B OOK R EVI EW
Book review: Great! B2 Englisch fr Erwachsene
Reviewer: Augusto Vieira
Authors: Andy Cowle, Rona McGeoch, Robert Kirstein,
Naomi Styles
Publisher: Klett
ISBN: 9783125015845
Level: B2 (course and practice book with 2 audio CDs)
A Great Non-Technical English Book
I decided to take on the task of reviewing this book
because I had never seen it before.
It is indeed a Great! book.
Students who wish to improve their English but want
to do so outside of their professional field will benefit
from this book. Those who have taken English courses
revolving around their jobs know that after a short
while the class becomes boring because they do tasks in
class they already do all day; these students know that
stepping outside of their normal day is an enjoyable
experience, and I think we all know how important
fun in the class is. The book provides a wide variety of
topics that are current and interesting.
The book seems to drift towards the side of more spicy
topics such as Albert Einstein being a late bloomer
or dealing with children who are underperforming in
school. There is also a wide variety of texts that range
from short excerpts to page-long texts, which have
been tastefully spread throughout the book so as to not
be too excessive. As a matter of fact, this was something
I found throughout the book; a good balance has been
struck among speaking, listening, writing and reading.
This seems to be the spread my students look for. A
ELTAS NEWS | 14
focus on providing opportunities to speak and some
writing exercises that are not excessive is something
that has kept many of my classes going. Speaking is a
valued activity providing students with the opportunity
to do what they find most difficult speaking on the fly.
One weakness is the Audio CDs. They use that crisp,
professionally spoken English that students will likely
never hear again in their lives. It would have been nice
to have this kind of English in the first two lessons with
a gradual move towards what students are more likely
to hear on the streets people speaking really fast,
multiple accents, background noise and bad grammar.
Transcripts at the back of the book would come in handy
for students who cannot really make out what they hear.
I also asked my students what they thought of the
book. Heres what they said:
- The many cultural and current topics are great.
- The multiple choice quizzes are nice.
- The book has a sense of humour with funny
cartoons throughout.
- It is very colourful.
- The book feels contemporary and fresh.
Recommendation
In summary, I recommend this book for a class of stu-
dents who have as their main goal speaking more and
better. If you have a shy group that just want grammar
and more grammar right from the first class, then steer
clear.
When I arrived in Germany in 2012, my goal
was to learn German in 1 year and return
back home with the same foot I got here.
After more than 2 years in Germany, I am now
bracing myself for another 3. Yes folks, my
sole purpose in Germany is to learn German.
In Canada I was into Event Management.
I consider teaching and a new career and am
very happy with and intent on continuing with it.
B OOK R EVI EW
Book review: Keynote
Reviewer: Matthew Shimohara
Title: Keynote
Publisher: National Geographic Learning/Cengage
Learning
ISBN: 9781305399150
Authors: Lewis Lansford, Paul Dummett and Helen Ste-
phenson
Level: Advanced Students Book
WHO IS THE RESOURCE/MATERIAL FOR?
Students book to be used in the ELT classroom.
LAYOUT & CONTENT:
This book is divided into 12 chapters and contains
many of the elements of a traditional ELT coursebook.
Each chapter is centered on a particular theme or topic,
has a specific grammar and vocabulary focus, and
includes communicative exercises focusing on reading,
listening, speaking and writing. Review sections are
included after every two chapters.
In addition, this coursebook also incorporates a TED
Talk as the main focus in each chapter. TED Talks is a
nonprofit organization that is dedicated to spreading
new ideas via short presentations that are 18 minutes
long or less. In this way learners have a chance to
develop their English using unscripted language based
on a wide range of engaging topics.
Pre-listening tasks include background informa-
tion on the presenters, key vocabulary, and tips and
strategies for listening to authentic English. Standard
listening comprehension questions are given to check
learners understanding of the texts. The TED Talks are
then followed up with discussion and critical thinking
exercises, and tasks to guide learners towards making
mini-presentations of their own. Each chapter follows
this up with a variety of language and skills-based
activities.
Each students book comes with a DVD-ROM which
includes the TED Talks as well as additional vocabu-
lary and listening exercises.
WHAT WAS THE FEEDBACK FROM THE PARTICIPANTS?
Feedback was all very positive. I was a bit apprehensive
that some of the topics of the TED Talks might not
interest the students, but everyone was really interested
and engaged.
STRENGTHS
Lots of good pre-listening activities
Great that listening skills for authentic texts is made
explicit for students
A nice range of interesting topics
The DVD-ROM which includes exercises was
received very well by the students
It was good that critical thinking tasks were included
in each chapter as this is a current hot topic in ELT
WEAKNESS
It was actually very difficult to find a weakness in this
coursebook. However, I did think that the critical
thinking tasks could have been exploited more as this
is an area that can be used to really challenge students.
The critical thinking tasks in this book, though a part
of every chapter, were quite basic and maybe not as
challenging as they could have been for advanced
learners.
WOULD I RECOMMEND IT?
I more than highly recommend it!
Matthew Shimohara is a freelance English language
teacher presently teaching online, in-company and at
the Hochschule Karlsruhe Technik und Wirtshaft
(University of Applied Sciences). Matthew holds an
MA in Linguistics and TESOL and is a member of
TESOL France.
15 | ELTAS NEWS