Discussions That Work: Task-Centred Fluency Practice

I read this some years ago after I finished my masters in TESL and started to teach in Japan, and I have to say it would certainly still rank in my top 10 most useful books on theory and/or practice. Indeed, to some extent it inspired some of the core ideas in my own task-based textbook (which I'm too bashful to name here). Highly recommended to those who can appreciate it for what it is, a collection of interesting ideas you can use as a springboard for your own classroom creativity.

I teach English Conversation classes to high school intermediate students and have used almost every activity in this book. It is so helpful when I need a new idea to create a lesson off of, or when I need to quickly plan a lesson. You can copy things straight from the book for use in the classroom or you can use the suggestions to create your own. This is one of the best resources I've found to get students talking and keep them speaking in English. The lessons are quite flexible in allowing the teacher to increase (or decrease) the level of complexity. I would highly recommend this book to any teacher of English Conversation.

I teach an advanced oral English class for professionals, in China. I am very impressed with the books in this series, and with this one in particular. I received Discussions That Work a couple of weeks ago and have gone through it cover to cover. I was amazed to find that I could imagine my class discussing almost every topic given, participating in almost every activity suggested. This book is full of wonderful ideas, clearly presented by the author and requiring little advance preparation by me. Ms. Ur is a master at her craft. Highly recommended!

I bought this book and, if you are an ESL instructor, you should too. The author, Penny Ur, successfully bridges that gap between ESL theory and pratical application. What is the "task-based" teaching approach to ESL ? It is NOT just assigning tasks and then moving around the classroom from group to group, correcting the student's English. Although this is what I observed many times in all the years I have been teaching ESL at the university level, this is not what task-based learning is about. It's about knowing the skills involved in performing language tasks then assigning them, based on the student's ability. Penny Ur takes the reader from the approach to application in her text.

I relied on this book during my three years as a teacher of English as a second lanugage in the Peace Corps. I do not know what I would have done without it.