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

English Through Music. A. Paterson & Jane Willis. ( 2008) Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-442270-3 pp.96. This title is another book in the very successful Oxford basics for children series. It contains 36 activities which help young learners aged 4-12 to learn English and at the same time enjoy music. The enjoyment of music involves working with rhythm, playing simple instruments, chanting, singing, all of which foster motivation and a positive learning environment. The book is accompanied by a CD. Thanks to this you can not only hear the melody of the songs or tunes, but you can also hear how teachers conduct these activities in class (language of instructions) and how the learners perform ( sing or make music). The less experienced teacher will find the activities user friendly thanks to well structured procedures. Some of the songs are traditional, others have been written or adapted for the language class. No doubt the authors have, in a number of places, been inspired by Carolyn Graham. Also you can clearly see that the book is a product of two experts from different fields working together: a language teacher and a music teacher. Personally I like and therefore would use in class about one third of these activities. The ones I would reject strike me as too infantile ( as some are definitely not suitable for twelve year olds) or not meaty enough when it comes to language. Last but not least in some of the songs are pitched too high for young voices. I cannot imagine how a teacher and kids would be able to sing theses songs and be happy about the outcome. However, the strong point of the book is seeing music as making music and having fun with rhythm, performing, all of which are part of building self esteem, helping body coordination and contain elements of language across the curriculum (LAC) by combining musical education and language.

Spontaneous Speaking – Drama activities for confidence and fluency. D. Heathfield. (2005) Delta Publishing. ISBN 1-900783-92-4, pp 96. A resource book with about 90 drama activities the aim of which is to maximise student interaction in the class. The activities are set in realistic situations and the use of language is authentic and meaningful, for example gossiping, making excuses, saying good-bye at the airport. Since the learners need to improvise and use language spontaneously the majority of activities are aimed at learners who are (lower) intermediate and above. However, language teachers may feel happy that they work only with language as such and do not have to deal with other elements of drama such as interpretation, voice projection, sets etc . The book is very inspiring but difficult to follow at times. Sometimes the steps in the procedure section are very long. A stage that consists of 23-25 lines is not reader friendly. It gives the procedure, as well as what I would call notes, rationale and other practical or technical information the author wants to share with the reader. So when you pick up the book to get inspired for your class be prepared that for the fact that to get the hang of a very good activity may take a bit longer that you would expect. I tried some of the activities with my teenage and young adolescent learners and the activities were a success. The book has passed the toughest test.

Academic Vocabulary in Use. M. McCarthy & Felicity O’Dell. (2008) Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68939-7; pp.176. This book is a another CUP publication springing from the authors’ work with the Cambridge corpus, which is 1 billion words of real English. This time the database of texts comes from a sub-corpus made up from academic textbooks, articles, lectures and seminars. It has been used to see how academic English is used in spoken and written discourse. The book consists of 50 two-page units; the layout follows the standard format for the “…in Use” series – the left hand side input and left hand side output in the form of exercises the learners do and, of course, a key at the end. The areas the book covers is lexis, e.g.: academic vocabulary with key words, idioms and metaphors used in academic English and word combinations of various kinds. Then comes ‘academic functions’ such as using English in academic institutions, lexis characteristics for a given genre such as talking about facts, giving evidence and data, describing cause and effect, presenting statistical data, presenting opinions, typical language functions such as classifying, making connections. The book also covers dealing with academic texts, making references and differences between British and America English etc. There is a wealth of information and if anything the book is too dense and almost overpowering. Also the teacher will have to trim it down to suit the needs of his/her learners. Besides, as with all the books in the series, the teachers has to come up with interesting activities if he/she wants to use the material contained in the book in class. If you just pick up the book and follow the exercises in class, your lessons will be very monotonous and predictable. However, it is a fantastic self study book or ‘dip in’ book for those who are planning to take IAELTS or are attending a pre-sessional course in order to prepare for studying or working in an English speaking academic environment.