Tried and Tested TEFL Books

We may not have access to a computer lab or have internet access so we might have to use a more traditional means of preparing for our lessons:  books.  There are numerous high-quality TEFL resources out there so we thought we would introduce you to some of the publications we’ve found particularly useful. 

1    Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies 

For those thinking of a career in TEFL or taking a TEFL certificate

by Michelle Maxom   ISBN - 1119992281

A great introduction to TEFL!  The chapters give an overview of all the various aspects of teaching English.  It’s perfect for beginners in the field who need a summary of the essential basics of teaching, classroom management, English grammar and so on.  The author has presented the content in layman’s terms avoiding confusing jargon and so allowing someone new to TEFL to absorb the content in easy-to-follow passages.

2    The A – Z of English Grammar and Usage  

A great grammar reference book

by G. Leech, B. Cruickshank, and R. Ivanic   ISBN – 10: 0582405742

We can’t all remember every aspect of grammar in detail.  This is a fantastic book to have with you as a quick and easy way to brush up on that grammar point you’re going to teach.  It has an easy to use alphabetical guide to English grammar with examples and cartoons to help illustrate the grammar points.

3    700 Classroom Activities  

A compendium of engaging lesson activity ideas

by David Seymour and Maria Popova  - ISBN – 10: 1405080019.

This is an excellent book which many TEFL teachers take with them wherever they go.  The book literally has 700 classroom activities (most of which do not need any preparation before hand) so it is unlikely that you’ll teach a general English lesson where this book will not be of some use.

4    Reward:  Elementary – Upper-intermediate Resource Packs  

Printable tried-and-tested communicative lesson activities

by Sue Kay

A collection of resource packs to help supplement a course book you are studying or to help build a lesson of your own; particularly useful for communicative activities in your classes. 

5    English Grammar in Use (all levels)  

Student friendly grammar explanations and practice pages      

by Raymond Murphy

This series of books covers all English levels.  Again an excellent resource, particularly good for one-to-one lessons whereby you can open the book at any page and go through the very clear grammar explanations with your student before doing the activities on the opposite page – superb!

If you would like to recommend a TEFL resource, whether it be a book or online, then please contact us and we’ll add your reference to one of our articles or our TEFL FAQ page.

Remember that teflhub has a range of free materials from self-marking mobile friendly online exercises for your students to branded materials and activity ideas in our For Teachers section.