The ESL Miscellany, 5th Edition

The ESL Miscellany, a compendium of useful and interesting information for teachers and English Language Learners.

It can be used these ways:

- As a resource for developing your own lessons or a complete curriculum.

- As a photocopyable source for handouts.

- As a guideline for those who practice eclecticism.

- As a reference book for advanced students of English anywhere in the world.

About the 5th edition.

Since 1981, when we first published this resource for teachers working with English language learners around the world, we have continually updated and revised it with the help and advice of many friends and creative teachers.

How do we explain the The ESL Miscellany? It is our desert island book. As one enthusiastic teacher said, I travel and teach all over the world, sometimes in remote locations. This is the one book I always have with me. The best way to explore its riches is to visit our webstore and read the introduction and the complete table of contents, sample pages, teacher reviews, and the supplementary web-only material.

The book gives ideas and photocopyable vocabulary lists supporting most of what we do as ESL/EFL teachers today. First, there are 85 pages of linguistic material on the phonology, morphology/lexicon, and grammar of English.

There are ten situations to be presented in lessons and discussed, such as health and safety, personal and family needs, shopping and services, recreation, and citizenship. There are also 63 topics to teach about - for example, cooking, human relationships, natural resources, math, the body, hotels, banking, law, the media, college, history, and death. It is important that we as teachers also focus on communicative functions, and there are four lists of functions to be considered at different proficiency levels.

In this fifth edition there are 42 cultural topics updated - on U.S. and Canadian geography, government, and history; on sports, superstitions, education, and the media. And there are 17 metalinguistic topics including a glossary of grammatical terms, spelling rules, a high-frequency word list, abbreviations, road signs, and an atlas. Lastly, there are paralinguistic topics like photographs of American gestures and their meanings.