"Next to money, English is the leading international language."
Evan Esar, American humorist
A new semester means more last minute orders of class sets of textbooks, including ESL books. I'm now seeing this situation as both an ESL instructor and a small publisher.
During the last week, several schools and English teachers have purchased class sets of Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless. Naturally, that development pleases me for many reasons. English teachers using the book in Chile, Rwanda, Hungary, Russia, Canada, and Italy feeds my global soul.
Yet I’ve also been surprised at how many institutions have placed their orders on Amazon where they pay the full price of $24.50 . While ordering on Amazon puts more money in my book, it seems what I call a “good mistake” in my classes. Why?
Because schools, churches, and bookstores can place their orders with Booksurge directly, receive a 40% discount, and save money. Each book will cost $14.70 instead of $24.50. If the adult school or English language school sells the books to student, the institution can even make a nice profit. Schools that provide free ESL textbooks to their students should appreciate the savings because they can also provide more materials to English language learners.
• Bottomline: If you choose to buy Compelling Conversations for your oral skills class, conversation club, or advanced ESL class, save your school and yourself some money. Order your class set from Booksurge, the book’s publisher for wholesale orders.. Call customer service the BookSurge wholesale ordering hotline at 866-308-6235 and select option #6.
Of course, textbook prices do not matter equally to all. Some elite private schools, school administrators, and wealthy English language learners might even prefer to pay full price. Perhaps ordering class sets of hard to find quality ESL books directly on Amazon better fits their needs. Amazon also works better for individual English tutors and teachers.
Yet adult schools, public programs, churches, and smaller language schools ordering 10 or more copies should be - especially in these difficult economic times – more cost conscious. As the old proverb goes, a penny saved is a penny earned.
Thank you to everyone who has already brought Compelling Conversations into their classroom, and thank you to everyone considering Compelling Conversations . I hope that deepening the connections between individuals through smarter, better conversations will help create a better, more humane, and peaceful world.
"Conversation means being able to disagree and still continue the conversation."
Dwight McDonald (1906-1982), American editor
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Showing posts with label ESL books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ESL books. Show all posts
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Friday, December 12, 2008
Some Favorite ESL Textbooks
What ESL textbooks do you recommend? What are some of your favorite books to help English language learners develop their skills?
Two email requests in 40 hours require a decent response. Here's a quick, concise list of some ESL titles that I've enjoyed. It's by no means comprehensive, and just a starting list heavily influenced by the books in my eyesight.
The Creative Classroom: Teaching Language Outside the Box, by Hall Houston, contains dozens of bite-sized exercises to spark authentic language and creative discourse, This slim book, published by Lynx, should especially appeal to ESL students with a background or interest in engineering, science, and the arts.
Academic ESL/intensive English programs
Cambridge Vocabulary in Use series - An excellent supplemental text, especially for the more academically inclined. The self-contained two page format allows students, teachers, and tutors to pick and choose materials.
Cambridge Grammar in Use series - This series is the only grammar series that I've ever felt comfortable using in the classroom. Again, the accessible, clear format with self-contained lessons allows both self-study and effective use as a supplemental text.
English for Professionals series has become the gold standard for vocational students. The English for Health Sciences and English for Science and Engineering and English for Business all fill vital gaps. The rich collection of concise exercises, emphasizing and re-enforcing each other, make this a logical choice for workforce training programs.
Adult Education:
Side by Side - This classic series, now in its 3rd edition, particularly appeals to English language learners with limited literacy in their own best language. Given the appalling educational policies in some nearby poor countries, this textbook series has become extraordinarily popular in California and Texas.
Day by Day - Simple, clear communicative textbook for workplace instruction. Low intermediate- intermediate.
Oxford Picture Dictionary and workbook - excellent for beginning and intermediate English language learners.
Writing
Writing Academic English, by Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, provides practical techniques for students planning to attend community college or university. I think the latest version is the fourth. I've used it in several programs with considerable success.
In Focus: Strategies for Academic Writers by Myra Ann Shulman, however, is my current choice for intermediate ESL students.
The clear, detailed exercises allow students to learn academic writing by actually writing short, focused pieces.
Finally, for advanced ESL students and international graduate students, I strongly recommend Academic Writing for Graduate Students, 2d ed.: Essential Tasks and Skills (Michigan Series in English for Academic & Professional Purposes) by John M. Swales and Christine A. Beer Feak. I teach two courses using this textbook at USC, and students make clear, significant progress by completing bite-sized writing exercises and analyzing short journal readings. The teacher's guide, called Commentary for, also deserves to be on your list.
Speaking Skills:
Giving Academic Presentations, by Susan Reinhart, stands heads and shoulders above the other ESL textbooks for public presentations. Students learn how to give clear, systematic oral presentations including problem-solution and process descriptions.
Communicating in Business by Simon Sweeney -Yet another outstanding Cambridge title, this Business English textbook includes helpful materials on negotiating and socializing as well as presenting.
Last, but not least, I naturally recommend Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics, by Toni Aberson and Eric Roth, as a supplemental text for advanced ESL classes, conversation clubs, and tutors.
Other special interest ESL books of quality.
Film is Content: A Study Guide for the Advanced ESL Classroom by Julia A. Williamson and Jill C. Vincent- This underappreciated University of Michigan textbook deserves a much wider audience. Although slightly dated, students learn critical thinking skills, academic vocabulary, and modern film.
Again, this list is just a starting list. What ESL books have your found effective in your teaching? Why?
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Two email requests in 40 hours require a decent response. Here's a quick, concise list of some ESL titles that I've enjoyed. It's by no means comprehensive, and just a starting list heavily influenced by the books in my eyesight.
The Creative Classroom: Teaching Language Outside the Box, by Hall Houston, contains dozens of bite-sized exercises to spark authentic language and creative discourse, This slim book, published by Lynx, should especially appeal to ESL students with a background or interest in engineering, science, and the arts.
Academic ESL/intensive English programs
Cambridge Vocabulary in Use series - An excellent supplemental text, especially for the more academically inclined. The self-contained two page format allows students, teachers, and tutors to pick and choose materials.
Cambridge Grammar in Use series - This series is the only grammar series that I've ever felt comfortable using in the classroom. Again, the accessible, clear format with self-contained lessons allows both self-study and effective use as a supplemental text.
English for Professionals series has become the gold standard for vocational students. The English for Health Sciences and English for Science and Engineering and English for Business all fill vital gaps. The rich collection of concise exercises, emphasizing and re-enforcing each other, make this a logical choice for workforce training programs.
Adult Education:
Side by Side - This classic series, now in its 3rd edition, particularly appeals to English language learners with limited literacy in their own best language. Given the appalling educational policies in some nearby poor countries, this textbook series has become extraordinarily popular in California and Texas.
Day by Day - Simple, clear communicative textbook for workplace instruction. Low intermediate- intermediate.
Oxford Picture Dictionary and workbook - excellent for beginning and intermediate English language learners.
Writing
Writing Academic English, by Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, provides practical techniques for students planning to attend community college or university. I think the latest version is the fourth. I've used it in several programs with considerable success.
In Focus: Strategies for Academic Writers by Myra Ann Shulman, however, is my current choice for intermediate ESL students.
The clear, detailed exercises allow students to learn academic writing by actually writing short, focused pieces.
Finally, for advanced ESL students and international graduate students, I strongly recommend Academic Writing for Graduate Students, 2d ed.: Essential Tasks and Skills (Michigan Series in English for Academic & Professional Purposes) by John M. Swales and Christine A. Beer Feak. I teach two courses using this textbook at USC, and students make clear, significant progress by completing bite-sized writing exercises and analyzing short journal readings. The teacher's guide, called Commentary for, also deserves to be on your list.
Speaking Skills:
Giving Academic Presentations, by Susan Reinhart, stands heads and shoulders above the other ESL textbooks for public presentations. Students learn how to give clear, systematic oral presentations including problem-solution and process descriptions.
Communicating in Business by Simon Sweeney -Yet another outstanding Cambridge title, this Business English textbook includes helpful materials on negotiating and socializing as well as presenting.
Last, but not least, I naturally recommend Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics, by Toni Aberson and Eric Roth, as a supplemental text for advanced ESL classes, conversation clubs, and tutors.
Other special interest ESL books of quality.
Film is Content: A Study Guide for the Advanced ESL Classroom by Julia A. Williamson and Jill C. Vincent- This underappreciated University of Michigan textbook deserves a much wider audience. Although slightly dated, students learn critical thinking skills, academic vocabulary, and modern film.
Again, this list is just a starting list. What ESL books have your found effective in your teaching? Why?
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Another Five Star Review for Compelling Conversations on Amazon
Allow me to brag for a moment. Another five-star review for Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics showed up on Amazon. Consider me pleased!
Here's the entire Amazon review:
5.0 out of 5 stars A wholesome learning resource!, December 4, 2008
By Erika Villafane "Erika" (Miami, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
When compelling conversations got into my hands I couldn't help but to think: I wish I had this book when I was learning English!
As English as a second language speaker, I can really tell the difference that compelling conversations has with other ESL text books: topics richness that takes learning at a higher level.
Not only you will feel motivated to improve your language skills, but you will have a rich-provoking theme about life to discuss and share with your tutor or classmates. That in turn makes you grow personally and you certainly will remember the discussed matter here when need it to apply into a situation out of the classroom. You will appreciate American culture as well as other's point of view.
The book is very well structured into four sections totaling 45 chapters. Each one of them is organized into conversations starters followed by vocabulary, proverbs and the indispensable quotations. One that really caught my attention was the Arab proverb "he who has health has hope and he who has hope has everything"
I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn while enjoying the process.
Erika Villafane
------------------------------
This makes 14 positive Amazon
reviews - all four and five stars - that various ESL teachers, writers, English language learners, and other fine folks have written. Not bad for a self-published book!
Three other bits of positive news about Compelling Conversations. A private language school in Chile made a large order, another community college in California adopted the conversation book as the course textbook, and Compelling Conversations has been added to an adult education center in Rwanda for advanced English class. Whether due to changes in the TOEFL test that require test-takers to actually speak, a strong word-of-mouth campaign, or just the belief that conversations should go beneath the surface, sales of Compelling Conversations have gone up. These successes may seem small, but they all make me smile!
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Here's the entire Amazon review:
5.0 out of 5 stars A wholesome learning resource!, December 4, 2008
By Erika Villafane "Erika" (Miami, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
When compelling conversations got into my hands I couldn't help but to think: I wish I had this book when I was learning English!
As English as a second language speaker, I can really tell the difference that compelling conversations has with other ESL text books: topics richness that takes learning at a higher level.
Not only you will feel motivated to improve your language skills, but you will have a rich-provoking theme about life to discuss and share with your tutor or classmates. That in turn makes you grow personally and you certainly will remember the discussed matter here when need it to apply into a situation out of the classroom. You will appreciate American culture as well as other's point of view.
The book is very well structured into four sections totaling 45 chapters. Each one of them is organized into conversations starters followed by vocabulary, proverbs and the indispensable quotations. One that really caught my attention was the Arab proverb "he who has health has hope and he who has hope has everything"
I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn while enjoying the process.
Erika Villafane
------------------------------
This makes 14 positive Amazon
reviews - all four and five stars - that various ESL teachers, writers, English language learners, and other fine folks have written. Not bad for a self-published book!
Three other bits of positive news about Compelling Conversations. A private language school in Chile made a large order, another community college in California adopted the conversation book as the course textbook, and Compelling Conversations has been added to an adult education center in Rwanda for advanced English class. Whether due to changes in the TOEFL test that require test-takers to actually speak, a strong word-of-mouth campaign, or just the belief that conversations should go beneath the surface, sales of Compelling Conversations have gone up. These successes may seem small, but they all make me smile!
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Amazon Rates Compelling Conversations #3 in Adult and Continuing Education
Let me enjoy this brief moment of personal satisfaction.
Amazon lists over 5 million books on its website – and continues to overlook many fine self-published books. Naturally, as a self-publisher, Amazon represents an important outlet for my ESL conversation textbook, Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics. Besides, numbers add precision and ratings can become addictive.
Today Amazon has Compelling Conversations listed at 6,198! That’s my highest overall rating yet – and far better than my usual top 35,000 rating. The book is also rated #3 in the category “adult and continuing education”. Consider me satisfied and surprised.
For a small self-published author, selling a book around the world – and collecting favorable reviews from customers in Australia, Japan, and Spain is a simple pleasure. Amazon’s customer reviews have certainly helped promote the unusual conversation book aimed at sophisticated adults who want to bring their insights, wit and humor into more and deeper English language conversations. Besides my website, www.CompellingConversations.com that offers free sample chapters, Amazon remains my principal promotional tool. So the Amazon ratings and category rankings provide a way to measure success.
Of course, I remain curious about Compelling Conversations finding more success in adult education ESL programs than the flexible private language programs, university programs, and conversation clubs. Private schools, focusing on student desires and needs, usually provide smaller classes with more speaking opportunities. Further, the academic vocabulary appeals more to university bound or university trained adults. Compelling Conversations usually ranks higher in categories like “English as a Second Language”, “English as a Foreign Language”, “Teaching Methods”, “TOEIC”, and even “Quotes” than “Adult and Continuing Education.”
The increasing popularity of Compelling Conversations also reflects a growing awareness that adult education students want and need more speaking opportunities. Adult education programs, sometimes narrowly focused on a so-called life skills curriculum and preparing students for fill-in the blank mandated tests, offer few conversation classes. Why? Mostly because of the funding structure which doesn’t encourage specialized language classes. The large class sizes also limit the chances to speak – even in intermediate and advanced classes. Creative, dedicated adult education teachers have to make exceptional efforts to provide students with speaking skills – and many do so. Compelling Conversations helps busy adult education teachers supplement life skills lessons with energetic conversation activities.
Amazon updates their numbers every hour, and no doubt Compelling Conversations
will soon return to its usual ranking. Reaching the top 10,000 on Amazon may not sound like much to people who reduce all experiences to dollar signs. I made more money teaching Thursday than on my exceptionally successful Friday as a publisher. Yet I’m counting this milestone as a personal victory, counting my blessings, and smiling.
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Amazon lists over 5 million books on its website – and continues to overlook many fine self-published books. Naturally, as a self-publisher, Amazon represents an important outlet for my ESL conversation textbook, Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics. Besides, numbers add precision and ratings can become addictive.
Today Amazon has Compelling Conversations listed at 6,198! That’s my highest overall rating yet – and far better than my usual top 35,000 rating. The book is also rated #3 in the category “adult and continuing education”. Consider me satisfied and surprised.
For a small self-published author, selling a book around the world – and collecting favorable reviews from customers in Australia, Japan, and Spain is a simple pleasure. Amazon’s customer reviews have certainly helped promote the unusual conversation book aimed at sophisticated adults who want to bring their insights, wit and humor into more and deeper English language conversations. Besides my website, www.CompellingConversations.com that offers free sample chapters, Amazon remains my principal promotional tool. So the Amazon ratings and category rankings provide a way to measure success.
Of course, I remain curious about Compelling Conversations finding more success in adult education ESL programs than the flexible private language programs, university programs, and conversation clubs. Private schools, focusing on student desires and needs, usually provide smaller classes with more speaking opportunities. Further, the academic vocabulary appeals more to university bound or university trained adults. Compelling Conversations usually ranks higher in categories like “English as a Second Language”, “English as a Foreign Language”, “Teaching Methods”, “TOEIC”, and even “Quotes” than “Adult and Continuing Education.”
The increasing popularity of Compelling Conversations also reflects a growing awareness that adult education students want and need more speaking opportunities. Adult education programs, sometimes narrowly focused on a so-called life skills curriculum and preparing students for fill-in the blank mandated tests, offer few conversation classes. Why? Mostly because of the funding structure which doesn’t encourage specialized language classes. The large class sizes also limit the chances to speak – even in intermediate and advanced classes. Creative, dedicated adult education teachers have to make exceptional efforts to provide students with speaking skills – and many do so. Compelling Conversations helps busy adult education teachers supplement life skills lessons with energetic conversation activities.
Amazon updates their numbers every hour, and no doubt Compelling Conversations
will soon return to its usual ranking. Reaching the top 10,000 on Amazon may not sound like much to people who reduce all experiences to dollar signs. I made more money teaching Thursday than on my exceptionally successful Friday as a publisher. Yet I’m counting this milestone as a personal victory, counting my blessings, and smiling.
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
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