Product Description

A Year in the Life of an ESL Student is an essential addition to the advanced level ESL classroom. By studying the varied and interesting dialogues and completeing the challenging exercises, students will dramatically improve their comprehension and usage of everyday idioms and advanced vocabulary.

The book follows Andre, a student from Switzerland, as he spends a year completing his English studies at a private language school in North America: from his arrival at the airport, to getting around the city, to attending school, to hanging out with his classmates. All of the situations and corresponding language are real and directly relevant to adult ESL students.

So join Andre on his one-year adventure. It's about to begin just outside the airport terminal.

Please visit the website at ayearinthelife.net.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76029 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-28
• Released on: 2006-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 308 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781412020039
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

a thorough guide
For anyone who is an English Second Language (ESL) student, the most challenging aspects of the language are idioms, slang and vernacular. It can be very difficult to follow what people are saying and to make sense of it all. ESL instructors are there to help but they cannot always be present to explain things. You likely wouldn't want to go to the movies or hang out with your friends with your teacher by your side. Edward J. Francis has created an excellent study guide just for the idioms and vocabulary that an ESL student can't live without.

Whether for use in the classroom as an additional tool for teachers or as a personal aid for anyone whose second language is English, "A Year in the Life of an ESL Student" is sure to be a welcome help. With hundreds of vocabulary words and idioms to work with, readers will find that their understanding of English has improved upon completing this study guide.

Using a storyline to show the words in context, Francis allows readers to experience what is being talked about rather than just read about it. Andre, a student from Switzerland, spends a year studying English in North America. His experiences center around typical young adult life, including trips to the mall, movies and a bar. Days spent in class, on the road for a weekend trip and picking up a friend at the airport give example to every day life. During all of these short story experiences Andre encounters idioms and slang. Reading these in context is a perfect way for ESL students to learn about them.

Each chapter includes a story scene, a list of definitions, seven exercises including matching terms, fill in the blanks, crossword puzzles, word searches, and more, comprehension questions to think about and answer, discussion questions to work on with a partner and a section to put your new knowledge to the test. After the sixteen chapters the author gives an extensive list of website resources that relate to each chapter, the answer key to the entire book, and finally, a glossary that lists every one of the hundreds of idioms in the book.

This is a thorough guide that is sure to be a hit. It will make learning English a bit more fun and "hands on". Edward Francis is an ESL professional with over 15 years of teaching experience. He has created a tool that will enhance the lives of many people and those that surround them.
Review by Heather Froeschl.

Good application of the lexical method.
Michael Lewis caused quite a stir in the world of ESL when he published his "The Lexical Approach" in 1993. Lewis's point was basically thus: ESL students are force feed too much English grammar. The idea that grammar can be mastered and then students fill in the blanks with vocabulary is naïve, according to Lewis, and makes it difficult for students to understand natural English phrases such as "Let's have a coffee," because students have only studied "Shall we drink coffee?" Having taught English to Japanese students, who are taught grammar and only grammar in high school, I found this to be a huge obstacle. Lewis's book caused a huge sensation on the ESL teaching community, and many teachers thought they didn't have to teach grammar anymore, it was fine just to teach idiom after idiom. Lewis followed up a few years later with a book on how to apply the lexical approach, saying that it is idioms, expressions and grammar are not so far removed from grammar. In other words, idioms and expressions should be taught as a part of grammar.

Since Lewis shook up the ESL world, there have been attempts to bring out commercial textbooks that implement the Lexical Approach. However, most of them are not so different than previous textbooks, with traditional grammar the focus of the lesson, and idioms kind of tacked on as an afterthought. "A Year in the Life of an ESL Student" does a good job of introducing idioms as an integral part of communication, not just as an added bonus. Colorful idioms such as "Drink like a fish" or "toss one's cookies", as well as expressions that are not idioms, but present difficulties to ESL students, such as "mope around" are presented in natural conversations, and than reinforced through various exercises, such as crossword puzzles, word find exercises, and so on. Many ESL students have the goal of being able to watch Hollywood movies with no subtitles. Just studying grammar and straight vocabulary will never allow this to happen. However, this book will equip students with hundreds of natural and useful expressions that will help them understand and by able to speak more natural English.

The book focuses on a Swiss student, Andre, as he studies for a year at a private language school in North America. All of the conversations in the book involve Andre and his friends at the language school. Students will like this because it makes the stories easy to follow and understand. Teachers will like this book because there are lots of good exercises in each of the 16 chapters, making it easy to teach good lessons with no or very little preparation. Then there is the theme of this book, studying language abroad for a year. This should be the goal of many of your students, and if it is not, studying with this text will hopefully get them interested in the possibility. For classes with more advanced students, this can be a good springboard for a discussion on the topic.

An ESL text you really "can't live without"
Research in second language vocabulary acquisition demonstrates that learning idioms is one of the most important aspects of acquiring a second language. ESL students who do not understand idioms will not be able to understand a large portion of the English language. Consider that an ESL student can understand the grammar of the phrase "kick the bucket" without having any clue as to its actual meaning. Furthermore, ESL students who do not understand idioms will have a much harder time fitting into the culture of native English speakers. This struggle can be severely detrimental to a learner's intrinsic motivation, which is one of the most important factors influencing language learning success. A Year in the Life of an ESL Student: Idioms and Vocabulary You Can't Live Without is an outstanding resource that addresses this important issue of idioms by teaching ESL students an expansive number of them in an engaging and enjoyable manner.

As to the expansiveness of the text, it provides idioms that address a wide variety of situations from attending a TOEFL class to suntanning on the beach. The following examples give a glimpse of the range of idiomatic expressions that students will learn: "better late than never," "cover for someone (to)," "hangover," and "work one's butt off (to)." The presentation of each idiom is clear with each of them first appearing in bold letters in a stimulating dialogue. This feature of the book is beneficial since research has shown that lexical items are much better remembered when learned in authentic contexts. As the author states, "Context is the key to making the daunting task of understanding and using idiomatic English not only possible, but enjoyable too." The dialogues are followed by pages where each idiom is placed in glossary format. After that, there are a significant number of exercises for students to learn the idioms interactively.

Beyond meeting a need in the ESL community, the other aspect of this text that makes it so successful is its engaging style. Many language learning materials present grammatical and cultural information with pictures and other helpful graphics; however, when it comes to vocabulary and idioms these items are often still presented in lists. On the other hand, A Year in the Life places idioms in interesting dialogues that often contain humor and are related to the actual experiences that an ESL student may have. In addition to the dialogues, learners also have the opportunity to learn idioms by playing games. Two common exercises found throughout the book are crosswords and word searches. The realistic dialogues and the exercises make learning the idioms interesting and fun.

Considering the need for a text of this kind in the ESL community and its engaging style, I would recommend it without reservation to both ESL teachers and students. A Year in the Life will lead learners into a much more native-like competence.