New Headway Int New Edition Mini Review

New Headway Intermediate (New Edition) - Student’s Book

The Headway books have been around for ever, but every time I start drifting towards a new favourite they polish them up and I go back to them all over again. The thing that was starting to turn me against them this time is how Anglocentric they can be (which was made worse rather than better going from ‘old’ Headway to New Headway), and that is exactly what they have dealt with in the new edition. I’ve always liked the fact that the books have lots of material and that each part (e.g. one reading) gives a good ‘chunk’ of material that covers most of a class, but it did mean that it was difficult to use the old edition was difficult to adapt to certain lengths of class- so this edition should be more flexible. This new edition also seems to be graded down slightly, as the Headway books have always been more suitable for the top end of each level.

The methodology of the books is nothing exciting (even the suggestions in the teacher’s book), but you will be familiar with all the techniques you need to understand what is going on and teach the lessons if you paid attention during your initial teaching certificate (e.g. CELTA). Using those simple techniques, John and Liz Soars produce whole books with not a single thing that can bomb in the classroom- and that is achievement enough if you compare that to other books on the market.