Don't miss any English Central newsletters...add info@englishcentral.net to your address book!
English Central newsletter
Hi <<First Name>>,
Welcome to your May Newsletter


Featured New Titles

English for Specific Academic Purposes: Medicine

The newest kid on the block in the English for Specific Academic Purposes, and fresh on our shelves, this title is one for everyone involved in academic preparation for health sciences.

Through such interesting topics like causes and effects of diseases, acute care, basic health principles and current issues in medicine, ESAP: Medicine takes an integrated skills approach and has a clear focus on the real-world, practical issues new students face, such as interacting with professors, participating in lectures and tutorials, giving presentations and writing essays.

It's worth a look under the microscope because it:
  • is written by highly experienced and qualified instructors
  • develops extensive critical thinking / analysis skills
  • features key vocabulary and most common academic words and phrases
  • includes authentic reading and listening texts
  • develops effective writing skills, specific to health sciences tasks
  • focuses on necessary academic skills like taking part in tutorials and interacting with classmates

Look inside and see the table of contents and a sample unit.

Another very important component is the fantastic teacher's book.

It is an incredibly helpful one with full methodology notes, 40 pages of photocopiable resources, activity banks and model answers. All of this support is exactly what a teacher without specialist content knowledge needs in order to teach with confidence.

What's that, you say? There's more??
  • Lots of case studies
  • vocabulary banks that provide vocabulary training
  • autonomous learner-training strategies
  • a mix of British and American accents
  • functional phrase banks
  • excellent development of note-taking skills

...and of course, the mandatory (and creepily fascinating) diagrams and images of bodies.

The Duke of Edinburgh sure knew what he was looking at when he awarded this series the English Language Award for excellence in materials in 2009!


What's New at English Central?

  +  
  


English Central has a new USA Sales Force!

We are very excited to announce that after 8 years of thriving in Canada, we are now operational in the USA with a brand new US-based sales force!

Our business in the United States will be focused on distributing our favourite publishers: Garnet Education, DELTA Publishing, Abax, Language Solutions and ELB Publishing.

We are thrilled to have secured 10 of the best and most experienced ESL specialist sales representatives in the USA to help us spread the word about all our great books and resources.

A list of our lovely ESL specialists and their contact details will be up on our website very soon. If you would like to know the name and contact information of your particular specialist straight away, please email us at info@englishcentral.net and we will get back to you immediately.

For all US mail correspondence, here is our new US address:

English Central
266 Elmwood Ave. #134
Buffalo, New York
USA 14222
Toll free: 1-866-518-4170

The USA today....tomorrow - the world!


Industry Soundbites

This month's tidbits include interesting ways to improve student recruitment and retention.

From the 'Glee' inspired tactics of Yale University and The University of Delaware, to the new program at the University of Saskatchewan designed to support first-year students, clearly universities across North America are casting their eyes to recruiting and keeping those highly-sought-after students: 'the internationals'.

University of Saskatchewan Success with Learning Communities

Research has revealed that with extra support for first year students, fewer drop out before second year. Not exactly a shocking revelation, but how the University of Saskatchewan has been able to set up and successfully support their learning community program is an excellent model for others.





Going 'Glee' for Recruiting

Yale University and The University of Delaware have taken pop culture to their hearts with the cute promotional videos. 'Glee' inspired, they are well-produced and fantastic for anyone who needs information sung to them.

There's no doubt they are slick, but if the majority of their youtube viewers are over 50 (check Doug Wotherspoon's blog entry) are they really the marketer's dream?

Yale University - Why I Chose Yale video

University of Delaware - Recruitment video





International Students - Cash Cows?

Good news as CIC predicts 7,000 more international students coming to a Canadian university near you in 2010 and The Council of Ontario Universities expects and additional 75,000 students to apply at Ontario universities over the next 10 years.

This is definitely something to sing about, however, as the 'Cash Cow' author notes, let's hope these students aren't just seen as a way to fatten out our barnyard...or the milk we see on the horizon is sure to evaporate in coming years - to everyone's detriment.


Food for Thoughts

To have a second language is to possess a second soul
Charlemagne

Language shapes the way we think and determines what we can think about.
Benjamin Whorf





Other New Titles

Workplace/Business Resource

How Idioms Work is a new photo- copiable resource that focuses on common idioms in the workplace.

Refreshingly for an idioms book, there is a lot of paper spent on clarifying meaning and showing idioms in authentic contexts.

It also has a unique approach to organizing all the photocopiable content.

Part A provides 20 engaging communicative activity ideas for using and practicing the expressions.

Part B has 10 separate units of 15 idioms each. Each unit highlights the concept, form and use of the idioms through matching definitions and picture cards, extracts from business-related newspapers and pages of practice activities.

Part C contains the answer key and blank templates so teachers can reuse the activities but with different language.

Interestingly, the artist decided to illustrate the idioms with images from a magnifying glass perspective. An odd choice in our opinion, but strangely effective at times - at other times, just strange.

Overall, lessons on telephoning, emailing, meetings and business socializing can usually do with an injection of interesting pizazz - and this resource can certainly do that!

More details and sample pages

Cool Websites

Get a shot of inspiration and ideas.

Teacher Training Videos
If you love the idea of using video in class, check out this site, to see a few video-based websites, along with ideas on how to use them.

ELT Magazines

English Teaching Professional is an excellent magazine that we always look forward to getting. It's got great articles, fresh teaching ideas, and photocopiable materials, just to name a portion of its great content. Worth every penny in our opinion.

English Today bills itself as a quarterly journal that covers all (and they mean ALL) aspects of English Language Teaching. It claims that, "...no aspect of English Studies is beyond its reach."

Clearly, there is something for everyone here.

The articles are fee-based, but for a limited time, you can view this issue for free - click here.


Teaching Tips

How Toxic is Your Staffroom?

We usually focus on what happens inside the classroom, but after reading an article in the very informative website, www.educationworld.com, we broadened our scope.

The statement, "A school is like an organism. If one part of the organism is not healthy the entire body suffers.", jumped off the page.

Like the frog that will boil to death if you put him in the pot when the water is cool and then slowly turn up the heat until it dies*, sometimes we're not so aware of our staffroom 'temperature'.

*In no way are we advocating anyone trying this at home. We love frogs (and bunnies and any other critters that can fit into a pot).

If the PH (Professionalism and Happiness) balance in your staffroom isn't working for you, here are some tips to help, adapted from the very excellent and practical guide to surviving both in and outside of the classroom, The Language Teacher's Survival Handbook.

 
Tips for a Healthier Staffroom

Take Care of The Space
Make it a space you would want to spend time in. Healthy staffrooms are neat, smell nice and have some greenery. Avoid blow ups by being respectful: wash up your lunch stuff and don't hog an entire area for your unused photocopies.

Support Your Colleagues
Ask about your colleagues' classes, share your own successes and failures and practice genuine listening.

Share Ideas and Resources
This might be a big hurdle for some, but sharing ideas, materials and resources really is the way to go. Give and you will get.

Engage in PD
Every professional development workshop, magazine, conference and feedback session is a way to stay plugged in and energized.

Get to Know Your Colleagues
Talk about lots of things - not just teaching. Share the daily crossword or learn about the lives and interests of the folks around you.

Even a little effort can go a long way to making a staffroom a calmer, friendlier, more inspiring place to be.

Copyright (C) 2010 English Central. All rights reserved.

English Central 46 St. Clair Ave., E. Toronto, ON M4T 1M9. 

Tel: 416-850-0833  Toll free: 1-866-518-4170 (Canada & USA)

www.englishcentral.net



 
Sent to <<Email Address>>. Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Forward to a Friend