Ebook English Made Easy Volume One A New ESL Approach Learning English Through Pictures Jonathan Crichton Pieter Koster Books

Product details Paperback 192 pages Publisher Tuttle Publishing; Revised edition (November 10, 2015) Language English ISBN-10 0804845247

English Made Easy Volume One A New ESL Approach Learning English Through Pictures Jonathan Crichton Pieter Koster Books Reviews

• This was excellent for the beginner I taught. It seems that all the other "beginner" books I've used or have looked at are too advanced (despite SEEMING to be a low level) and/or have topics that are not immediately useful. This book's level and topics were immediately useful and had illustrations and color that made it visually pleasing. Also, there were some substitution exercises that were effective if needed, and they weren't boring as most subsitution exercises are. BONUS the price was terrific! I will use this again with other students/clients. (FYI, I used this with an older, Syrian refugee woman, with very limited English although she knew the English alphabet and could read some. She'd been here 3 years but had a relative communicating for her, so her English was extremely limited.)
• My teenage son has gaps in his language comprehension. This book, designed for ESL, is a good one for him because it has drawings and very repetitive characters, scenerios that are common in everyday life but he needs help understanding. The speech bubbles help represent family relationships and pronouns. "HE is MY brother" for example (when it comes from the daughter in the family) helps him better understand the familial labels.
  
  I also bought Volume 2 , thinking Vol 1 would be too boring and basic for him...but it wasn't. It fills in some gaps I wasn't even sure existed. He needs me to read it along with him, asking questions, pointing, correcting, but it is better than flashcards because he can detect PATTERNS in the panels. For example, relationships illustrated all on one or two pages of cartoons He is my father. He is my son. She is my wife. She is my mother... etc. all on one page with correct corresponding speech bubbles.
  
  And the drawings are not comical or talking animals or but depict obvious male/female parents/adults and male/female children (who are shorter than the adults so we can tell which is which) ... women have longer hair. men have short hair. simple and necessary sterotype distinctions NEEDED for my son to absorb the generalizations and helpful for me to teach him.
• I am teaching a class of adult refugees. It was hard to find material that was basic enough, but aimed more towards adults. This book fit the bill perfectly and the students quite like the book. Job well done.
• Having sought ESL material in vain across Asia, I found this book to be a blessing. All of the materials that I've found in Asia, even in university book stores, had been thrown together by non-native speakers and were rife with horrible, glaring mistakes on every single page. This is a disservice to a bright, talented student who could only aspire to speaking & writing the botched-up "English" in those materials.
  
  This isn't rocket science; this is just a simple, well-done product that fills a void.
  
  It is ingenious in its simplicity. Each simple page has plenty to expand on, e.g., I pointed to the sentence "My name's Anne." --which the student incorrectly read (on the first try) as "My name is Anne." I explained the discrepancy, she then said it perfectly, and I explained the role of the apostrophe here. The book also says "I'm Anne." I explained that this was equivalent, and I explained which forms were more common in speech, etc. I also explained that the apostrophe doesn't always indicate a contraction (when it's possessive), etc. So there is *plenty* to expand on. (And it does not harm the student to transcribe some into a notebook. -)
  
  I would not recommend *any* book for self-study. For a young student who is truly on his own I would probably recommend a book that comes with audio recordings (of *native* speakers!), and hope for the best.
• My husband and I are volunteer tutors for adult English Second Language learners at a nearby community college. We have two copies of this book and it works perfectly no matter what the country of origin of our learners. We have the advantage of having lived for a few years in China and know that it is difficult to learn a foreign language - especially as adults (in our 60s). The book starts with typical meeting people conversations but combines those with grammar concepts such as contractions right at the beginning.
• I am using this book as a text in an ESL (English as Second Language) course I am teaching and have found it very helpful. The combination of graphics and words is most instructive.
• I'm using this book for my ESL students. I'm tutoring two women who recently arrived as refugees and spoke no English. I am not trained as a teacher. Luckily they had apparently studied English letters in their native country, so could read a little. My only wish is that the book began with somewhat more formal English. Instead of 'My name is Candy' or 'I am Candy' they are to say 'I'm Candy'. Numerous contractions immediately rather than a more formal it is, it does not, etc. However, with lots of laughter and encouragement (and occasional resorting to an on-line translator when we get stuck), the picture book format is working well. Not only are they having to learn English, but some of the sounds in English are totally foreign to their way of speaking. Their primary language does not have several sounds that are common in English -- the letter P, for instance, is very difficult. (not the fault of the book).
• It is hard to start off teaching to a person who has no understanding of the English language, but by far this has had a much better impact than the other books. Easy is good.