Short Book Reviews

Hanna Kryszewska, Poland

Hanna Kryszewska is a teacher, teacher trainer, trainer of trainers. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Gdańsk, and EU Teacher Training College where she trains pre-service teachers. She is also Director of Studies at SWPS, Sopot, Poland. She is co-author of resource books: Learner Based Teaching, OUP, Towards Teaching, Heinemann, The Standby Book, CUP, Language Activities for Teenagers, CUP and a course book series for secondary schools: ForMat, Macmillan. She is also co-author of a video based teacher training course: Observing English Lessons. Hania is a Pilgrims trainer and editor of HLT Magazine. E-mail: hania.kryszewska@pilgrims.co.uk

Images. J. Keddie. (2009) Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-442579-7, pp 140. The book is part of the well known and appreciated series: “Resource Books for Teachers”. The book offers a wealth of activities using pictures, authentic and doctored photos, old and new photos, fine art and other visual materials such as graphs, posters, flash images etc. The book is very refreshing and a real joy for a visual teacher. Coursebook visual materials are often boring and very predictable. The Internet Photoshop seems to be the main source of the illustrations. In Jamie Keddie’s book you will find a lot of ideas and ready materials to freshen and liven up the visual aspect your language classes. Predictably the activities are related to teaching the four language skills, as well as grammar and vocabulary, but their character is very unpredictable. I have tried out many of the activities and immediately I was inspired to design my own. The section that seems to look the least appealing is devoted to student-generated flashcards. But we have to bear in mind that such material can be fully appreciated when you know the students who produced the material, you hear the laughs and comments in class. Finally, if you don’t like photos of e.g. sweet puppies sleeping in socks hung on a clothes line, or a puppy and a kitten sleeping snuggled up in a pink blanket, you will not like the photo on the cover. But do not get put off. The book is a must-have and must-read.

Teaching is life is a game. V. Anic (2007) Skolska Knijga. ISBN 978-953-0-50777-7, pp 177. The book comes from a publisher probably not well known to HLT readers. The author is a prolific writer and very well known in the Croatian market; she has written over fifty textbooks and picture dictionaries. The materials which I have seen stand out and are truly refreshing. The book “Teaching is life is a game” is a collection of communicative activities which the author describes as ‘mildly educational’. By this I understand she means that my engaging in the activities the students not only practice communication in English but also gain some general knowledge of the world and/or discuss attitudes, values and citizenship. The activities are easily adaptable to various levels and if used systematically they will have an impact and make a difference to the learners’ opinions and viewpoints. Apart from the ‘recipes’ for the activities the book provides some pedagogical background and rationale, as well as sample students’ work were appropriate. The book is reader friendly: it reads very well and is pleasantly illustrated. Unlike most resource books published by the well known Western European publishers, the book is colourful and very good quality. Personally I do not like the title… but the content definitely makes up for it. The book deserves to become better known among teachers and trainers.

Please check the English for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.