Interview with Marianna Pascal, author of Say it Better in English: 
Useful Phrases for Work & Everyday Life
Editor: How do you suggest people improve their English if they're studying on their own (without a class or teacher)?
Pascal: One great way to improve English conversation skills is to join some kind of group that uses English. For example, several of my students have joined a volunteer group that visits orphanages. Another student started a women’s Mah Jong group. She taught the others to play and they always talk while playing.
Another great way is to use a book to study on your own. Make sure the book really helps you to practice English and not just read about English. If the book has too many explanations, you will end up thinking about English, but not speaking English.
Editor: Your new book, Say it Better in English, features over 300 American English expressions. How did you select these expressions?
Pascal: For many years, during thousands of hours of lessons I kept a record of the language that learners needed but were unable to produce. I discovered that the same collocations appeared over and over in my records. I simply compiled a list of the most common ones.
Editor: How does Say it Better in English differ from other ESL books?
Pascal: Say It Better in English is completely different from all other books for one reason: cartoons. Cartoons teach the meaning of the new language; cartoon show how and when to use it; cartoons tell a story; and cartoons make learning simple, clear and fun.
Editor: Can Say it Better in English also be used in the classroom? If so, how would you suggest using it?
Pascal: Teachers are using Say It Better in English to supplement their course books. Teachers select pages that are relevant to their lessons. Some use them as an opener to the topic being taught. Others have students make role-plays incorporating the target language. Others award points to students who use the phrases during the class. One teacher photocopies pages and hangs them on the classroom walls.
Editor: You have 15 years of experience as an ESL teacher. What advice can you give new ESL teachers just entering the field?
Pascal: Make every moment of your class mentally active for the learners. In other words, aim to make sure that at every moment all learners are either solving, planning, guessing, figuring out, learning or teaching something. The key to teaching ESL well is to elicit, elicit, elicit.
