Sabtu, 15 Mei 2010

REVIEW : CREATIVE ENGLISH WORKBOOK


Title : Creative English Workbook
Author : Ng Foo MUn et Al
Grade : X, XI, XII
Page : 75 – 83 pages
Publisher : Penerbit Erlangga
Price : IDR 20.000 – 25 .000
Rank : 4 of 5

Hi everybody,

Preparing materials for my students sometimes is mind and time consuming. I bet every teacher would like to choose easy-learned and valuable materials to be taught. But, for most of the time I hardly find a workbook which covers areas in texts, grammar, short functional texts, expression and even completed by enrichment as well as evaluation. But this book is all in one book I always carry in my most of teaching time.

I bought it for about months ago. It cost around 20K and unfortunately the book was not available in my nearest book store. The book serves in two series in every grade, it comes in A nad B series. So, you’ll find the 1A,1B, 2A, 2B, 3A,3B. Well, for my less luck there was not complete stocked series when I had chance to grab it from a bookstore. All I have were just the A series for 2nd and 3rd grade. But,I think these two books have already gave a positive impression on me and made me want to write a simple, subjective yet honest review about them.

Basically, every chapter in these books (the series which I already had) talk about TEXT GENRES. You will find out narrative, descriptive, recount and other text genres as the headings (chapter tittle). The sub chapters are all areas covered in the previous text. For example, for the first chapter in Creative English Workbook 3A discussed about Narrative (fortunately every text genre is discussed in double chapters so it is possible for the students to gain more deeper comprehension). As the chapter talks about Narrative texts, the sub chapters are evaluation relate to narrative text itself. They can be described as follows:
1. Questions deal with the previous texts.
2. Grammatical features related to the texts (past tense)
3. Vocabulary quizzes
4. Writing assignment


source:here

So, let me conclude this book in Pros an Cons way.
Pros
1. The evaluation serves in various ways, it avoids learners / students to feel bored. I think the writers put their great ideas in creating this book, I get series of evaluation in the form of essays, jumbled texts, close procedures and the basic optional questions.
2. The overview helps me. Since I am my self at firsts felt doubtful in determining and comprehending texts to their genres.
3. Rich in vocabularies. It is awesome since i love to drill my students with new vocabularies.
4. A handy workbook in affordable price ;)

Cons

1. For some students it could be difficult to work with this book without any assistance. Since the book only features overview about the texts, but i think it is forgivable because it is assumed to be a workbook right?

For you who curios on this awesome book creators, I’ll give you a glance opportunity to know them as it is stated in back of its cover. It says:

About the authors.
The authors are from Singapore and Indonesia who have been teaching for more than a decade. During these periods, they have written many textbooks, articles and workbooks for school that use English as first, second or foreign language.
They are also members of the Board of Academic Committee (BAC) for English language in Laos. The BAC, who so-ordinate with the Examination Board in London, is responsible for planning and implementing English curriculum, assessment, pedagogical approach and evolution. BAC already has two national projects under its belt, English Pilot Projects for all primary school in Laos and Higher English for all students in Champasak University Laos.


Quite assuring I believe.
Well, this post end to be along one i guess. So, for you who needs a good workbook I kindly suggest this one, check it to your nearest bookstore or any Penerbit Erlangga Agents or here. While for you who have other good references of English workbook and textbooks, please share!

Happy Sunday.


Ven

Disclaimer:
This post is my personal post. It is about what i felt and experienced. Impression to this workbook may varies.

Jumat, 14 Mei 2010

A Warm Welcome !

Hi guys, How are you doing?

Welcome to Englishicious anyway. Honestly, the word is a bit hard for me to type. It is okay though since at least it sounds ear-catching for us. lol.
As experienceless English teacher we face difficulties in finding a relevant teaching materials to be taught for our students. It made us realize that it is important to have, gain and optimize creativity moreover force ourselves in delivering our own ideas to create self-made teaching materials. We will neither instantly make comprehensive nor reliable learning materials, but we want to try it.
From now on, this blog hopefully become a medium for us to share our limited-yet-tried-to-be-broaden-up knowledge, idea, and experience about English education. We hope this blog could record every single thing and stuff in creating teaching and learning materials for our beloved students and yours could be.
OK, I will stop bubbling right away, last but not least, any comment, advice, criticism or suggestion will have big contribution for us and this blog.


Regards,

Ven