Teaching English 6: Side by Side

I don't know if Side by Side is as widely used as it once was.  Back when I was teaching in Taichung 台中, Side by Side was everywhere.

A lot of people complain about Side by Side.  They say it's boring.  I would not argue this point.  It is boring, but only if you study it all the time.

I've found that for students I only see once a week, this book works pretty well.  The sentence patterns are used with enough frequency for students to get a firm grasp on the grammar used, and new vocabulary is introduced very slowly.

Of course, Side by Side is not perfect.  The stories at the end of each chapter tend to be a little complicated, and some of the words included in these stories can be a bit strange.  I've found that I usually need to simplify the stories by typing them again, and by inserting these typed stories into whatever pages I have co**ed from the book.

Not that I would ever copy pages from a textbook.  That would be copyright infringement.  And that would be wrong.

At the end of each chapter there are more complicated articles, relating to the subject of each chapter.  These articles are usually WAY beyond the English level of whatever student I am teaching, so I tend to skip them.

I would recommend Side by Side if you have younger students that can read well.  Kids that are very intimidated by a lot of text will be put off by this book.  I've used it for years, and I have found that after completing the first Side by Side book, students can easily jump up to something like English Firsthand, which is much more interesting.

Side by Side might be boring, but I have found it very useful.