The ESL Teacher's Book of Lists

I have used this book far more than any of the other ESL or English books I have. If you already have a set lesson plan that you follow, then it might not be as useful, but if you make your own lessons, it's perfect! I teach a lot of private ESL classes, so all my lessons are tailor-made for a particular student, which means I'm constantly creating or tweaking lessons. I have found it very useful because it can be hard and / or time consuming to sit down and try to think of (for example) all the words that people use in greetings, or for weather. Also, it has some very good explanations of pronunciation rules as well as some grammar. I recommend this book to anyone who has to plan their own lessons or to teachers with limited resources.

If you need to whip up a lesson or you have a great activity and need some specialized vocabulary...this is it! This book is also very helpful when you can't think of examples "off the top of you head," but you know the "grammar-point" you want to make. For instance, it lists exceptions to rules, idioms, prespositions, common mistakes made by specific groups of language learners, etc... I've used it at least three times a week for four years!