September already? It’ll soon be Xmas…
New releases
Deborah Hobbs (author) mentioned the release of ‘Open World’ (CUP). This is from the Cambridge English website:
Open World is an exciting new course from Cambridge which takes you further. Embark on a journey beyond the traditional boundaries between exam preparation and real-world language.
The book looks a bit Life-y based on that front cover.
Paul Ashe announced the release of New Hello! for the market in Egypt. If you’re interested about the context that this book will be used in then here’s a summary of ELT in Egypt from the British Council.
There are inspection copies out for C21 from Garnet Education. If I manage to get a copy I’ll review it. There’s an uber-positive review on their site about it, which was published in the EL Gazette.
Every publisher seems to be marketing books as developing ‘21st Century Skills’ these days. I’ve just googled a list of core ‘21st Century Skills’… eeek. I’m a crap leader, fairly unproductive, sometimes inflexible and not that creative. Send me the book Garnet, I can learn from it…
Emily Bryson has just written ’50 Ways to Teach Life Skills’ for Wayzgoose Press.
MaWSIG webinar(s)
Don’t forget this IATEFL MaWSIG webinar on Friday. I’ll be at work but hopefully I’ll get it on catch-up…
There’s another talk on 11th October with the authors of Raise Up, which I’ve mentioned before. Link to MaWSIG upcoming events here.
Good reads
‘A five-minute history of script writing in ELT materials’ – a post from 2016 by John Hughes.
Book review: Activities for task-based learning (the two Neils) – review by Allison Lewis.
The Quizlet Quest – a good example of how to introduce a new tech tool to learners, from Katherine Martinkevich. Publishers should include stuff like this to orientate learners to their digital resources.
I’ve been dipping in and out of ‘Creativity and Innovations in ELT Materials Development’ (edited by Dat Bao, 2018). Most of the book is available on Google Books as a preview, NICE!
I know, I’m always harping on about Tomlinson. But…
What I really like about the guy is, as you’ll see in his chapter on ‘making typical coursebook activities more beneficial for the learner’, he never shirks giving clear, practical examples. Here’s some basic suggestions for how to tweak closed questions to make them more challenging and personalized:
Every time I read Tomlinson’s words I feel like I’m reading a real practitioner’s words. I don’t always agree, but I really value his voice in the industry.
Freeed
There’s a new online community at Freeed for ELT teachers. Freeed is a platform for sharing resources, collaborating, and discussing ELT-related topics. It’s just taking off. You need a login. There’s a giveaway on the platform this month of Sandy Millin’s ELT Playbook.
Jobs
The jobspots on ELT Publishing Professionals are getting more frequent. There is an excellent role available RIGHT NOW if you’re looking for your first materials writing gig. It’s with Wall Street English, and it will be live for another 2 days, so sign up and apply!!!
Other than that, standard stuff. Integra always seem to be after people. York Press Freelancers have just put a call out for a content editor. See Facebook group for details. I haven’t had many alerts from the big publishers this month about things like Development Editor roles.
This month I’ve mostly been…
- celebrating! The coursebook will be out late October, and my other work is going really well.
- worrying! There’s an editorial change on a project I’m working on. Will the new editor hate me?!
- joking around! Here’s one of my imaginary materials writing conversations, which some of you have been positive about.
- reviewing… new materials for an in-house product. I cannot believe it – I’ve not come across one pun in the materials yet. Rubbish.
If you only read one materials writing related thing this month…
The next course of TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING (TBLT): FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE from SLB Co-op is starting on November 8th. There’s an early bird price for now.
