Course books
 

I teach efl adults in Quebec. My first gripe is that there seems to be great esl books but not efl books. For a French speaker the esl books only use english and there is never any reference to how a french speaker can pronounce english words (so basically esl books) There is a great deal of esl and business esl course books in British english, but I'm finding it very hard to find resources for American english. I have used Focus on Grammer, but it really is esl with many out of class work involving speaking to native speakers. I would like to find something that is business oriented but not specific. My clients do not live in English speaking communities and only use english in a business context. So course books which involve a lot of face to face conversation (ordering at a restaurant, making hotel reservations, arranging a room for a conference, asking directions etc.) is useless for them. Although the language may be useful they feel it is irrelevent to them. So I've found that a lot of books have a lot of things I would not be presenting (meaning wasting big money and boring my students). Also I would like to find somekind of listening resource that has many american accents. Does anyone have any ideas? I don't want phone calls to the doctor's office, but stuff that deals with customer service type phone calls. Does anything exist? Ineed books that would also have grammar points and explainations. I am currently not using books. I decided to print out documents with information. And am using a lot of time rewriting documents from grammar books I have (as to not infringe on copy rights) and changing texts to talk about business situations but it is extremely time consuming and costs me more money than if student bought a book outright.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Re: Course books
 

Are you looking for a business English course book or just a general course book?

If it's general that you want, I recommend the New Interchange Series. It has pretty much everything you describe except your last point about business situations.

Re: Course books
 

Actually, I'm looking for both. But in the business book I would like grammer points and explanations as well. And American engish. Does one exist?

Thanks for the tip on New Interchange I'll check it out.

Dania

Re: Course books
 

Most of the business books I've seen don't include grammar sections. they generally assume base level proficiency, but I'm meeting up with some guys who teach similar groups, so I'll ask.

Re: Course books
 

Try Market Leader. They have various levels and it's a business book with some grammar points. I think that it has three different levels and it's a great book for business beginners.

Another one is business basics which has tapes with it and audio scripts at the back of the book but that's an upper intermediate level. Also this is English-English, which doesn't bother me but could some teachers.

Interchange, as Mark said, is also a great book and also has a CD as well. I mentioned the CDs and tapes 'cas I guess you want to listen to them first for the prounication to teach your students.

Best of luck,

-livinginkorea

Re: Course books
 

Tapes!? :shocked:

Re: Course books
 

Ya I know! It's 2006 and I got tapes! Well I didn't mind as I (luckly) have a cheap tape/CD player but you have to watch those kind of things.

Re: Course books
 

Hi Mesmark,

I have another favour to ask. I have just ordered The New Interchange levels 1 and 2, because I'm not really sure which would be appropriate for my student, who is a high beginner. My problem is that it will take nearly 2 weeks to receive the books, yet, I begin classes with this student tomorrow. Do you have copies of these books and could you tell me what grammar is covered in the first couple of lessons for each book? I could put something together until the books get here.

Thanks again for your help,
Dania

Re: Course books
 

Never mind Mesmark, I found the info I need.
Happy teaching!