HOME > Sales of English textbooks > Differences between EFL & ESL

ESL (English as a Second Language) teaches students to FUNCTION within the community they are currently living in. For example, ESL books may have a unit on going to the bank, talking to the teller there and how to write a check.

But EFL (English as a Foreign Language) books do not have that because it is assumed that the students do not live in an English speaking environment and do not need to go to the bank or write a check.

This is just one example. There are several TRAVEL ENGLISH units in Talk a Lot, which teach students to do things they would normally do when traveling to an English speaking country (not living in it). Some of the things taught are bargaining for something, exchanging money at a money exchange, giving and asking for directions, checking into a hotel, etc.

Also, ESL books are normally written for MULTILINGUAL classes where students are from many different countries and have many different problems with pronunciation, grammar, etc. So Japanese students will end up studying something that they may not have a problem with.

For example, they may teach students to pronounce D versus T, but Japanese students do not have a problem with these phonemes. EFL Press’ books only focus on the problems which Japanese have, such as R and L.

The vocabulary was very carefully selected. Individual words and chunks that Japanese students are chronically unable to say in English were top priority. Vocabulary which may be new to beginners is listed in a unit by unit bilingual format at the end of the book.