My ELT Book Challenge

The summer before I started my M.A. ELT/Delta, that is, summer 2012, saw me starting to build up a collection of ELT books. Prior to this, I mostly just had my trusty Scrivener and Parrott books from my CELTA days and my copy of Harmer acquired later upon recommendation from one of my CELTA tutors when I asked her what would be a good book to buy. Now my collection looks like this:

My books! (Not pictured: Eggins and Slade: Analysing Casual Conversation – which is by my bed…)

Many of them were acquired during summer 2012 and the academic year 2012-2013, and a handful since then too (though nowadays I tend to buy kindle editions rather than paperback, as carrying an iPad/e-book reader is so much easier!). Roughly half have a practical/methodological emphasis and half are more theory focused. During my M.A. year, the (growing) stack lived under my desk in several piles. Since then, they have mostly lived in boxes/crates, too heavy to take with me on subsequent adventures, save a select few. Finally, they have found their way back into the open. As yet there is no book case to house them, but a patch of carpet and some book ends have done the trick. The next trick is to actually open them again! And this is where the challenge comes in.

The challenge

I challenge myself (and, of course, anyone who cares to join me using their own collection!) to try something new from one of the (methodological/teaching ideas) books each week or read a chapter (from one of the theory-focused ones), and, of course, to reflect on what I try or read.

Even if I don’t manage it every week, having a goal will help me do it more frequently than having no goal would! 🙂

15 thoughts on “My ELT Book Challenge”

I’ve had that idea in my head for ages, and even wrote a draft blog post with it, but you’ve beaten me to it. 🙂 Hoping to be reunited with all of my books at some point next year, at which point I’ll join you! Good luck,
Sandy

lizziepinard | 30/10/2015 at 18:06

Haha! It only came to me a couple of days ago… so I bought some bookends et voila! 🙂 Look forward to you joining in! Lizzie.

Reply

That’s a great challenge. I fervently buy ELT books which then get buried somewhere in my bookshelf and never see the light of day again.

Adi

lizziepinard | 31/10/2015 at 08:04

🙂 It’s time for a mass digging out of ELT Books by all of us!

Reply

As everyone else has said, this is a great idea. I thought about using elements of Scott Thornbury’s A-Z of ELT in my classes for six months (one letter of the alphabet per week) but never followed it up – I might have to follow up on that challenge, or take yours!