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English Books can be an invaluable asset for maximizing class time. They may aid you in developing productive activities, setting up games, creating focused lesson plans, and providing customized assistance to various sorts of kids.
This list includes the 10 best books to teach English to beginners. Whether you instruct children or adults, beginners or expert pupils, these books will allow you to maximize class time.
How to teach English to Beginners?
There is a lot of difficulty in teaching English to native speakers. You will undoubtedly encounter numerous obstacles regardless of your background and experience level. You will recognize that each pupil is unique and uniquely acquires knowledge. Nevertheless, with a few abilities and understanding, you will uncover it. There are several excellent texts on English instruction.
Teaching Books to upgrade your teaching abilities
You must initially conduct an assessment of yourself. Do you consider yourself to be a particular type of instructor? Are you a novice or an experienced educator? Beginning educators can benefit from utilizing an all-in-one ESL resource. You ought to be instructing from books, as they encompass every facet. Yet, even seasoned educators may still employ outdated approaches. The finest books may be utilized to instruct English. It may also assist them in developing their skills as a future content writer.
Who is your student?
Another essential thing to keep in mind while pursuing an E.S.L. teaching book hunt is that you should know your students. There are E.S.L. teaching books covering the methods of all teaching levels, age groups, and business testing.
Here are some excellent E.S.L. teaching books that you can add to your bookshelf.
Action in E.S.L. teaching
1. Learning Another Language Through Actions by James J. Asher.
James J. Asher is the founder of the Total Physical Response (T.R.P.) method in language learning, and his book is an excellent addition to the E.S.L. library. The technique behind T.R.P. is for students to recognize English faster. This method came back by Asher for the students to better understand the E.S.L. language. This is one of the excellent books to teach English to beginners.
Asher’s book might appear a little bit out of date as compared to the advanced technology. However, the methods are excellent and relevant. Your students will enjoy the teaching methods. With all the advancements in technology, it becomes challenging to keep the students eager and attentive, but due to Asher’s teaching methods, it has become more accessible.
Here is the link to buy the book.
E.S.L. visual Activities of young learners
2. TEFL flashcard games for young learners by Chris Morgan
“TEFL flashcards games for young learners” is a perfect book for students and learners to self-teach English. This E.S.L. teaching book is a tremendous and exciting resource for young learners, and they will love it as it contains a lot of fun and exciting games. It can also connect with the students very fast. Your students will also learn new pronunciation, vocabulary, visual recognition, and grammar. It is one of the best books to teach English.
Get the book here!
All in one E.S.L. Teaching Books
3. The Practice of English Language Teaching by Jeremy Harmer
“The Practice of English Language Teaching” is a superb book for beginners. It’s one of the best books to teach English. Jeremy Harmer’s book is an excellent collection of E.S.L. topics for teachers, and it also discusses psychology in the classroom. The organization of the chapters is good, and they have a connection with each other.
It also explains almost all the aspects of E.S.L. teaching books. “The world of English.” “Describing Language,” “Describing Learners,” and “Describing Teachers” are the first four chapters. You will also find various activities throughout the book to develop your class syllabus and lesson plans. This book is a little costly, but keeping a book like this of 450 pages of material is a lifetime reference. The book also comes with a DVD containing classroom techniques.
4. Easy TEFL guide to teaching English as a Foreign Language by T.S. Seifert
The “Easy TEFL Guide to Teaching English as a Foreign Language” by T.S Seifert is an all-in-one E.S.L. teaching book, which is very useful for E.S.L. learners and E.S.L. teachers. E.S.L. teachers guide the paper discusses many areas of teaching that you need while teaching a student. Vocabulary, learning, listening, writing, and pronunciation are various sub-skills.
There are also excellent chapters on controlling your students in the E.S.L. classroom and giving them correct E.S.L. material in the school. You should always have a vast collection of E.S.L. books on your bookshelf. It is considered one of the best books to teach English. Having a book like this is worth it.
E.S.L. teaching with online news
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5. Reading English News on the Internet: A guide to connectors, verbs, expressions, and vocabulary for the E.S.L. students by David Peterson
The “E.S.L. teaching books read the News on the Internet: A guide to Connectors, verbs, expressions, and Vocabulary for the E.S.L. Students” is a great book to keep on a bookshelf. This book gives a brief idea of online news and articles and how students can build grammar, comprehension, and vocabulary. The students might also start reading stories in English and might start asking a few questions.
Spending some time with your students discussing online news articles is super fun. “The book Reading English News on the Internet: A Guide to connectors, verbs, expressions, and Vocabulary for the E.S.L. Students” is excellent in the journey of E.S.L. teaching. It is one of the best teaching English books.
Intermediate Communication E.S.L. Teaching
6. “Intermediate Communication Games” by Jill Hadfield
For intermediate level students building communication is an excellent approach. Jill Hadfield’s “Intermediate Communication Games” is an excellent book you can keep on your bookshelves. This book, published by Pearson, will lift intermediate students to the next level of E.S.L. learning. Hadfield’s s book has a lot of activities and games which are liked by every student.
“Intermediate communication skills” contain great guidelines for any student’s communicative abilities. The book also contains beautiful instructions with helpful teacher notes, which help teach students in the class.
In addition, it contains many worksheets that assist students in gaining practical communication experience and knowledge. Although priced slightly above average, this book contains beneficial information for students. This is among the most popular books. It is among the most effective books for teaching English, given the inherent difficulty of the subject matter.
A superior ESL textbook is an invaluable resource. It will assist you in developing lecture plans, organizing productive activities, and designing games for various students.
7. E.S.L. Activities and Mini- books for every classroom by Kama Einhorn
This textbook is fantastic and packed with many activities that teachers can use to teach in the class. Even if you are preparing a skilled person or a new one who has never spoken this language, it is useful for both of them. One of the best features of the books are mini, but they are not so much mini. Each chapter of the book supports and teaches the students who are beginners or early learners. These books have good content, and patterns, and are predictable. It is one of the best English teaching books.
This book comes with advice on how to run the class. This section has tips on how to make students feel comfortable in the initial days of the course. For example, on the first day of the class, pictures of all the students are taken. The whole class gets it with the name labeled in it. This picture is given to every student so they can remember each one and build a social foundation.
8. Children E.S.L. Curriculum: Learning English with Laughter by M.s Daisy A. Stocker M.Ed & Dr. George A. Stocker D.D.S.
In this book, the author knows the power of a good laugh, and they use it to learn for the children. We all know that laughter is a universal language. This book is composed of a student book, a teacher guide, and a practice book. This textbook is specially designed for kids who have never had any introduction to English.
This set of manuals contains beautiful exercises and activities designed for kids to learn English in a fun-filled way. It is one of the best books to teach English. The best part of this book is the formatting. The pictures in these books are enormous, which attracts the younger ones, and this makes the inside of the book best for young ones. There are a lot of tracing worksheets that help the kids to learn and write English words.
As this book should have directions that focus on young learners, it comes with a lot of fun worksheets. These books also have oral instructions to help students listen to the English Language. For example, the coloring worksheets have directions that the teacher should read aloud to the students.it is also one of the best English teaching books for kids.
9. Assessment and E.S.L: An Alternative Approach by Barbara Law
Evaluation plays a pivotal role in facilitating the movement of knowledge. However, traditional approaches do not consistently yield precise outcomes. This book has achieved significant bestseller status. This book is not conventional classroom material; it serves as an exceptional resource for educators instructing English as a Second Language (ESL) students.
The author of this book discusses novel approaches to monitoring and documenting the learning process. Additionally, it is regarded as one of the finest publications for teaching English. In this book, the author tells about the four themes of learning a language. a) real language b) integrated language c) whole language d ) facilitating environment. In this book, the author demonstrates the different assessment which goes in four different themes.
Real language refers to a practical purpose. Students learn the language for factual purposes rather than just to please the teacher. It is one of the best English teaching books for the kids.
10. E.S.L. Teacher’s Activities Kit by Elizabeth Claire
The book was written in 1998 by Elizabeth Claire. This book has many things to offer for the teachers, and it is perfect for the E.S.L. teachers who are starting. It has a lot of activities that are good for all ages.
The most important part of the book is the portion written for a teacher who needs a step-by-step guide to start teaching. It also has a lot of clear instructions. It has various activities for all age groups. The activities include worksheets for playground games. This book is beneficial for those who feel shy about speaking English. This book also comes with a grammar checklist, and it also gives tips on how to run the E.S.L. classroom smoothly.
Some textbooks are suitable for adults and teens; let’s see. You can see that each book is written by professionals who have been in the teaching field for a very long time. They have a lot of things to tell. They also have a lot of teaching staff for both teachers and students. Some textbooks are good at writing, especially for kids. The author of these books knows that teaching kids and adults is one of the most significant challenges. It is one of the best English teaching books.
Best E.S.L. Textbooks for Teaching Adults
1. E.S.L. Classroom Activities for Teens and Adults by Shelley Ann Vernon
Classroom activities are not only important for kids but for adults too. In this book, the main focus is on classroom activities as well as grammar portions and fluency. The most important book is that it contains a large variety of games and exercises. In the introduction part, the author tells about different learning styles—it also various activities for different age groups of students.
The most important part of the book is creative writing and games, which are essential for students’ advancement. It also gives new material to the students. It is also one of the best books for teaching English to beginners.
2. Compelling Conversations By Eric H. Roth
The author assists readers in enhancing their conversational and fluency abilities in this book. The primary emphasis of this book is on the oral aspects of English language acquisition and speaking. It is universally acknowledged that the primary distinction between instructing children and adults is that the latter must not only master the English language but also engage in dialogue with other ESL learners.
Each chapter in the book has a theme. This book is all about critical thinking. This is also one of the best books in teaching English to beginners.
3. English the American Way by Sheila Mackechnie Murtha M.A, Jane Airey O’Connor M.Ed
This is one of the bestsellers. The author divides the Whole book into fun chapters like, “Taking a Drive.” and “Dining In Style.” They use the topics to learn the grammatical aspects of the book.
The best part of the book is that they do not feel shy from teaching Americans Idioms, and slang that they use in their day-to-day life.
This book also gives stress to pronunciations. The author generally uses pointers in the books.
Read Also: TEFL Vs TESOL
Things to keep in mind
The most important thing is that books do not make a good teacher. Only they are used as a reference. Supplemental exercises are important. TV shows and Movies are also excellent sources of learning.
Now, I will give you some tips on how to teach English to Beginners.
Teaching the Basics – Start with Alphabet
- The most important thing you should do is start with the alphabet and numbers. By teaching the alphabet, you create a better foundation.
- Start with the alphabet and always start with “A.”
- Ask your students to work on numbers. Create a worksheet on which they can practice.
- Do not push them too hard.
- Use flashcards with the alphabet written on them. Flashcards make learning very easy.
- Learning the alphabet might be easy for those, whose native language is English.
- This will help in teaching English to beginners.
Teach Pronunciation
Teaching pronunciation is very important for beginners. You can keep focusing on complicated sounds.
- The “Th.” sounds are a little tricky and pronounced differently.
- The “R.” sound is also a little difficult for many E.S.L. learners.
- The “L.” This is another problematic sound for beginners—especially people from East Asia.
- The “H.” The sound is also a difficult one for mainly Spanish speakers because in Spanish “H” is silent.
Teach noun –
Teach your students nouns. After learning the alphabet and numbers, move to nouns.
- Start with the familiar objects available in the classroom.
- After the class move to everyday objects available in your city, for example, cars, buses, houses, trees, etc.
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Think about those items you use regularly, including food, electronics, and so on. Teaching English to native speakers will benefit from these minor adjustments.
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To help pupils understand this concept, I will describe how adjectives change the meaning of nouns. Adjectives are most valuable when taught immediately following nouns since nouns are never used alone with adjectives.
- Teach Verbs – Teaching verbs will be very useful to your students. Verbs describe an action example; to speak, to walk, etc.
- Teach that adverbs modify verbs and adjectives – Adverbs allow you to add extra details to your sentence. Modifiers also change the meaning of the verb. Examples of adverbs are slowly, happily, and easily.
- Explain tense and articles – After explaining them, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs make them understand tense and articles. It will help them to phrase the sentences.
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One of the most effective methods for instructing or motivating students is using phrases.
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After instructing your students on the proper usage of parts of speech, you should proceed to instruct them on the fundamentals of sentence construction. This is of the utmost importance, as it will improve their literacy and writing skills. These are some best techniques on how to teach English to beginners.
Best Teaching Practices
- Encourage the students to speak only English in class – One of the most significant ways to encourage the students is to speak only English in the class. This will make their English more fluent.
- Provide Verbal and written instructions – Always give some homework or activity to the students. You should always provide both verbal and written instructions.
- Monitor the progress of the students – You should always follow your students’ work. By this, you can see where they are doing well and where they are struggling. If you are teaching in the classroom, then walk around and ask questions, if you are taking online classes, then send messages or emails to the students.
- Promote different modes of learning – The various methods of learning are;
- Employ writing
- Suggest listening.
- Use speaking
- Try to use all modes of learning.
Through these simple techniques, you can encourage the learning process in students.
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There are some English Language Teaching Books for Teachers. You can have a look!
- Cambridge Handbook of language teachers.
- English for Academic Purposes
- Cambridge Language Assessment
- Studies In Language Testing
- Cambridge Language Education
- Council of Europe
- Cambridge Teacher Training and Development
- General Books for Teachers
So, why are you waiting for me? Go and grab your best books to teach English!