 Hey everybody, it's Lisa here and I'm super glad to welcome you to the weekly live stream by ITTT. If you don't know me yet, once again my name is Lisa and I'm a non-native English teacher from Russia. I've been working online primarily since 2020. And today I would like to reach out to you and tell you about some ESL coursebooks to pick out for your teaching. I'm not going to dig into details, I'm just going to briefly present my approach how I choose the most appropriate materials. But anyways, I hope that this topic will be interesting and helpful. So stay tuned and let me know that you hear and see me clearly because right now I can see that there are seven people watching, but I'm not sure if my equipment works well. So we've got this comment section. Please feel free to send a message there. And this way I will know that you guys are there and you see and hear me well, okay? And what's next? Yeah, also I would really love to know where you guys are from because this is the way we understand that this is a global community and it's always interesting to find out about people from different locations. Yeah, hello guys. Nice to hear you. Nice to see you. Not here, nice to see you. Yeah, I can see Marina from Russia. Nice to see you guys. Thanks. And there is also court. Where are you from? So let me just change my screen a little bit. Let me zoom it in. So today's topic is devoted to picking out the most exciting materials for your teaching, for your classrooms or maybe one-on-one students. And let's just go on. And once again, this live stream is provided by ITTT. We are a leading TAPL and TESOL provider. So if you guys are interested in taking a teaching course and you would probably love to work on your methodology, teaching approach and stuff like that, just make sure you check out our resources. We are presented on various social media. If you like to, I don't know, if you prefer Instagram or Pinterest, just find our pages and yeah, just go follow. We try to share useful stuff every day and yeah, this is how it's done. All right, so court is from Greece. That's awesome. Is it really early in Greece now? Are you an early bird? So it's 10 a.m. in my place. I'm located in the rural region of Russia, which is pretty far from Moscow. So my time zone is two hours ahead of Moscow. So it's not that early, but it's not this usual, regular time when I go live. Well, anyways, this is how I'm going to do these live streams in the following weeks. Yeah. Oh, okay. So it's eight a.m. in Greece. So it's probably the same time zone as in Moscow. Okay, nice. So let's move on and start today's topic, start today's presentation. I believe that it will take approximately 40 minutes or so. If you guys have any questions, feel free to write them down via the comments section. I will try my best to assist you and I'll try my best to help you out. Okay, and let's start. So when it comes to picking out some teaching resources, usually, especially if you work online, you start searching the net and try to find some ready-made materials. And what I noticed is that many teachers neglect using ready-made coursebooks. I don't know why, but there is this trend in the ESL community that it is always better to take some random materials or create unique materials by your hands and just not to use the solid and trustworthy coursebooks, which I believe is not correct. So it is always better to pick out something trustworthy, something really solid. And here on this slide, you can see several publishers which are 100% good in terms of teaching English as a second language or as a foreign language. And just because these publishers, they have a long-term basis of creating materials and creating courses, curriculums for ESL students. So I believe that you can read this slide, but anyways, I strongly recommend checking out Oxford University Press if you haven't already, then it's Cambridge. You probably also know Pearson or Macmillan, but I know that not many people know that National Geographic also creates ESL materials. And this is probably the most exciting publisher among all of these ones because it provides different types of English. So they publish books in the British English variant and in the American English variant. So you can actually choose between two types of English and take that book, take that coursebook, which is the most suitable for your students. And they also have some other benefits. I'm going to dwell upon that a little bit further in this presentation. Let's just move on. And I believe that as for the rest of these publishers, they are pretty well known and you've probably worked with them already. Yeah, just let me know in the comments section if you have already come across some of these publishers. Let me know if you worked with them. Okay. And when when we move on to the problem of picking out those books. Yeah, hello guys. Thanks for tuning in. We're talking about picking out different ESL materials for English teaching. And to be more exact, we work with some different coursebooks today. So we look at different coursebooks. Okay, so when it comes to the problem of choosing some specific materials, there is a really challenging issue. Which stems from the needs analysis. Sometimes, especially if you work in some public schools or even in private schools, they usually have like their own curriculum and you can choose anything. You just work with the things they give you. But if it's not your case, you would probably have to start from the needs analysis. What is the needs analysis? It's actually a pretty wide notion. So, but just in brief words, briefly describing needs analysis consists of the students age, skills and interests. So before you start working with someone or with a group, for example, you have to consider how old they are and what are their skills in English. And then you look at their interests. So as for me, when I start working with new students before going to actual teaching and before having those first lessons with new students. I usually give them a questionnaire and ask about their background things. So for sure, I try to understand at what level they are and what are their interests. But you know, sometimes I don't know why, but people don't want to share these things. And in some countries, I know that the topic of age might be really private and people also don't want to say like how old they are. So it's really funny, but yeah, it's how it works. I'm not sure why it's actually happening, but as a teacher, you can always explain your prospective students that you have to get this information because you want to create a really unique and individual program. So for the needs analysis, just make sure that you understand what age is your student. So from what age group they are, especially it's also important when you work with large groups as well. When they are not adults, obviously, but when they are maybe teens or even children. So age is still important because it helps you out on the further stages of picking out different materials. Then as for the skills parts, I usually give them a test, a placement test just to find out what they already know and what are some challenges. And it is actually really helpful because sometimes students say like, oh, I don't need any grammar, I don't need any vocabulary, I'm pretty good with about it. But when it comes to this placement test, I kind of find out that actually they do have some problems and this is what we will look at. Of course, you can be also, you can work with this problem in different ways and different directions. Some students, especially some adult students, they don't want you to actually teach them, they want you to be a kind of a guide or a mentor for them. So you can just give them some individual approach, but at the same time teach them in this usual way. If you know what I mean, I hope that you know. If not, just let me know that something isn't clear in my explanation. Because sometimes, you know, in my head, it sounds pretty obvious, but it might sound not that clear to the listeners, to the audience. So after the skills analysis, after the skills investigation, you would probably need to understand some basic interests like if they enjoy doing sports or, I don't know, what else, taking music lessons, whatever. So you need to understand your students, even if there are a lot of them. I know that working with groups is a tougher question, is a tougher issue. But anyways, step by step, you get to know more and more people from your group. And this is the way you find out about their interests. So after doing this initial needs analysis, you can actually move on to the next step where you pick out those materials, pick out those coursebooks. And start creating your individual lesson plan, individual curriculum for those specific students. And here on this slide, I would like to explain briefly how to work with those publishers and how to choose among hundreds of coursebooks, of nice coursebooks, those ones which you would really benefit from. I'm not sure if you see this slide clearly, but hopefully, let me just change the screen this way. So every publisher, when you go on their websites, they have these different types of catalogs. And it's pretty convenient in terms of choosing books on the basis of skills or on the basis of age groups, for example. So on the left here, there are just two examples. So on the left, there is this Oxford publisher, Oxford University publisher, Oxford University Press, yeah. And on the right, there is Macmillan, I believe. I don't actually remember, but anyways, so if you compare these two types of catalogs, you would probably notice that Oxford Press, they prefer to structure, they prefer to list their materials according to skills. So as a teacher, after taking this needs analysis, you already have information on your students' skills. And this is the way you can pick out the most appropriate coursebook. So, yeah, like this. So if you, for example, understand that your students need to get prepared for some, I don't know, some professional things. For example, for a business trip or something related to their work, you would be able to pick out some books which are targeted at those specific needs. And this is the way you should work with your catalog. On the other hand, if you believe that age group is more important, you can go to, you can go to find the most appropriate workbooks or coursebooks listed according to the age group. Yeah, like here, for example, if you want to address the needs of your very young learners who are like five years old or six years old, you can go to this listing and find all the materials there. So this is the general idea of how to pick out the most appropriate coursebooks. And last but not least, what I would like to share with you is my personal choice. So I usually look at the age groups. I don't usually distinguish by skills because I know that skills are usually strongly connected with the age groups. So for example, when I work with younger children, I use something like fun or power up by Cambridge. Also, these books can be accumulated to the needs of any students, but because I work with exam preparation, I pick out those books which gradually prepare students for taking one of the Cambridge exams. For example, fun or power up. Those are the books which are designed to prepare for early learners, young learners exam, exams by Cambridge like movers, starters, movers and flyers. There are three general English tests for young learners by Cambridge. Then power up, for example, is also designed to prepare for more advanced exams like key and what else, preliminary. So B1 tests, but these coursebooks are primarily for children from six, not probably from seven to 12 years. So if you choose fun or power up for your 13 years olds, they would probably consider those books as books for children and they won't be really engaged and interested. So make sure you pick out the most appropriate book according to the age as well because like if you work with children, you probably know the difference between 10 years, 10 year olds and 13 year olds. The gap between those age groups is really huge so it is extremely important to choose an appropriate coursebook. And as for teens, I really like this series called English in Mind. It is also by Cambridge and it is structured to prepare students to teach students some general English skills like reading, listening, speaking and writing. It is really solid. It's one of those oldest series by Cambridge. So I really like this coursebook because all topics are quite familiar and anyone can relate to them. And another series which I constantly use with my preliminary exam students is this complete by Cambridge. There is another coursebook which is also suitable for this exam preparation. This is called prepare and I believe that it is actually pretty similar to complete, but complete is probably based on a more general approach versus prepare because different books by Cambridge or any other publishers. It is also designed using some specific methodology. For example, complete is more general like it is not, I can say that it's a grammar translation approach, not for sure, but it's like a mix of lexical approach and grammatical approach, probably. Like that. And now let's have a look over these last points. Young adults and adults. So there are three nice coursebooks in total by National Geographic and I would probably say that those books are just super cool, especially if you enjoy this lexical approach and you work with students who are interested in everything happening around them in everything happening in this world because National Geographic creates beautiful materials. They also have a lot of additional materials except those coursebooks. But they are just really awesome. And as you can see, they are also created with the help of TED Talks. So when it comes to perspectives or to keynote, those books are based on different TED Talks. So each topic starts with something leading to watching that one of those videos and the choice of videos is just perfect. So if it is something that you've been doing, like I know that many teachers create their own materials based on TED Talks. And if it is something that you have done already, probably you spent a lot of time and you spent a lot of energy, which is actually really good because you are a motivated person who wants to give the best to students. But there are those books which are really helpful and they are already based on TED Talks. And it's a great idea to choose this or that book based on your student's age and just use it and give this value to students. And yeah, as I have already mentioned, those books like Perspectives or Keynotes and Outcomes as well, they have a lot of additional materials and if you buy coursebooks, you would probably have a special code which you will be able to use on their website and download some additional materials like posters, what else, some additional videos, audios and whatsoever. So I strongly recommend checking out those coursebooks. They are called Perspectives, Keynotes and Outcomes. Outcomes are not designed using the TED Talks. However, they are still really engaging and they are nice to be used with some adult students, with business students probably as well because topics are really advanced. And what I would like to mention as well is that these coursebooks are full of interesting vocabulary or proficient vocabulary. And as for me, so I work with my B2 Plus students, with a group of B2 Plus students and we work using outcomes for B2. And vocabulary there sometimes looks like the same vocabulary for the C1 or even C2 level in some different series of books. For example, I have been preparing for the CPE exam and I have been using Objective, this series called Objective, Objective Proficiency and vocabulary in this Objective Proficiency coursebook is pretty similar to the Outcomes B2. So probably I would say that materials by national geographic are more advanced and at the same time the language there is super modern. So I know that like in some places, in some schools coursebooks are pretty old fashioned and they are outdated. So if you pick out national geographic, you would probably guarantee your students this quality and this modern approach and modern language. So that is what I wanted to tell you about my favorites. And yeah, that is actually all what I wanted to share with you related to picking out different materials. And yeah, this is the last stage where I would like to mention that we have this QR code. If you scan it, you can get a 30% discount of any TEFL courses. And by the way, if you want to learn a little bit more about this needs analysis, this is what we actually have in the course. So if it's something interesting to you, just feel free to follow this link from the chat box or scan the QR code. And right now, guys, if you have any questions related to today's topic, let me just change the slide so that everyone could see the topic. Yeah, here we go. If you have any questions related to today's problem to today's topic, yeah, feel free to ask me. I will try my best to help you out. And the last point to mention, I have a Facebook group for ESL teachers and for this networking. If you have any further questions a little bit later, you can reach me out via this link from the chat box, or you can contact me directly on Facebook. So if you want to add me as a friend, I would be super glad because I really like to meet other motivated people who are interested in English and teaching English. So just feel free to follow those links. And that's it. And if you have any questions right now, just feel free to ask, feel free to send them in your comments section. And now let me see some comments from the previous comments. Yeah, I see that there are people from so many different countries. So here is gift from Thailand, I love Thailand. And Germany, Alina, nice to see you. Okay, here is Minmin P from Myanmar. I hope I pronounced your name correctly. I'm sorry, if not. And Sri Lanka. So, so nice to see these many people from all different parts of the world. Thanks a lot for coming. And there is a question by Chit. So could you teach in Zoom? Yeah, this is actually my primary way of teaching. I work using Zoom from time to time. I have some students who prefer Skype, but they are really rare. Zoom is probably the most convenient way. But apart from Zoom, I would also recommend you this service called Discord. Some people really enjoy Discord because it's more convenient. There are different options, how to organize group chats. And as far as I know, Discord is absolutely for free. Comparing to Zoom. So if you are looking for the most convenient service to stream your lessons, to create lessons, to deliver lessons, Discord might be a great alternative. Yeah, so Chit is also from Myanmar. Nice. I would really love to visit this country. I haven't had an opportunity in the past, but I used to live in Thailand and in China. So I should say that I really love Asia and I would love to come back one day and to travel around those countries, especially in the Southeast Asia, because the weather there is so nice and people are always smiling. It's so pleasant to see smiles every day. So if you have any further questions, yeah, you can actually ask me about online teaching if you are interested in this topic. Or if you have questions related to Tefl, T-Soul, whatsoever, feel free to ask, feel free to send your messages in the comments. And I'll try my best to help. So, oh, by the way, I actually wanted to ask you about the ways you look for your students. Do you have any problems with that or you have found your best recipe, how to find students, how to start teaching students? And also let me know if you work one-on-one or if you teach groups. So let's have this talk right now. I'm really curious about the mode of teaching you prefer. So as for me, I'm an online ESL teacher. I work with international students from different parts of the world. We work using Zoom, but sometimes we also work on Skype. What else? I choose, I also teach, I also prepare for Cambridge exams and IELTS. So this is how my work is organized. And the way I look for students is usually the word of the mouth. So sometimes my students recommend myself to somebody else. And also I use my social media to say my friends and their friends that I'm teaching. And this is the other way how students find me. Okay, Ruma says that they are struggling to teach introverted students. Do you mean you have troubles working with those students who are pretty closed and who don't want to open up? Could you give me some more details, please? Okay. So if this is the problem, I would say that the best approach to work with such students would be to make sure that you connect with them and that you build this rapport early on. So usually it's a great idea when you start working with someone and you realize that they are introverted. They don't want to communicate that much. It's always a great idea to have some activities related to sharing your experience and their experience. For example, recently I started working with a new student and the first lesson was devoted to meeting each other, to getting to know each other. And I had several activities related to sharing my story and I motivated him to share his story as well. So the first game would be one truth and two lies, something like that. So I wanted him to understand where I lied and what was real and he really got excited. He got really excited and then he quickly shared his lies and his truth. So that was a moment of bounding. So my general recommendation would be try to come up with several activities to build these relationships. So if it's one of the first lessons, it's crucial. If it is further on and you still work with those students who don't want to open up. Try to give them some warmers, some activities to share their stories, to open up. Another problem might be that those students are unaware of their English skills and they don't want to talk to you. Because they are doubting if they speak correctly, if they make mistakes or something like that. For this occasion, it is super important to let your students know that you are not just a regular teaching from a public school classroom. You are not going to assess them, you are not going to evaluate them, you are just going to be a guide in English. And if you do so, if you explain that your work is different from the work of a classroom teacher, they would probably trust you a little bit more and gradually, step by step, they will also open up. Alright, so Alina says that they are having difficulties to deliver classes in English to young students. Well, so that was my problem when I worked in China. So the general idea of teaching in English only is that, especially with younger learners, is that you create this atmosphere, you create this environment. You try to, well, try to put yourself on native speakers, of a native speaker mother's place, something like that. So, like, when you start teaching your child English or another language, you don't give them anything super hard, anything super challenging, you just start gradually. And this is probably the best way to also get this communication and get these relationships. Simply because younger students, they don't have this awareness of their own language, of their mother tongue. So make sure you give something easy, something challenging, but easy. And at the same time, you should create this wow effect. You want to give something exciting and engaging. So probably the choice of materials must be really concise. So make sure you try different techniques. And if you see that students don't respond to some materials, some cards, for example, just try to replace them, try to pick something else. And if you work online, it's a great idea to use puppets, probably, because it helps to grab this attention. And also, I know that on some online teaching services, which provide lessons to young learners, they have long, pretty long lessons, like, let me think, like 25 or 30 minutes. With younger students, it might be too long. So probably it's also a great idea to recommend parents or to recommend your, I don't know, supervisors, that it is better to shorten lessons with these of that student with some particular students, because they just can't comprehend and can't pay attention for a long period of time. Yeah. Yeah, videos are really nice. But with younger students, you would probably need to level that up, because if you use too many cartoons, for example, it's also not not that good. Probably you could vary audios and videos. Yeah, that's right. But at the same time, reading strategies are crucial for younger students. So probably choosing some books, some story books would be a better idea. All right, guys. So that was a really interesting conversation. I would really love to see you sometime again. And as I have already mentioned, I have this group for teachers on Facebook. And if you would love to communicate with me a little bit later, if you want to ask any questions related to teaching, I don't know, taffle, t-soul, whatever, feel free to join my group and add me as a friend. I will try my best to help you out. And I believe that today's topic was really engaging and interesting. If you have any requests for these further live streams, feel free to suggest me as well. And as for now, thank you so much for coming to today's session. I would really love to see you next time next week. So have a great day and see you next time. See you next week. Bye-bye, guys.