The Ultimate ESL Teaching Manual: No textbooks, minimal equipment just fantastic lessons anywhere

The best teaching manual I have ever found (and I have many). Easy to read. Brilliant lessons. Geared toward in-person lessons but some ideas can be useful for online lessons as well.

My husband and I retired from telecommunications and moved to rural New Mexico. We signed up as volunteer tutors at the local literacy program, took the required training, and began our new careers shortly thereafter. We soon learned that our training didn't completely prepare us for teaching the complexities of English to our adult (mostly ESL) students. For me, drills and roleplays are my least favorite ways of learning, and up to now, I've avoided employing them in the classes I teach. About a month or so ago, one of our fellow tutors lent me her copy of "The Ultimate ESL Teaching Manual". I was so impressed with the step-by-step process Ms. Jones outlines in her book that I ordered my own copy. I began using it, and the shift in student attention and engagement was palpable! The drills and roleplay suggestions were just what I needed. I highly recommend this book.

I've been tutoring ESL students for a while now and toying with the idea of teaching my own ESL classes, too. I purchased this book as a reference guide so I could see how other ESL teachers and experts present grammar lessons to their students. I find that this book teaches grammar in a very interesting order, one that is different from how I would normally teach it. I will have to try out the book's order for myself to see if it helps at all with student progress. The explanations for each grammar topic and the class discussion ideas are useful, and I shall implement some of these ideas alongside the workbook materials and flashcards that I have. Overall, this book is filled with valuable information for any ESL teacher, whether it is one who is new to teaching or one who wants to freshen up their teaching method. My only complaint is that there are typos and errors in this book that are frustrating for me as an English teacher to see, such as missing commas, lack of indentations, and lack of proper spacing between paragraphs/ideas, which reduced sentence fluency and made the writing look chaotic. There were also charts that are half on one page and half on another. Readers need to be able to view charts as a whole, they shouldn't have to flip between pages to see the information. One example of a concerning typo was when the author referred to the first letter of a noun as a "constant" rather than a "consonant." I do hope a second edition is published that has been significantly proofread and updated so that the information is easier to digest, because it IS good information!

I purchased “The Ultimate English as a Second Language Teaching Manual” so we could start a Spoken English school in India. We had never taught or started a language school before. English is a poorly spoken third language to most of our entering students and This book helps take our students through Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Spoken English (90 hours of training) and though we charge separately for each class many of our students move onto the next level. I appreciate the diversity and balance of grammar, vocabulary, examples and guidelines for how to plan a class in this book. The best methodology of teaching for us (which this book supports) is having the students create their own Spoken English text in class from the lessons created in the book and presented on board. This helps our students to retain even more English with their own handwriting and a Textbook that they have created themselves at no cost to us or them except the cost of a blank notebook and pen. The lessons allow us to move as fast or as slow as we want with many great ideas and creative games and discussions for retention and review. This is the only textbook our trainers use to teach Spoken English after purchasing and reviewing many others. The worksheet book is an optional addition but not necessary.

this book has great info on teaching but I don't think you could use it as a textbook., It is more of a resource for me to enhance teaching.

This book is great! It is very helpful and laid out well! It is not made for teaching younger students, so if that is what you are looking for you will only get a little from this book.

I had searched through a lot of ESL books and finally settled on this one. I'm glad I did. I have just finished my TEFL and will start online teaching soon. What I like about this book is that it gives me a solid sequence of lessons, and then adds creative ideas for each. This is just what I wanted since I won't be working with a supplied textbook or other materials. I can evaluate each student and find a good starting place in the sequence. She also covers all levels from beginner to advanced, and has included many specific and clever ideas. Love it!

So frustrating that this book ever got published. It was obviously just a way to make a quick buck for the author. Is she even a native speaker? I doubt it. Typical statement found in this book: "The infinitive with "to" is always used after adjectives. This happens without exception. Common adjectives used with verbs include: Possible, impossible, better, easy, difficult, hard, possible and important." #1 - You listed "possible" twice. Didn't want to pay an editor, I guess, but you could have caught this mistake on your own, had you been paying attention, Andromeda. So sloppy, and shows how little effort you put into this book. #2 - It's factually incorrect to say that you always, without exception, use the infinitive with "to" after those verbs. You can absolutely say, "It's difficult getting a refund from that store after 30 days." Or, " It's possible eating that donut will give you a stomach ache." Or, "It's hard feeling stressed out day after day." Or, "It's easy learning English when you're young." This was worse than a waste of money. I wasted time I can;t spare, trying to understand what the hell she's talking about, only to realize that she isn't a competent source of information. Her ideas for in-class learning exercises were imprecise and lazy, weren't explained adequately, nor were they all that original or creative. You will spend more time trying to figure out what she was trying to say, given her mistakes and sloppiness, than if you'd just spent the time researching and writing your own material.

I bought this book on my kindle and then later as a hard copy. The sequence of learning is logical and teaching ideas helpful. I have achieved more success using this method than the traditional textbook method. It's great for students who come from countries where they've never been exposed to English before. Great resource!

Of all the English training manuals that I have bought, this one has proved to be the best. It gives one a clear direction about how to teach English as a second language. This book is simply amazing.

Recipient seems happy with her gift

Andromeda's books are all excellent with clear and concise explanation from real life experience.

Thank you for sharing your teaching experience with us, Ms Jones. I honestly believe that this is one of the best ways how to teach any language. Your approach is very simple but very efficient. It’s not the rules and definitions who are at heart of your approach, it’s the student himself who discovers the language. You give them precious space to observe the language and then using it straight away, which is a real gift. Your book is packed with plenty of exercises, games and role-plays to get that precious practice. Since I have started implementing your advice, I spend less and less time on both paperwork preparation and my TTT (teacher talking time) = meaning more time for students. This book is clearly an excellent tool for any teacher who wants to bring students to a higher level of speaking, grammar and listening comprehension. I would also like to mention that Ms Jones was extremely helpful and reactive when I contacted her through the webpage. She really cares about her readers and students. So far, I have bought 2 books written by Ms Jones and they are worth every single penny of it. Can we have some more, please?