Customer Reviews

The ESL Teacher's Book of Lists (J-B Ed: Book of Lists)

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If you need to whip up a lesson or you have a great activity and need some specialized vocabulary...this is it! This book is also very helpful when you can't think of examples "off the top of you head," but you know the "grammar-point" you want to make. For instance, it lists exceptions to rules, idioms, prespositions, common mistakes made by specific groups of language learners, etc... I've used it at least three times a week for four years!

I bought this book based on the great reader review, but now that I have it I'm not sure what to do with it. It's true, if you need a lesson and have nothing to start with--a rarity in my experience--you could whip something up with this. But, if you have a course book and need more work on a grammar point, it's hit or miss if the grammar is covered in this book. There are vocabulary lists--weather, time, school, travel--but not work, homes, food. There are some good pronunciation exercises, and an excellent list of idioms. But this is the kind of resource that I'll check once in awhile on the chance it will have something, but I won't count on it.

I have used this book far more than any of the other ESL or English books I have. If you already have a set lesson plan that you follow, then it might not be as useful, but if you make your own lessons, it's perfect! I teach a lot of private ESL classes, so all my lessons are tailor-made for a particular student, which means I'm constantly creating or tweaking lessons. I have found it very useful because it can be hard and / or time consuming to sit down and try to think of (for example) all the words that people use in greetings, or for weather. Also, it has some very good explanations of pronunciation rules as well as some grammar.
I recommend this book to anyone who has to plan their own lessons or to teachers with limited resources.