Customer Reviews

101 Bright Ideas: ESL Activities for All Ages

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As an ESL teacher in Japan, I would definately recommend 101 Bright Ideas to any teacher who is running out of ideas for an ESL class or is looking for a quick and easy way to plan lessons. The book is divided into levels and includes photcopiable pages and teaching instructions. Most of the ideas I found were up-to-date and unique (which is very uncommon for most ESL idea books)and the price was right up my alley (books like this can cost 50 to 100 dollars in Japan). My advice: don't hesitate to buy this book if you are going to a forieghn country to teach!

the author of this book has "compiled" the information from esl monitors in classrooms teaching esl in canada, as well as from other esl teachers. she also mentions that some of the ideas came to her through contemplation. this is all well and good, and the ideas presented may have applications in esl classrooms for students immersed in the language by living in an english speaking country. but, i disagree with the reviewer who recommends it for anyone planning to teach esl abroad.

while i appreciate the format, and the time spent by the "compiler" in presenting the infromation in an easy-to-read format, i don't agree with the level of difficulty she has attached to the various ideas. most of the beginning-level ideas are too advanced for true beginners (at least from the perspective of learning english in your mother country). the intermediate-level ideas have the same flaw. they're just too difficult to be placed in that category. the book is certainly well-intentioned, but i suspect that the compiler doesn't have much experience (if any) in teaching esl abroad. and, if she does, i doubt she's actually (successfully) used most of these ideas.

101 Bright Ideas: ESL Activities For All Ages does not have many activities that would be beneficial to a student of English as a second or foreign language hoping to improve her language skills. Far too many of the suggestions deal only with letter or word games requiring little or no communication. Perhaps one or two, such as categorization or association, may be useful for vocabulary building, but I felt that many others lacked any obvious pedagogical purpose. Activities that could be classed as communicative were a perplexing mixture of either boring and easy, or interesting but too difficult without considerable language support from the teacher. Some suggestions entailed bribing students with fake money in order to get them to participate, a ruse that will wear thin if the activity is not worthwhile. Others, based on TV game shows, looked fun, but perhaps teachers will already be familiar with most of these anyway.
Although I liked the organization and simple layout of the book, some activities were also no more than simple layouts, such as calendars or blank Valentine cards that students were expected to complete. When language was presented, it was not always satisfactory. For example, "Who is the bald Irish female singer?" "Where do the pygmies live?" and "Who is the best basketball player in the NBA?" were suggestions, with answers, for a "mega quiz".
If you are an EFL or ESL teacher interested in developing your students' communication skills or language proficiency, and want them to engage in critical and purposeful language learning, then I cannot recommend this book.

This book is terrific and I am terribly happy it arrived so quickly so I could implement some strategies into my 'back to school" lessons this year.