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  • I need a book on how to be a gentleman. I need to know my -- hi. James, from EngVid.

  • This book is called "How to Be a Gentleman", by John Bridges. It's sort of like a textbook.

  • And what is a textbook? A textbook is a book designed to teach you something with exercises

  • that will bring you from one place to another. So when you're finished doing the textbook,

  • you should learn a skill. Unlike a book that you read for enjoyment, which is fun -- you

  • enjoy; you put away -- a textbook is usually used in schools to teach skills. And through

  • exercises and tests, you master it. This is sort of like a textbook, but it's a little

  • bit fun.

  • My job today is to do something we haven't done before. You come to EngVid to learn English,

  • which is true, and this is great. But you could also buy books outside. I'm sure some

  • of you have bought books outside. When I teach, some of my students, before they go back to

  • their countries, they say, "Teacher, I need a book to help me with my grammar or my English."

  • One of my colleagues at EngVid has done a lesson. You should check it out. It's about

  • books you should read. But this one is specific. This is on textbooks, the books that teachers

  • may use in schools or you can buy by yourself, which will help you increase on your IELTS,

  • on your TOEFL, or on your grammar or vocabulary. And these are books designed for people who

  • are learning English as a second language, okay? And that's what this lesson is today.

  • "How to pick a good textbook." So see, gentlemen? How to pick a good textbook, a textbook that

  • would help you.

  • I can give you ten books that I think are good textbooks. But I am not you, and I'm

  • not your teacher -- well, I am. I know. I'm sorry. I like you, too. Okay, we love each

  • other. But I mean, I'm not there to help you. If I were sitting with you, talking to you,

  • I'd say, "You know what? This book isn't good for you. This book is good for you." And because

  • I wanna help you -- see, I said "wanna". See that's a grammar thing. Because I want to

  • help you, I'm going to give you something that you can use to find a textbook for yourself.

  • There are probably many books in your country, and you don't know which is a good one. I

  • don't want you to waste your money, and I want you to learn. Okay? So let's go to "How

  • to Pick a Good Textbook".

  • I found there were approximately ten points that you should have when you're going to

  • buy a textbook. They can be very expensive and very helpful, okay? If you pick the wrong

  • one, though, it's not a good use of your money, and it will take time -- valuable time from

  • your learning.

  • The first thing you should look at is when was the book made? If the book is old -- it

  • is 20 years old; it's not a good book because they probably don't talk about computers or

  • laptops or email and addressing any of that. And you're going to be looking at books where

  • you're saying, "Well, golly gee, sir, I think the rain on the plain in Spain is mainly..."

  • -- it's out-of-date. We call something "out-of-date". If the book is over ten years old -- probably

  • not good to use, right? Probably want to say away. Get a more up-to-date book, one with

  • more modern examples that will talk about technologies you're using today. Okay?

  • The next one is what do you need? I don't know how many students come to me and say

  • they want to listen -- get better hearing skills. And then they tell me how they're

  • watching the news. And they're level two or three. And I'm like, "Stop immediately!" You

  • shouldn't be watching the news until you have 80 percent of the language. It's just too

  • much for you. What do you need it for? "Well, Teacher, I want to watch my TV program." Well,

  • watch your TV program. "What do you need" is what you work on. If you need IELTS or

  • TOEFL, don't use a basic grammar book. You should be high enough that you can use the

  • books that you're testing for. What do you need? Do you need it for work? Then you need

  • technical books, books that work specifically with technical language or formal language.

  • Are you going on vacation? Then, you need a book with pictures and drawings and fun

  • stuff. Heck, heck, you can even watch TV programs for children. What do you need? So in a textbook,

  • look at what do you need, and the textbook addresses -- when we say "address", it's working

  • towards what you need, not what you think your friend has or someone would tell you.

  • Third, drawings or illustrations. I know you're going to say, "I'm not a child." That's not

  • the point. If I do this, you know I'm hungry. If I go like this, you know I'm thirsty. An

  • illustration helps to make things easier for you. If English is not your first language

  • -- and I was studying Spanish. I found that sometimes a picture beside the words made

  • it come to my head. "Cenar" or "cenar" is "dinner" in Spanish. When I saw potato, chicken,

  • and vegetables, and the clock saying six o'clock, and it said, "Time for esta cena", I went,

  • "Oh, this is dinner! Got it! I understand completely." So a good text will have some

  • illustrations, not be all words because we are creatures who use our eyes and our ears

  • and our mouths to communicate. Just looking with just the words is not enough for all

  • people, okay?

  • Next, exercises. I can say, "Como se dice en Español?" And it means, okay, "What does

  • this mean in Spanish or how do you say this in Spanish." Great. But if I say that, and

  • I don't give you any exercises -- and you'll notice in EngVid, at the end of almost every

  • video we have, there is a quiz. Something for you to do to test if you've learned. You

  • should have exercises. If they just give you information and say, "This is this, and this

  • is this", really, it's no good because it's the practice. The practice makes language

  • stay in your head. So it needs to have some exercises. One page or two to help you master

  • or get comfortable with it. And you can go and check, why was this different than this?

  • Because two examples does not tell you why there are three examples, and they're all

  • different. You sometimes need some -- you know, more to go, "Oh, I understand, and I

  • see." In this situation or in this area, I need this, and in this area, I need this.

  • Cool? So you should have multiple exercises.

  • More than one method. What does that mean? As I said before, some people are what we

  • call auditory students. They need to hear information to learn. I'm visual. If I see

  • a picture, I see the words on the paper, I understand more than when someone explains

  • it to me. When they explain, sometimes I just go [blinks] because I'm waiting for the picture

  • to come, and they won't give me a picture. So I'm just blinking -- this is called "blinking".

  • Blink, blink, until the picture comes. Okay? Well, some people just hear, and bam, bam,

  • bam, thank you, ma'am. They understand everything. But a picture, they go, "What is this? I'm

  • so confused!" Okay? So it should have more than one method. And that's why I said up

  • here, illustrated. But it can also be a conversation. They could have different methods, conversation,

  • questions, definitions, and pictures. So each person's got a different way of learning or

  • learning style or strategy, they can learn differently. We all learn differently. And

  • sometimes, a combination is needed. And a good textbook knows that, and puts it in there,

  • cool?

  • So we talked about building, okay? And how you start from the base and work up. Another

  • method of building is the text should be able to be used by one or more people. What do

  • I mean? Well, here's my pal. I almost forgot him. Little sausage guy. Mr. E! He's a superhero.

  • Mr. E is here. Mr. E made -- he looks a little straight today. Straightened him out. Mr.

  • E may study by himself. He has no friends. He lives in Taiwan. He has no friends. He

  • smells bad. Worm with BO. Who knew? So he has to study by himself. But maybe one day

  • he gets a friend. Me, James. A good textbook will know that you might study in a classroom

  • environment with many people or one-on-one or with a partner. And it tries to build exercises

  • -- as I said over here, like, one might be a conversation one where one partner says

  • one thing, the other partner says the other, and they can see how it relates. Or a group

  • exercise. I gave you one in one of the three methods to learn English, or three tricks,

  • where you pull from the hat. Seven people pull from the hat and challenge each other.

  • That way, you can all learn English together and make each other better, right? So you

  • can do that with a good text. It will have these exercises. So it might say "with your

  • group" -- don't look at that one. "With your partner" -- do that one. "By yourself" -- okay?

  • So it builds, so you can incorporate a group. Have your own class, so to speak.

  • Next, I'm going to change this up a little bit because I made a little bit of a mistake.

  • And that's my fault. I want to go to context. If you have a good text, it will use grammar

  • and vocabulary and context. It's nice to get a book that gives you 150 words you should

  • use. It's much better to have a book that gives you the context and tells you how regularly

  • these words are used. Same with the grammar. When do you want to say "wanna" -- like I

  • said earlier. Remember I said it earlier? "I wanna" versus "want to" -- when it is acceptable?

  • Using it in the correct context tells you when you can use it and get the most effectiveness

  • out of your English when you use it in the country or when you want to use it at work.

  • We talked about bar and business English. This is the same thing. Context -- when? Okay?

  • If you do that -- and a good text has all of these things -- No. 9, which I really like,

  • which this should be No. 9, it'll have a final test or a unit test. So you'll do multiple

  • exercises, then practice, and then there'll be a test. Once again, I go back to EngVid.

  • I'm sorry if I'm promoting it. It's just -- it's a fact. You watch the video; you get a test;

  • you know how well you're doing; you know your progress -- if you're getting better and better,

  • right? That's what a good text will have. It'll have unit tests so you can give some

  • of the information, and then final tests to see if you've mastered the book. If you have

  • all of that together, that's a book you want to pay the money. If it's 20 rupee, 20 dollars,

  • 20 euro, pay the money. It's worth it. What it will give you in education is more than

  • you can get by complaining about how much money things cost. Okay?

  • One thing I say -- and some students don't understand this part -- a very good text,

  • a very, very good text -- No. 10 should be this one -- promotes culture. You cannot learn

  • a language and not learn the culture and be truly effective. A good text will put the

  • culture with the book with the context with the exercises, so you can become more aware

  • of what's appropriate and not appropriate. And "appropriate", I mean here, by what is

  • right or not right to do in a culture. It's like learning to drive a car. If you learn

  • how to drive the car, and you don't know the rules of the road, you're going to get hurt.

  • Same goes with English, okay? You know the culture, the context, the language, and use

  • them together, you'll get from point A to point B safely and have a really good trip.

  • All right?

  • Now, last thing I want to bring to your attention about this is -- and Mr. E reminded me by

  • putting a box here -- "a good text will" -- "it will tell you what you will learn." Like I

  • said when I said with this. We usually start off -- when I start with you, I say, "Today

  • we're going to work on this." Okay? And I try and give you an outline why you should

  • take it. Right? The same goes here. "It will tell you what you're going to learn and how

  • it will help you." Right? You're here to learn TOEFL. "This book will teach you the following

  • TOEFL concepts and how you can do this on the test." Boom. You know if you should get

  • the book or not. That goes back to need. Second, "it will show you progress", how you are getting

  • better. You'll notice the exercises are getting a little bit more difficult, but you're able

  • to do them, okay? And it "will be easy for you to follow", so you can always step back

  • and go forward. It's not so difficult you need somebody from NASA -- you know, space

  • agency -- to come and explain the rules to you. I usually recommend two books to my grammar

  • students. One is -- I'll tell you right now - "Grammar in Use". And the other one was

  • an Azar book on grammar. And they go, "Why, teacher? Why two books on same subject?" I

  • go, "Very simple." See, I use bad English. When I pretend to be a student, you always

  • know. I say, "Why, teacher? Why English two subject?" Okay. That's the student. Very easy.

  • The "Grammar in Use" is very basic, but it doesn't have a lot of exercises. That's why

  • it's not No. 1. It's very basic. It's easy for students to understand, right? It's easy

  • to follow. But not enough exercises. You don't get the practice required to master it. But

  • the Azar book has four or five pages of exercises, but I used to get tired of students coming

  • to me every day going, "I don't understand it. I don't understand it." So I went, "If

  • you buy both books, read this book first, and then do the exercises from this. And<