Favourite English textbook (to learn/teach from)?

what are peoples favourite English textbooks to either learn or teach from? We all must have some sentimental preferences. Personally, mine is Headway as it was the first textbook I ever used in a classroom but to be honest, now I think there are better on the market.

doyouspeakpolish has just started a poll on the matter
doyouspeakpolish.blogspot.com

offering six or so choices, but I thought a thread here might be better way to find out, maybe some unheard of textbooks might appear?

any opinions?

Most textbooks are designed for use by a teacher, giving a class to a group. Therefore, as self study books they are essentially useless as very few present the grammar in any sense, or provide any vocabulary explanation, and are filled with practise exercises that require a partner or a CD Player.

Having said that, Headway Advanced (the one that's now five years old) has proved a lifesaver and has some great pages that work out as "instant lessons", or can be customised into hundreds of explanations. FCE Expert has some excellent exercises in it, and for a reference book and for giving vocabulary exercises, Macmillan Publishings book "CPE Use Of English 1" is absolutely superb. Those three books know my photocopier intimately.

I agree about Headway Advanced, it's probably the best in the series. I've never tried FCE expert so i'll give it a try.

I wanted students opinions not on textbooks as self study books but as books they have experience with in class. Many of my students for example love English file series but I'm not so sure that's my fave to teach from.

I used to like Market Leader back when I taught more than every now and again.

Market leader is too over used and pretty out much out of date, in fact, when it was new it felt out of date, lol

but I guess to teach from it's easy and if students like it I suppose it could be a winner. Business Result is a textbook creeping into most schools now. I have no opinion about it but it definitely has a better look

The trouble with all business books is the topics they choose. If you're doing a business class with some Sales managers, why are they going to need chapters on how to have a job interview AND marketing AND human resources AND customer support? And when are secretaries going to want negotiation practice? Each person in the group might find one unit interesting, but that just means all the other students are bored of the topic, every single class. Business books try to be all things to everyone, and that is their failing; business doesn't work like that.

There's a distinct lack of ESP Business books; a book that covers ALL aspects of Human resources (interviews, CVs, Health and Safety, Corporate Culture) or one that ONLY deals with Marketing and Sales and explores those areas thoroughly.

I normally use the Ian McKenzie Book "English for Business Studies" which is really dull but has a hell of a lot of useful vocabulary and ideas in it; much more so that any business coursebook, including Market Leader.

Thanks - I need a new CPE book with a class of mine. They started off originally using CPE Gold, but it's so mindblowingly dull!


I like the way it's done, but some of it is rather poor in my opinion.


I totally, completely agree with you. I found one good book - it's called English for Promotion, written specifically for the Polish market. It's a bit dated now (it mentions Ireland being a success story) - but as a book which focuses on business promotion through sales, advertising, etc - it's rather good. It's also quite clever in the way that it introduces general business vocabulary while being about one topic in particular.

One huge problem with Business ESP books in general is that what's relevant to the UK/US sometimes just isn't relevant here at all. I'm fond of a book called Business Handbook (Advanced) though - it goes into a decent amount of detail and has fairly interesting exercises.

To be honest, all textbooks will be a comprimise in terms of the subject material that students want to study. For business textbooks I use Business Result - It's new and thoughtfully planned.

interesting, English file seems to be the most popular book on the original blog poll, and I agree.

My fave is a series by Mickunas. I still have these 3 volumes. I used them in 1970s. Wonderful books.

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As a teacher, I find this a most interesting thread.
Thanks, all!

So interesting that between 2010 and 2023 no one wrote anything. 😉

For such a long gestation (Funkstille) period I cannot assume responsibilty, Alien.

Favourite English textbook (to learn/teach from)?
...is the one that teaches how to properly use and pronounce "Fvck off" - the phrase that, when timed right and said with that special intonation, saved many women from rapes and naive seniors from crooks. if you want variety, "go fvck yourself" will work just as well - especially in a bar when a handsome stranger offers a woman a drink.

I used both every time I would get a call from some scum with a foreign accent and an offer to improve my life if I only give the pos my CC number. Guess what...I no longer get those calls.