Teacher Recommends a Good Book

Nothing like a good book to open the student's appetite for vocabulary researching. This is true even for Elementary students, who can hardly read English. The clue is to find a book both engaging and at the same time written in an appropriate level for the student to follow.

There is plenty of books (you read well, 'there is' is being used with plurals)that proudly advertise to have been purposely written in different 'levels' of English, raging from elementary to upper intermediate. I personally do not go for any of those. Let me tell you why.

The greatest drawback with this kind of book is that it does not prepare the reader to walk the path that will lead them to reading the actual real English. Simplified writing is nowhere to be found in real situations, save newspaper adds or story books designed for toddlers.

Another drawback is that the adult reader will probably be able to follow the story, yes, but they will not enjoy it. Teachers usually hate books they cannot enjoy. One cannot expect the student to enjoy what the teacher does not, and enjoying is a key part of the acquisition of English as a second language.

Unless the teacher is the happy possessor of an extraordinary imagination, they all will be utterly bored and the process of learning will be thus endangered. Let's face it: it is already quite hard to convey feelings and engage the readership in ordinary novels with conventional language. To attempt to do it with a simplified version is impossible.

My advice is to plunge into real books written for native speakers of English directly. Here again we encounter another challenge: the difficulty of reading something that is actually unintelligible for some. The good news is that literature is so vastly filled of genres that we can practically find challenging reading material for everyone if one puts the mind to it. Take comics for example. They are filled with difficult phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions, but they are very easy to follow thanks to the illustrations. Who has not heard of the adventures of Batman or Superman? I say let us give comics a bit of a try.

Another challenge for teachers in the selection of reading material is to take into account students' tastes. If one fails to recommend the appropriate piece of literature, the result could be quite disheartening. So to avoid reading drop-outs we could take students to book stores and have them join us in the selection of literature. This could be fun and at the same time encouraging, particularly to young adults who seldom visit book stores. Reading paper books for enjoyment (and paying for books) is something people are beginning to forget and sad is to say that some have never been taught into the habit.

Taking students to book stores can be very stimulating for both parts. Go to your friendly bookstore, spend some money on books, have a good time with your students and read along with them as many varieties and genres as possible. You will never regret it!