Teaching English as a Foreign Language For Dummies

I'm planning to teach English as a foreign language and this was my first choice as a primer. It's complete and contains a vast amount of information, all of which is relevant. It is well-organised and clearly written by a master of her craft. What surprised me was that there was so much on the business of teaching students of all ranges of ability. There is a lot of treatment of the teaching of grammar as well, and these parts are quite intense. Actually, I learned a lot about my own languages; for example, I didn't realise that there are twelve tenses (plus four conditional moods) in English! My only criticism was that, when referring to tenses, the writer spoke of the 'past perfect simple' tense, which confused me because it is clear that the simple and perfect are separate tenses. In addition, the process of converting it to Kindle format has lost some of the footnote and sideline layout but that's not really important. Those points aside, it contains links to good and useful resources and I found this book easy to read and will keep it as a basic reference.

Michelle Maxom has clearly made a career out of teaching English as a foreign language, and it shows. She knows her stuff, both grammar-wise and in terms of real-life classroom situations. This book offers great introduction to every aspect of teaching foreign-language English students. It's a more difficult process than most novice teachers assume it will be, going from speaking English confidently as a native speaker to be able to teach it effectively, and Maxom will hold your hand and guide you throughout the journey.I found some of the book's confident British-isms offputting; can't think of an example right off, but much of the English that she tells you how to teach is, well, rather English. :-)Additionally, I found the book to be poorly edited and full of typos here and there which distracted me from the quality of its core message. I realize it's not "Copy Editing for Dummies," but I think the publisher could have put a few more hours' effort in and come away with a higher-quality book overall.Still, that doesn't stop me from heartily recommending this simple, approachable book, yet another wonderful entry in the perennially-favourite Dummies series.

I bought this book because I work with someone who wanted to learn English better. I offered to teach him, but cautioned him by stating, "Look, I'm not a teacher, but I'll do my best to help you." The biggest challenge is explaining the atrocity known as written English... But this book does a fabulous job in giving some direction on where to start, and where to take it.

I bought this for my daughter who is teaching English in Spain. She said even though she had certification she was still very glad to have it and that she uses it all the time with her students.

Great book BUT somewhere there should be an indication that this is British English NOT American English!

Really love this book, it is vey informative and fun at the same time. Excited already to start teaching English abroad and with the help of this book and its great resources it will be helpful.

Comprehensive coverage of the subject. Author is from the UK, so some of the advice is more specific to that country, as are some of the designations used for parts of speech. But this is a minor drawback in terms of application to the US educational establishment.

Fun book and very helpful for a guy who is learning how to teach english as a foreign language. I always bring it with me no matter where I travel.