Are Books Still Good Resources for English Language Class?

Hello English language learners and friends of Blue Noun English Language School Perthshire! Today our English language school for creative minds talks books, and asks the question: Are books still good resources for English language class?

As it’s World Book Day 2021, I’ll not tease you: it’s an absolute and enthusiastic YES from us. Although our English classes are largely conversation-based we use a combination of both books and digital platforms to get you talking: books are an amazing resource for English language class!

While we do also have a small selection of excellent language coaching books designed to drill grammar points and other structures, we use them sparingly (I’ll pass on an exercise or two for revision and homework rather than spending much group class time on it): a good language teacher knows how drill grammar points through conversation practice – and a really good one does it without you even noticing!

Have a look inside our language school library – I think you’ll be surprised by what you see. This video introduces you to the ever-changing Blue Noun English Language School book collection that we dip into during English classes. I’ve not tried to polish it or edit the video much as it is intended to be representative of a normal English lesson with me (except you’d do so much more of the talking!).

Your English language coaches are ‘bookworms’!

While it seems that every other day is international something day (and to be honest I’ve mostly ignored them after learning that International Marmalade Day was a thing), today is World Book Day and we ARE celebrating.

Let’s be part of this international festival of reading and books: let’s remind ourselves of how lucky we are to have access to books (and a universal education system that has taught us to read) – and to any parents and every friend who have communicated their love of reading or a particular book to us – and let’s use our wealth of knowledge and any spare resources we have to reach the children (and adults) who do not.

Speaking personally for an instant, as youngsters, we mini-Pringles used to beg our dad to read us a story (mum got the job most weekdays), and when he raced through ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea‘ or some such age-appropriate gem, we would howl in disappointment when he pulled whatever paperback he was in the middle of out his pocket and start reading from whatever page he was on: it was probably mere minutes before we all fell asleep, lulled by the comfort of language we only partially understood. I now do exactly the same trick to Young Blue (note to self: remember Terry Pratchett keeps her awake laughing!)

As you can probably tell by now, we love books. Kenny is a bit of a collector, I tend to be a giver-outer – as soon as I finish a book I can’t wait to pass it on.

Our book collection at Blue Noun English Language School is a jumble of oddities, which is just how I like it: the books are for our language learning guests to help themselves to during their stay: to borrow or even to keep (it got raided a bit during Lockdown, but I look forward to the fun of hunting out new books for our collection).

“So as our young team member celebrates World Book Day in her own way (by attending school dressed as a dog), I’m going to have just one more rummage in the Blue Noun bookshelves – and I urge you on this day to work out a way to share a book that you love too”.

Ruth

Books are GREAT resources for English language class!

As an example, I’ll leave you with a poem by Roald Dahl, which was sung by the Oompa-loompas in Charlie in the Chocolate Factory: as I mention in the video above, simple poems are a great way to build up English vocabulary and pronunciation.

My advice for this exercise is to listen to the poem fully two times, then read it yourself (out loud) from the text. Listen to the audio a third time. It’s a great way to drill pronunciation!

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Resources for English language class World Book day Blue Noun Mike TV

Blue Noun English Language Challenge

We hope we’ve convinced you that books are still very relevant resources in English language class.

We cover a broad range of topics in our language school blogs – some a lighthearted look at Scotland, others an in-depth look at art and culture. There’s something for everyone.

If you’ve liked this blog, you might want to read our English tips blog:

5 ways to use BBC Radio to learn English here.