Books


An Active Study Notebook for English language learners, with a language guide and note pages to complete.

The Notebook has a self-assessment page, in line with the Common European Framework of Reference. The Language Guide covers word classes, the noun phrase, time phrases, verb phrases, the key verbs: do, get, give, go, have, put, take and turn, modal verbs, conditionals (seven of them), sentence analysis, idioms, binomials and metaphors. In the Guide there are pages for learners to collect their own examples. There is advice on how to exploit texts to identify new language, and key word pages to collect collocations and phrases associated with words the learners identify as important for them.

There are also topic vocabulary pages to collect language around different topics of interest. The Skills section looks at the language of presentations, meetings, reports, letters, telephoning and questions, again with space for learners to add their own examples of useful language. Finally, there is a list of irregular verbs.

The Notebook is available from all Amazon stores.


The English Noun Phrase: A Handbook for Teachers

The English noun phrase is the most complex part of English grammar. Noun phrases may be single word nouns and pronouns or multi-element noun phrase complexes which can contain a huge range of sub-elements. Noun phrases can include determiners, adverbs, adjectives, nouns modifying nouns, and compounds, relative clauses, prospective-to clauses, do-ing clauses, done clauses, prepositional phrases, and noun content clauses. All these elements are used to help make the noun understandable and the reference clear, and to give essential information about the noun. This book explores the intricacies of the noun phrase, with a special focus on the complexities of determiners and post-nominal modification, and helps you improve your understanding of both simple and complex noun phrases. It then shows you ten techniques you can use with learners of all levels to improve their understanding and production of noun phrases. The book includes photocopiable materials for you to use in class with intermediate + learners.

The English Noun Phrase: A Handbook for Teachers


The Ideas of English Grammar is an exploration of English grammar which identifies the grammar a teacher really needs to teach and the grammar a learner needs to learn.

It is a complete re-imagining of pedagogical grammar.

It is based on Lexical Priming theory and the Associative Model of English.

Grammar is envisaged as a system of Distance, Meaning and Conventions. These ideas are explored in depth and the ideas of verb and noun pathways are introduced.

The Ideas of English Grammar is available from Amazon: The Ideas of English Grammar


Teaching English: Being the Best is the essential handbook for ELT teachers who want to take their teaching to the next level, beyond best practice. Over two hundred 60-second essays on all aspects of teaching will help you to become the best teacher you can be. The book covers topics not included in other methodology books such as two new approaches to reading (the Dual Text and Deep Text approaches), opportunity cost, the competence model, being professional and avoiding burnout. It is for all English language teachers teaching adults and older teens, both newly qualified and experienced teachers alike.

Teaching English: Being the Best is available from: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de etc.


Military English Tactical and Peacekeeping Operations is a new pre-deployment course for Army personnel who are to be sent on multinational peace support operations or on training courses in an English language speaking country, or are to be trained by English-speaking instructors.

An Intermediate/ B1 /STANAG 2 Level course.

There are four components to the course:

1: A Coursebook with 200 lesson-units, providing over 200 hours of study materials including vocabulary learning tasks, reading and listening tasks, briefings, role plays and other speaking tasks.

2: A Workbook, which includes a grammar reference and study pages, peacekeeping reading tasks, writing tasks, abbreviations and acronym study pages, patrol report forms etc., consolidation tasks, a mini dictionary, key vocabulary pages, key tactical verbs, and more.

3: A Teacher’s Book with full instructions on teaching the course, and coursebook and workbook task keys.

4: Electronic Resources: over 800 colour pictures and maps, over 55 PowerPoint Presentations and audio files, and audio transcripts for use on phones, tablets or computers. These can be freely downloaded and shared with all students.

Read more…



Military English Army Key Words is book of key word lists and glossaries, extracted from a corpus of US Army Field Manuals.

The topics covered are:

The Soldier’s Guide | Operations | The Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad | the Brigade Combat Team | Theater Army, Corps, and Division Operations | Pathfinder Operations | Reconnaissance & Security Operations | Rangers | Scouts | Army Aviation | Airborne Operations | Engineer Operations | Fire Support Operations | Ordnance Operations | Quartermaster Operations | Civil Affairs Operations | Civil Disturbance Operations | Counter Insurgency | Multinational Operations | Peace Operations | Tactical Radio Operations | Land Navigation | Terrain Analysis | Desert Operations | Jungle Operations | Mountain Operations | Survival | Tactical Combat Casualty Care

You can read more about the book and corpus here.

Military English Army Key Words is available from Amazon: Military English Army Key Words


Understanding English: An Introduction to the Associative Model

The Associative Model of English is a way of understanding the process of how we use English at the time of articulation (when we speak-hear) or when we read. It is a linear dependency relation model of language. By using the ideas in this short introduction to the Associative Model you will deepen your understanding of how English is used. You will also be able to effectively diagram sentences (and texts) to show the associations between words and how they ‘work’ as meaning units.

Understanding English is available from Amazon: Understanding English: An Introduction to the Associative Model


Free Books to Download


Military English Aide-Memoire for Teachers of Army Personnel

A .pdf file aide-memoire (A6 size) to help you with key army English vocabulary. Print it out, laminate it and keep it handy.


The Rough and Ready Guide to Teaching English Online in a Time of Coronavirus

This is a short introduction to teaching online for teachers of English.

There are four parts:

1. Key Terms And Concepts

[1. VLE 2. LMS 3. Synchronous Learning 4. Asynchronous Learning 5. The Learning-enabling Ecosystem 6. Replacement or augmentation? 7. The platform solution or a collection of tools? 8. The full environment: don’t forget the humble pencil 9. Learning happens in the mind 10. Being there is not really being there 11. Interaction and engagement 12. Time considerations and costs and benefits 13. Learning how to learn 14. Learning the group 15. Teaching-learning not testing-learning 16. What is (are) our goal(s)? 17. Demonstrations, Performance and Competencies 18. Differentiated learning]

2. Learning Tasks: What Can We Do Online?

3. Pulling It All Together

4. Conclusions And Moving Forward


A Brief Guide to Text Analysis and Corpus Linguistics

The Guide explores text analysis and useful tools, then introduces you to corpus linguistics and shows you how to build a micro-corpus and do things like produce a key word list.

Keywords

Text Grammar Topic Comment Information Key Word Lexis Corpus Construction Ethics Collocations

Click here to access the Guide. It is formatted as an A5 .pdf file so you can print two pages on one page of A4.