1 or 2, or maybe both) is pretty good. Each chapter has both reading and writing parts, with focuses on stuff like topic sentences. I also occasionally used the "Get Ready to Write" series, but found it not as good.

As for TOEIC, if you ever have a chance to try a bit of a practice test, it's the easiest way to understand it. It's basically just mutiple choice answers after short listenings or readings, or choosing the correct vocabulary.