3 Great ESL Textbooks to Use in Your Classroom

There are enough challenges in teaching a great lesson—your textbook shouldn’t be one of them. Unfortunately, however, 90% of the ESL textbooks I’ve used have been a disaster. When I get my new textbooks at the beginning of the semester, I flip through them thinking, “How on Earth am I going to use this?” When I sit down to actually plan my lessons, I spend hours thinking, “How on EARTH am I going to use this?!” 

If you have the luxury of choosing your own textbooks, here are three that don’t suck:

1) Interchange

            If you’ve done any ESL teaching before, you’ve probably come across this textbook, and for good reason. Their levels are pretty accurate, the content is flexible, and each lesson contains a good mixture of vocabulary, reading, speaking, and listening. 

Good for: Oral English classes

Levels: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 

Pros:    

Great for beginning students all the way to semi-advanced ones

            Highly-adaptable content. It’s incredibly easy to add to the material given in the textbook; it’s likewise as easy to remove sections that are too simple or too complex. If you’re tutoring or teaching one-on-one classes, this textbook will help you tailor the classes to an individual student’s needs. 

Clear lesson plans and goals. If you’ve just started teaching, this is really a great choice for you. Each lesson discusses a different theme and has relevant vocabulary and grammar sections. The teacher’s edition even comes with advice about how to teach a section, as well as gives ideas for additional activities or games. 

Cons:   

Not suitable for advanced or really high-level students. The highest level, level 3, could still be too simple for really advanced students. 

            It’s pretty outdated. The textbook still has plenty of dialogues that discuss someone buying a brand-new CD player or include someone leaving a message on an answering machine. I usually just make adjustments to the vocabulary instead of waste time trying to explain to a 10-year old what a cassette tape is.  

            This might just be a personal preference, but I find the illustrations a little childish. When I was using this book to teach a wealthy, middle-aged professional, I was always more aware of how juvenile the illustrations felt. 

2) Market Leader

            This is my new favorite textbook, and I do not say that lightly. These textbooks work best for Business English classes or students who are interested in more professional English. This book has everything, from vocabulary to discussions to listening to reading to writing. It’s obviously very business focused, and my favorite part of this textbook series is the way they separate the chapters. Each chapter has a different focus; for example, customer service or business negotiations. In the first half of the chapter, students will have discussions with their partner, learn vocabulary, practice listening, and read two articles. In the second half, students have a chance to implement what they learned in a case study. Students are grouped into teams then given a real-life situation where they have to help a frustrated customer or successfully negotiate a business deal. In my experience, students often have only a few chances to actually use what they study with other textbooks, so having a case study at the end of each lesson gives them that chance. 

Head’s up: The language used does usually favor British English. I let students know that I would use American spelling in the PowerPoints I prepared, so they could see both spellings, and I would simply point out what Americans would say when the book used a uniquely British saying.

Good for: Business English classes

Levels: 5 Levels 

Elementary (1), Pre-intermediate (2), Intermediate (3), Upper Intermediate (4), Advanced (5) 

Pros:    

Combination of discussion, vocabulary, grammar, listening, writing, and reading

            The chance to practice what they just learned in a real-life business situation

            Native and natural English vocabulary choices

            An abundance of material for each lesson

            A good mixture of commonly-used words and high-level business vocabulary

Cons:   

This might not be a good choice for someone who wants to improve their conversational English level or wants to use English for travel since it is certainly more business-focused.

            The large amount of material could be overwhelming, depending on how much class time you actually have. The last time I used this book, I had 4 hours a week for each chapter, and I still had to skip some sections. 

3) The Art of Public Speaking by Stephen Lucas

            This is a tried and true textbook perfect for teaching speech courses. Of the three textbooks mentioned, this is the only one not specifically designed for ESL learners, and it reads like a traditional Western textbook. It’s packed with great information about how to organize a speech, how to overcome stage fright, and how to improve public speaking skills. There aren’t too many exercises or activities built into the textbook, but it acts as a good starting point for creating PowerPoints or lessons around the material discussed in each chapter. A speech class should be mostly practice anyway, right? 

Good for: Public Speaking / Speech classes

Levels: 1

Pros:    

Tons of quality material that really teaches students how to deliver a great speech

            Great source to use as an outline or a way to give structure to your lessons.

            Variety of aspects and topics related to public speaking. If you have enough time, you could cover each aspect, such as informative speeches, using visual aids, or speaking for a competition. If you don’t have as much time or if you have lower-level students, you could stick to the basics of speaking confidently or outlining a speech properly.

Cons:   

Lack of activities written into the book. The text focuses on reading the material, rather than doing activities. To combat that, I would just use the text book as a starting point. We would read, learn, and discuss what was in the textbook, then practice it in real life. 

I’ve included a few pictures of each of these textbooks, so you can get a better idea of what they look like. But if you’re really interested in one of them, go ahead and look them up online or order the book for yourself!