Frankly speaking, I �m not really keen on using "Speakout" as it looks like a typical academic book for me - the majority of activities are related to grammar, there are not many interesting listening or speaking tasks and reading texts are not as involving as in case of "New English File" or "New Headway". I teach lots of adults and I can �t imagine my lessons without those two courses. DVDs for "Headway" are brilliant indeed - you have lots of extra listening and reading activities, not to mention films and fantastic word banks with vocabulary for every listening and reading task ("iChecker" is for workbook and "iTutor" goes with student �s book). I �m talking about 4th edition of "Headway" of course. Both "Headway" and "New English File" offer numerous resources for teachers and students, a great variety of online exercises and other extras such as teacher �s notes etc. My students like working with these books - they often praise their attractive design, they particularly enjoy reading and listening tasks included in both courses. There are also lots of communication activities, role-plays, discussion sections or separate pages comprising "Practical English" (in "Headway"). I couldn �t choose which course is better, but I can tell you that - for me  - "Speakout" is far behind "NEF" and "NH". But that �s only my opinion and the final choice is yours :) Why not giving "Speakout" a try for a shorter period and then change it for some other resources if necessary?

Hi Slavchik,

 

I �ve also used all three (English File/New English File the least), but I much prefer SpeakOut and I am trying to switch all my students to that. It �s very attractively designed, it has lots of up-to-date material, good teacher resources, self-access exercises and video material. It is uneven in places and there are a number of minor mistakes in the first editions, but for me the material and exercises are much better for adult students.

 

In the end all three courses are good (you have three teachers here each preferring a different one!) and it depends very much on your own preferences and the interests of your students - and maybe budget too? 

 

Tap

Slavchik,

 

Let me give you my list (sorted according to my preferences)  

 

As you can see, I favor OUP,  Pearson comes next.

 

My preferences are based on my practical experience.

 

Pearson DOES have excellent courses but Oxford courses are better tailored to my taste.

 

Have in mind, I am not an English teacher/tutor at the moment, and my opinion is based on my past experiences.

 

Oh,

 

and it takes a good teacher to teach good English and not a good coursebook.

 

I could teach with a blank sheet of paper :)

 

All the best,

 

Giorgi 

mariethe,

 

Good morning :)

 

     

One more vote in favour of SpeakOut!

 

NEF is pretty tired here in Russia, since half of the adults I �m teaching now  already took the course at some previous language school or with a private teacher. There �s always the risk of "Oh, we �ve already covered that" attitude about it.

 

When I was doing my Celta course in June, Speakout was among the 4 books recommended. And it was the newest of them all. I had second thoughts about it, but at the moment I �m teaching 4 levels of SO - and the higher the level, the more interesting it gets! My pre-intermediate group has made great SPEAKING progress since the start of the school year thanks to it. And personally I �m in love with SO Advanced. You could read it just like fiction.