Spoken english workbooks and homework.

[absas]

Dear Lucy,
I am a new teacher who has moved to Pakistan from England.There are many students here who want me to help them with their spoken english.They want to improve their fluency,confidence and pronunciation.I have decided to teach 6-8 week courses.One and a half hours daily,5 days a week.
Please could you recommend a workbook with teachers notes that i could use in these classes.Also what kind of homework can i give them?I forgot to mention that i will be teaching at the pre-intermediate level.
I hope you can help me.Thank you for you time. Absas

[Lucy]

Dear Absas,

I have always liked Discussions A-Z Intermediate published by Cambridge University Press. It has lots of interesting topics for discussion; with follow up written activities and ideas and guidelines for the teacher. The only thing you need to add to it (in my opinion) is a bit of vocabulary work to give students the language they'll be using during the discussions.

I suggest you start by looking at that. I you think it's too difficult for you pre-intermediate students, you can adapt it. It you think it really is unsuitable, please write in again and I'll be happy to give you more ideas.

Best wishes,

Lucy