Lessons From Nothing (Activities for Language Teaching with Limited Time and Resources) by Bruce Marsland is an extremely practical book from the stable of Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers. In this high tech day & age it is refreshing to come across a book that describes itself as a ‘sourcebook of ELT exercises & activities which do not require extensive resources or facilities’. The book is designed with the ‘limited-resource situation’ in mind but all can apply to normal teaching situations. Don’t you get tired of photocopying stuff & seeing students bogged down with copies that they’ll never look at again?It is comforting to go into a lesson with material but a material-less activity can be more interesting & exploit the classroom situation & the learners in it. With this learner-centred philosophy in mind ‘Lessons From Nothing’ provides a wide range of activities.
This is a very practical book that shows teachers just starting out, as well as a reminder for the more experienced teacher, that a little imagination can go a long way. ‘Lessons From Nothing’ is highly recommended for initial training courses.