A good friend of mine, Marcos Benevides, is in the process of finishing up and launching a new coursebook with an interesting blend of "whodunit?" fiction and task-based learning.
I'm a big fan of Marcos, having used and admired his excellent Widgets coursebook (possibly one of the very first genuinely task-based approaches to English language learning put onto actual coursebook paper). Not only did Widgets actually work in my university practical English classes and the business English classes I was responsible for at a major Korean Heavy Industries company, it really inspired me in terms of things to think about in new coursebook approaches for teenagers and younger learners. Widgets was also launched at about the same time as my own Boost! series, at the same KOTESOL conference with the same publisher (Pearson Asia ELT) - so I got to meet Marcos, have a fun beer or two, and talk a lot about teaching English and making innovative coursebooks. He's definitely one of the nicer guys you'll meet in ELT - no bluster, no airs, really down-to-earth and friendly (and about 10 times smarter than I'll ever be!).
ANYWAY - Marcos has a new series coming out soon, as I mentioned, and he's come up with an interesting way to settle on a final name for it: he's going to ask teachers to decide!
Marcos has set up a very brief survey (I promise you - it takes less than a minute!) and I really hope you'll go over there and contribute your opinion to help Marcos come up with the best name for his new series.
:-)
