Review of “Advanced ESOL: Bible Lessons to Improve English Pronunciation”

A book review of Advanced ESOL: Bible Lessons to Improve English Pronunciation (For College Undergraduate and Graduate Students) by Susan C. McMillan

By Mary Ellen Tierney

As the title suggests, this book is designed for college undergraduate, graduate students and visiting scholars. This book could also be used with intermediate and higher non-native English speakers of any background. While the author is American, other than spelling, the only lesson that really has an American bent is “Why We Give Thanks” which talks about American Thanksgiving.

The premise of the book, and one we can all attest to, is that international students “understand English often in order to be able to write papers but their pronunciation of English words and their conversational skills are lacking”. The book is designed to have students read aloud to a teacher who can then correct and instill confidence in the students to speak in other situations in their life. Confidence to use the English language is key to having students reproduce the language they have learned.

The ESL Bible Lessons are in a user-friendly format comprised of Scripture passages, a word and definition list, and a “Quiz” (content questions). There are also useful pronunciation tables at the back of the book. The lessons are a good Bible paraphrase with the Scripture references for each section, so the students can verify the story and read further themselves in a Bible. Sometimes, like in the Abraham Bible Study at the beginning of the book, the language used is not everyday language, such as the use of ‘shall’, but for the most part common language is employed.

If another edition of this book was published, it would be valuable to go beyond content questions to thought questions about the meaning of the text, what God wants to tell us and a discussion about how our lives intersect with the passage and its themes. I would encourage people to use this helpful book and add other questions as a springboard to further conversation.

One of my favorite lines is: “[The book] is designed so that teachers can make copies for face-to-face classes, or send electronic copies for virtual classes.” So helpful! Another asset is the word definitions in each lesson. It is always good to have simplified word definitions on hand.

This is an ESL Bible study book that is different, in that it is more thematically written, but aims to stay true to the Bible, which is a refreshing way to present God’s word to students. It concentrates on Jesus’ life and ministry, but has an Old Testament section as well as a separate section at the back of the book which has lessons on Eternal Life, Grace, Baptism and the Promises of God. There are unique and timely lessons like “Loving Others Who Are Not Like Us” and a lesson on God’s kind of love. The fulfilled prophecy lesson on Jesus’ birth is an innovative way to study the birth of Christ. It is also valuable to have a compiled lesson on the death and resurrection of Jesus, because it is difficult to cover the Bible passages themselves in a few weeks at Easter time. While the majority of the lessons are fairly straightforward, I did find that some of the Old Testament Studies get bogged down in details.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is teaching ESL Bible.