Teaching English as a Foreign Language For Dummies

I'm planning to teach English as a foreign language and this was my first choice as a primer. It's complete and contains a vast amount of information, all of which is relevant. It is well-organised and clearly written by a master of her craft. What surprised me was that there was so much on the business of teaching students of all ranges of ability. There is a lot of treatment of the teaching of grammar as well, and these parts are quite intense. Actually, I learned a lot about my own languages; for example, I didn't realise that there are twelve tenses (plus four conditional moods) in English! My only criticism was that, when referring to tenses, the writer spoke of the 'past perfect simple' tense, which confused me because it is clear that the simple and perfect are separate tenses. In addition, the process of converting it to Kindle format has lost some of the footnote and sideline layout but that's not really important. Those points aside, it contains links to good and useful resources and I found this book easy to read and will keep it as a basic reference.

This book is well organized, well-written and simple enough without being condescending. It is definitely for TOTAL newbies in the field of ESL, those that don't even know what country they wish to teach in. It has details of several of the different ESL countries, but also goes in depth on classroom management and techniques for teaching reading-writing-listening-speaking. Overall a great intro for beginning teachers.

Great book for beginner esk teachers or as a quick refreshment

I bought this book because I work with someone who wanted to learn English better. I offered to teach him, but cautioned him by stating, "Look, I'm not a teacher, but I'll do my best to help you." The biggest challenge is explaining the atrocity known as written English... But this book does a fabulous job in giving some direction on where to start, and where to take it.

Great book BUT somewhere there should be an indication that this is British English NOT American English!

Really love this book, it is vey informative and fun at the same time. Excited already to start teaching English abroad and with the help of this book and its great resources it will be helpful.

Michelle Maxom has clearly made a career out of teaching English as a foreign language, and it shows. She knows her stuff, both grammar-wise and in terms of real-life classroom situations. This book offers great introduction to every aspect of teaching foreign-language English students. It's a more difficult process than most novice teachers assume it will be, going from speaking English confidently as a native speaker to be able to teach it effectively, and Maxom will hold your hand and guide you throughout the journey. I found some of the book's confident British-isms offputting; can't think of an example right off, but much of the English that she tells you how to teach is, well, rather English. :-) Additionally, I found the book to be poorly edited and full of typos here and there which distracted me from the quality of its core message. I realize it's not "Copy Editing for Dummies," but I think the publisher could have put a few more hours' effort in and come away with a higher-quality book overall. Still, that doesn't stop me from heartily recommending this simple, approachable book, yet another wonderful entry in the perennially-favourite Dummies series.

Fun book and very helpful for a guy who is learning how to teach english as a foreign language. I always bring it with me no matter where I travel.

Buono per iniziare ma non specifico su lesson plan e tecniche didattiche

Es un manual bastante completo y útil. Buena calidad por ese precio.

An excellent, well presented, well written guide to teaching English as a Foreign Language. Filled with great advice and written by someone who has obviously "been there and done that". Thank you!

Very technical and useful. Loads of information.

I have been teaching one to one English classes for eight years. Now I need a change and will start class teaching in September. With this in mind I needed some help and also fresh ideas. In my opinion this book is a must have. Each chapter is easy to read and understand, with great ideas for ice-breakers, conversation classes, lesson planning and classroom management. For new comers to TEFL the grammar sectioned is well thought out and broken down into bite size pieces for the reader to dip in and out of when needed. For anyone taking a course this book will be invaluable, for anyone moving on in their career it's helpful and full of ideas to help with the transition. Highly recommended.