PART 3. SKILLS
3.I.
PRESENTATION OF ALL FOUR SKILLS
Enterprise’s aim is to provide the learners with extensive,
systematic and well-integrated practice in the productive and
receptive skills necessary for successful communication in both
oral and written forms of the language. Realizing this, it
doesn’t adopt any certain syllabus and method. Since there is no
skill on which the emphasis is put, it adopts a multi-syllabus
approach and a wide variety of presentation methodology. When
taking the aim of the course book into consideration we can
state that it deals adequately with all four skills. Even from
the first units, the practice in all skills isn’t neglected.
Although speaking and listening skills work seems to be a bit
more, a suitable balance between the skills is achieved through
relating these two skills work to the other skills work as in
the activity of unit 2 in Student’s Book 1. In this activity the
four skills are integrated. Firstly the students are expected to
read a dialogue which has some blank parts and then they listen
to the dialogue from the cassette and try to fill in the
dialogue. Finally they act out the dialogue in pairs by changing
some parts to fit in order to relate the dialogue to themselves.
In short, as explained before, all four skills’ practices are
given mostþy in an integrated way in Enterprise and by this way
the balance between four skills are achieved.
There is a connection between language items and skills
work. In other words, as the grammar element in the course
progresses and vocabulary becomes more extensive, the quality
and quantity of skills work changes. For example, dialogue work
becomes more complex, moving away from the simple
question-and-answer sequences. Even in the Student’s Book, the
complexity of dialogue work changes: While the dialogue and the
related exercises in unit 1 are very simple and short, the one
and its related exercises in unit 15 is more difficult and
longer.Listening passages become longer and complex in later
units. Likewise, reading texts become longer and the discourse
structure more complex. The reading text in unit 3 and the one
in unit 12 of Student’s Book is quite different in terms of
complexity and difficulty. Accordingly, while the comprehension
questions in the Student’s Book only check understanding of
simple facts the first units, as the course progress they become
to require from students to infer meaning, or to extract certain
relevant information like the ones in unit 15. With these
questions the students are asked to infer mening. But with the
questions of unit 2, the students are just asked to understand
simple facts. (See Appendix XXXI)
The course book provides authentic or semi-authentic materials
and uses these materials at an appropriate level. For example,
at the beginning of the Student’s Book, in unit 1, the topic
deals with what people say when they meet. (See Appendix XXXII).
The dialogues and reading passeges in the course book reflect
ral life situation. Accordingly, the examples of language
presented or practýsed are good examples of language purposes
and representative of real life language use. For example, the
dialogue in unit 1 of Student’s Book takes place in a party and
is good example of rel life language use. (See Appendix XXXIII)
3.I.I. Listening
Enterprise contains cassettes as listening materials. In the
four levels of it, the listening activity is organized in two
different ways. Firstly, listening is seen as a part of general
oral work and it plays a secondary role compared with speaking.
In other words, listening forms part of a dialogue work. After
listening the dialogue, the students are expected to act it out
as in the 17th activity of unit 1 in Student’s Book 1
(See Appendix XXXIV). The course book provides this kind of
dialogues in order to help the learners to cope with the
unpredictability of the answer or response in a conversation. As
it is known, it is very difficult for learners to take part in a
conversation. That’s why these listening activities encourages
the learners to develop strategies to cope with a conversation.
Enterprise gives these dialogues in a controlled and graded way.
For example, while the dialogue in unit 1 of Student’s Book 1 is
simple and short in term pf language items and vocabulary, in
later units they become longer and more difficult like the one
in unit 12 of Student’s Book 1.
Secondly, Enterprise also handle with listening in its own
right. That’s, there are also specific listening passages. At
that point, these passages are used for different purposes and
accordingly different kinds of activities are based on them. For
example, the activity which is based on listening passage in the
6th activity of unit 14 of Student’s Book 1 is to
extract a specific in formation. (See Appendix XXXV) Here, the
students are only expected to find out a specific information
after listening to a passage. Mostly, these activities are
organised in conjunction with a reading text. The reading texts
included in the course book are generally recorded. And that’s
why the listening and reading work is mixture as in the 19th
activity of Student’s Book 1. In this activity, the students
firstly asked to read a passage which isn’t completed. Then,
they are asked to listen to the text from the cassette and
complete it. So, this kind of activity is done for the sentences
which have gaps. The students get these missing parts by
listening to the sentences from the cassette like the 21st
exercise of unit 11 in Student’s Book 1. For True-False
sentences, as ýn the ‘d’ activity of unit 11 of Student’s Book
1, The learner come to a decision after listening them from a
cassette. (See Appendix XXXVI)
Before the listening work, there are pre-listening tasks which
focus learners’ attention on the topic of the passage. These
tasks are quite different and organised according to the
purposes of the activity. These are generally either
pre-questions or asking learners to look for certain items of
information contained in the listening material. In the 2nd
activity of unit 13 of Student’s Book 1, The students are asked
to find out certain items. (See Appendix XXXVII). Similarly, in
the 17th activity of unit 10 of Student’s Book 1,
some questions are asked before the listening activity. Students
firstly read the questions and then start listening to this
text. In other words, these pre-tasks give a purpose to the
activity, allows an element of prediction and makes the passage
more accesible by placing in a context.
Besides these pre-tasks, there are also many kinds of
post-listening tasks in the course book. One of these is asking
questions after the listening activity. This makes the students
to pay attention to the text as a whole. In the 16th
activity of unit 15 of Student’s Book 1, students are asked some
questions only after they heve listened to the passage.
The sound quality of the recorded materials on audio cassette is
quite high enough for every student in the class to hear easily.
The speed of speking is appropriate to the learners’ ability and
level. The speaking is at different speeds throughout the
course. While it is low at the beginning, it becomes faster and
more complex as the course progresses. At the same time,
different accents are used. A very good example of this is the
listening activity of the Episode 1. In this passage, because
the aliens are pretended to be speaking, the voices of speakers
are like the voices of robots. Accordingly, it can be said that
the listening materials are designed as in the real life. They
are well-recorded and as authentic as possible with background
information, questions, and activities which help comprehension.
3.I.II. Speaking
The spoken language is the most important
part of language teaching. To make learners successful
communicators is what many courses want to do. Likewise,
although it doesn’t treat speaking as a separate skill in the
same way as listening, reading, and writing. Enterprise’s
activities put much emphasis on spoken language. It provides
many different activities in order to develop students’ speaking
skills. The communication sections in the course book give
varied practice involving meaningful exchanges which is like
real-life communication and include language functions, the
standard expressions associated with communicative situations
and sociolinguistic features such as the polite expressions
appropriate to formal or informal social contexts. These
sections generally consist of many types of speaking materials.
One of these materials is the oral presentation, and practice of
new language items. In the 6th activity of unit 6 in
Student’s Book 1, the students are firstly wanted to listen to
the new language items from the cassette and then repeat them
(See Appendix XXXVIII). As it is seen, these kinds of materials
make students to become acquainted with the spoken form of the
items they have just met. Similarly, in pronunciation practice
students are provided with good spoken models and they are
expected to imitate these models like the 19th
activity of unit 9 in Student’s Book 1 (See Appendix XXXIX). In
that activity, listening to the words that have nearly the same
pronunciation.
The second speaking material is the dialogue
work. There are many dialogues especially in the Student’s Book
1 on which many different types of dialogue works are organised.
For instance, the 18th activity of unit 1 in
Student’s Book 1 wants students to put the sentences of a mixed
dialogue into the correct order and then act it out. Likewise,
in the 27th activity of unit 4 in Student’s Book 1,
students are asked to read the dialogues which have missing
parts and then listen to it from the cassette and then fill in
the blanks and act it out. (See Appendix XL). This activity
proves again that, Enterprise focuses on the integration of all
four skills.
Role-play is another speaking material that
the course book includes in many units. Generally role-play
activities are in connection with the dialogue, the students are
given some certain roles and by changing some parts of the
dialogue they are expected to act it out. In other words, they
relate the dialogue to their real life and make some changes in
it and then act it out as in the 17th activity of
unit 8 in Student’s Book 1. In that activity, one student is
given the role of client and the other is given the role of
salesman and they are expected to play their roles.
There are some other speaking activities in
connection with the reading passages. While in some activities
the students are just wanted to talk about information in the
text like 4th activity of unit 4 in Student’s Book 1,
there are also some which want students to relate the subject to
themselves and talk about it. For example, in the 13th
activity of unit 13 in Student’s Book 1, after reading a text
about horoscopes, the students are asked to talk about their
star signs. In intermediate levels, many activities of this kind
are contained. Also, in that level, there are specific
strategies for conversation or other spoken activities. For
example; in some speaking sections, many patterns that are very
necessary to use in debating or giving a talk are taught and
students are led to use them in their talks.
In order to help learners to cope with
unpredictability in spoken discourse, the course book consists
of practice materials. Short dialogue is the most important one.
At that point, students are generally wanted to play the
dialogue in front of the class, by closing their books. They are
led to memorise the useful patterns that help them to go on a
conversation.
In short; it can be said that the materials
for spoken language in Enterprise are well designed enough to
support learners for real life interaction. If they are
exploited in the best way, they will build students’ ability to
communicate successfully in English.
3.I.III. Reading
Reading is the most common way of making
students to become acquainted with foreign language items.
Because of it is the activity that can be done easily by the
students at any time. In order to provide this activity,
Enterprise includes reading passages even at the beginner level.
The reading texts start to appear in the first units of
Student’s Book 1 and last till the end of the course. While the
number of these texts is low in Student’s Book 1, it becomes
higher in Student’s Book 3 and Student’s Book 4. There are at
least two reading passages in most units of Enterprise. But,
while these reading texts are very short and simple in Student’s
Book 1, they become quite longer and more complex as the course
progresses. For example, the reading text of unit 8 in Student’s
Book 1, is short and simple in terms of language items and
vocabulary when compared with the one in unit 10 of Student’s
Book 4. This shows that the Enterprise’s reading texts are
challenging. Because of the difficulty level of them increases
and the students spend more effort to deal with the new texts.
Also, our observation of the class brings us this conclusion
that the subject matter of the texts are quite appropriate for
the students. The topics chosen are very interesting and varied
like the topics of the reading text in unit 13 of Student’s Book
1. They are also up to date like the one in unit 10 of Student’s
Book 1, which tells you about “Princess Diana”. (See Appendix
XLI). But it can’t be stated that all texts are culturally
acceptable for learners. Because the course book is intended to
be for general learners there are texts that don’t have any
connection with learners’ culture. However, as in the example of
the text in unit 10 in Student’s Book 1 which tells about
“Princess Diana’s life”, texts are as authentic as possible both
in terms of content and language level.
In Enterprise, the reading texts are used for
different purposes. One of which is presenting and recycling
grammar items. At that point, reading texts are very important
for teaching the language items. For example, with the reading
text in unit 11 of Student’s Book 1, the main aim is to present
the form of simple past tense. After reading this text, the
learners are expected to induce the rules of simple past tense.
This grammar item is presented again in some texts of the later
levels of Enterprise. This shows that the reading texts are also
used for recycling grammar items.
Another purpose for which the texts are used
is presenting new vocabulary and extending it. There are a lot
of texts of this kind like the two ones in unit 3 of Student’s
book 1. In these texts, the words that will be taught are given
in bold and after reading them the students are asked to explain
their meaning. A different type of vocabulary teaching exercises
linked to reading the text. For example, in unit 8 of Student’s
Book 1, the words are taught at first and then students start
reading the text. In some vocabulary teaching exercises linked
to reading, the students are asked either to use new vocabulary
from the reading text in different context, or to look for
synonyms and opposites of words given in the exercise.
The third purpose of reading texts in
Enterprise is stimulating oral work. Throughout all the levels
of course book, after every reading text the speaking activity
takes place. Mostly, the reading activities supply oral work
like the one in unit 9 of Student’s Book 1. Beside the speaking
skill work, reading is also linked to other skills work. In
every units, there are reading and listening sections and in
these sections, the reading texts are recorded on cassette and
students are asked to listen as they read, like the 7th
activity in unit 5 of Student’s Book 1. (See Appendix XLII) By
this way, the students are able to link written English to its
pronunciation and have models for stress and intonation. At the
same time, as it was explained earlier, reading is linked to
writing work in the course book. At that point, the reading
texts are generally used as models for written work in Student’s
Book 2, as in the activity in unit 5 of Student’s Book 1. After
reading a text, the students are asked to write a text similar
to the one they have just read. Similarly, in many activities,
they are asked to write something based on the model, but using
different information or giving information in a different form
as in the activity of unit 15 of Student’s Book 1. But at
intermediate and upper-intermediate levels, the course book
includes more demanding tasks to link reading with reading such
as summarising and note-taking which require both selective
processing of the written text and expressing the information
selected in different format and style.
Enterprise includes different types of texts,
some examples of which are letters, advertisements, travel
guides, transcripts of interviews, information leaflets,
extracts from magazine stories, instructions, recipes etc. As
the course progresses, the course book includes more text types.
Accordingly, in Student’s Book 1 and Student’s Book 2, the ones,
which are structurally simple, are used more. For example,
Student’s Book 1 consists of many short letters like the ones in
unit 7 and advertisements like the ones in unit 3. Likewise, the
Student’s Book 4 consists of information leaflets and extracts
from magazine stories.
There are both gapped, like the unit 10 of
Student’s Book 1, And complete, like the one in unit 5 of
Student’s Book 1, texts in Enterprise. As it is checked it can
be said that the complete ones are more than the gapped ones.
The gapped ones require students to supply the missing words
like the one in unit 10 of Student’s Book 1. This kind of texts
are at a lower level of difficulty in terms of language content,
density of information, especially at the beginner level, so
that students can perform the task.
In Enterprise, the lead-in sections taking
place before the reading activity provide some activities, which
help comprehension. While there are pre-reading questions in
many units as in the unit 5 of Student’s Book 1, the course book
provides background information which help comprehension in some
units as in the unit 4 of Student’s Book 1. At the same time, in
lead-in sections of some units there are pictures relating to
the reading text and setting the scene like the ones in unit 9
of Student’s Book 1.
The exercises and activities which are linked to the reading
texts help learners to read with understanding and enjoyment.
Enterprise includes many varied activities. The first common one
is pre-reading questions which was explained earlier. As in the
activity of unit 8 of Student’s Book 1, students are focused on
a piece of information, in other words, knowing what they look
for, students have a purpose in reading . Another activity
that’s linked to the reading texts is post-reading comprehension
questions. In unit 6 of Student’s Book 1, there is an example of
it which requires students to pay attention to every place of
information in the text. The course book also contains exercises
for extracting specific information from texts. For example, the
reading activity of unit 1 of Student’s Book 1, requires
students to get some pieces of information from the texts (See
Appendix XLIII). Likewise, in the activity of unit 8 of
Student’s Book 2, students are asked to complete a table after
reading the text (See Appendix XLIV). Pre-teaching of unknown
vocabulary items is another activity that’s linked to the
reading passages in Enterprise. As it is seen through these
activities, students are encouraged to acquire and develop good
reading strategies. For example, the pre-reading questions in
the course book help students to develop prediction techniques
and skim-readings.
As stated above, the comprehension
questions are the most important activities that accompany the
reading texts in the course book. But these questions vary in
the degree of understanding of the text that required. For
example, the questions in the reading activity of unit 2 of
Student’s Book 1 require surface understanding. But the ones of
the reading activity of unit 15 in Student’s Book 1 require
processing of the reading of the text at a deeper level. So that
information contained in different parts of the text is
identified and combined to give a complete answer. However, the
questions of the reading activity of unit 11 of Student’s Book 2
require students to bring information that’s not contained in
the text, but is essential for interpreting its content.
The last point that also must be stated is
that Enterprise puts emphasis on reading for pleasure. This can
be understood from the subject matters of the reading texts. The
contents of the reading texts motivate students to read for
pleasure.
3.I.IV.Writing
Writing activities, like other skill
activities, also gain importance throughout all the levels of
Enterprise. There are at least two writing sections in each
unit, which provide more extensive practice and consolidation of
new language items.
Enterprise gives different kinds of writing
as the course progresses. At the beginning, it aims to teach
writing at sentence level as in writing activity of unit 1 in
Student’s Book 1. Here, students are just wanted to make up
sentences. After students are exposed to some short written
materials, the course book starts using different types of
writing activity. While in Student’s Book 1 and Student’s Book 2
the controlled and guided writing types are common, at later
levels free and semi-free writing types also start to appear. In
controlled and guided activities, a writing model is given to
students and the tasks are all related to this model. The course
book’s model-related tasks are generally varied and include
writing factual accounts such as writing formal and informal
letters, filling in forms, filling in grids, writing notes to
others, making lists, writing a diary etc. At that point,
Enterprise gives good examples of controlled and guided writing
tasks. For example, the writing activity of unit 2 of Student’s
Book 1 requires students to complete a writing material (See
Appendix XLV). Similarly, the writing activity of unit 4 of
Student’s Book 1 wants students to write a letter using the
related materials as a model.
As it was explained before, free
writing activities are common in later levels. In these
activities, students aren’t strictly dependent on a writing
material. For instance, instance, in one of the writing activity
of Student’s Book 4, the students are asked to write about a
subject, which will be sent to a newspaper. As it’s seen, there
is appropriate progress and variety of tasks throughout all the
levels of the course book.
Enterprise also tries to teach the
conventions of different sorts of writing. For that reason, it
represents nearly all sorts of writing. For instance, even in
the Student’s Book 1, there are a lot of examples of them. It
includes letters, advertisements, diaries etc.
Finally, there is a point that makes
the writing activities like real-life and serious. A readership
is benefited for writing activities as in the activity of unit
13 of Student’s Book 1. This also makes the writing activities
more enjoyable and easier.
PART 4. TOPIC
4.I. Topic
In the course book, there are non-linguistic
aspects besides linguistic aspects. One of these non-linguistic
aspects is the topic included in the course book. This aspect is
very important in language learning. The language course books
are not enough as an aid because learners need to learn how to
use the language in real situations for purposes. So as to
mention in the book of Alan Cunningsworth, “A Division Of
Heinemann” “Course books must and do present language as it is
actually used and therefore they contain subject matter and deal
with topics of various kinds.”
A good course book should have both
situational and linguistic realism and it should provide
situations where language is used for real and genuine
communication.
4.I.I.
Effects of the topic to expand learner’s awareness
All the learners have a private life besides the language
classroom. In their private lives they have many different
experiences. Also all learners have different skills and they
have different cognitive abilities. Learners have different ways
of learning. For example, some learners may learn better when
visual materials are used but others may learn better audio
materials are used. Learners bring all these attitudes, skills
and experiences to the class and they use them in the process of
learning the target language. As mentioned in the book of Alan
Cunningsworth, “A Division Of Heinemann” “Language learning as a
process will relate to and engage these attributes so that the
learning process is enriched and made more meaningful.” So
course books should provide opportunities for expanding
students’ experiences in general as well as in language
learning.
In unit 1 of student’s book 1 there
is a listening part about countries and there are pictures which
show the national clothes of these countries. This exercise may
attract the students who are curious to learn about different
countries and their life styles. Exercise 8, is also related to
this part. Here, the aim is to teach the capital cities and some
commonly used names of different countries. This exercise will
also enrich the learners’ knowledge about different countries.
Because most of them meet foreigners in their private life and
their experiences about this will motivate them to do this
exercise.
In second unit (pg.12) there is a
reading passage, which is about Internet advertisements (See
Appendix XLVI). Nowadays the number of Internet users is
increasing day by day. Everybody is able to find whatever he /
she wants, by the help of the Internet. So, probably most of the
learners, who will be reading this passage, will be Internet
users and this topic will take their attention.
In this exercise there are Internet
advertisements who are looking for penfriends. This may give the
idea of finding a penfriend. So, it is a very useful way of
enriching learners’ awareness. They will learn a different usage
of Internet and maybe they will have penfriends, by this way
they will have the chance to send and receive letters in target
language.
There are authentic examples, reading
passages and pictures which do not contrast with students’ own
experiences and private lives. The topics of the reading
sections are familiar to the learners. Because of this, without
getting bored, they both learn the target language and also they
enjoy learning.
For example, at the beginning of the
unit 4 of student’s book 1 (pg.26), there is a family picture,
which includes all the members of a family (See Appendix XLVII).
This picture will seem familiar to all the learners and the
following letter, which comes after the picture will affect the
learners. Such kind of a topic will relate to learners’
experiences and their private lives because all of them have
families. When real topics are included in the book, it will be
more effective. This book generally includes real topics.
Learners will understand better if
they know or they like the topic because if the topic attracts
them they will be keen on learning something about it. The
topics of this book may take the attention of the students. For
example, there is a reading passage about “Princess Diana” in
Student’s Book 1 (pg.71) and there are questions in the
following part. When learners read this passage, most of them
will remember Diana’s life and her tragic death. Because in
every country her life was on TV, when she died in an accident
in 1997. This will also relate to students’ experiences and they
will not get bored.
4.I.II.
Comprehensibility of the social and cultural context of the
course book
Social
and cultural values have important place in course book. In a
good course book the materials are chosen from the social and
cultural contexts that are comprehensible and recognisable to
the learners. The learners should understand the social and
cultural context, otherwise they won’t understand the language.
If they find a relation between their own social values and the
values given in the book, it will be easier for them to
understand the course book. Because by this way they will be
keen on reading the course book.
In this book, generally the subjects are
taken from England’s social life. The reading passages are
generally about the people who are living in England. If we
consider that Turkish learners consider this book in Turkey,
this may have a negative effect.
For example, there is a reading passage,
which is about Backstreet Boys, a group of pop singers on page
74 of Student’s Book 1, some of the learners may recognise them,
but instead of using such an example from a foreign country,
using an example from the learner’s own country would be more
effective.
Also on page 73 of Student’s Book 3, there is
a writing section, which is not familiar to Turkish students
culture. In this exercise there are some pictures of famous
places in England. Students are expected to fill in the blanks
after listening the information about the places.
In most of the exercises, it is
possible to see that the question both measures the skill it
wants to measure and also it gives some different information
about England’s social life. For example, in the true-false
questions in page 85 of Student’s Book 1, the aim of the
question is to test the knowledge of the comparisons. In order
to do this students are given information about two cities of
England. This is useful for students but it would be better to
give some examples from their own country.
In a good course book, there should be
prominence to men and women. The course book shouldn’t neglect
women while giving importance to men or vice versa. In this
book, it is observed that there is a balance between the number
of men and women characters. There are some reading passages,
which are about “Princess Diana”. In these passages learners are
given information about their private lives. This may effect
learners. Because these stories are real and also the characters
of the stories are real. So knowing this, learners will pay more
attention to the topic. Because they’re, all, authentic.
In this book, letters are used often.
For example, in page 105, there is a letter written by a boy,
named Jack, to his friend. The readers learn about both Egypt
and Jack’s feelings about this country.
4.I.III.
Appropriateness of the topic to the learners’ interests
It is a common fact that when the learners enjoy the lesson,
they’ll pay more attention to it and they will be keen and
learning. It is same for the language lessons. So the teachers
should do the best to make the students enjoy the lessons also
the course book should be appropriate to learners’ interests.
The course book should motivate learners to learn, otherwise the
lessons will be boring.
It is observed that in this book the topics
are chosen appropriate to both learners’ levels and interests.
For example in unit 7 of Student’s Book 1, there are greeting
cards written by teenagers to their relatives for the
celebration of Christmas. If it’s considered that secondary
school students will use this book, these greeting cards will be
appropriate to their interests. Because in these ages children
enjoy sending and receiving this kind of cards. So, they’ll be
keen on learning the writing formats of these cards.
In this book, all of the reading
passages are supported with pictures. There are pictures of the
places or the characters that take place in the text. This makes
text realistic. Learners have the chance to see the images of
the characters they read about so, they enjoy reading about
them.
4.II.
Methodology
4.II.I.
Learners’ needs
In
language teaching, the needs of the learners are very important.
Before starting the course, “Needs Analysis” is one of the main
things to be done. Because the teachers should learn about the
needs of the learners and then should chose the materials
according to their needs. The needs of the learners may differ;
some may need to make practice in communication or some may need
to learn vocabulary etc.
Course books are the main materials of the
courses. So, the same thing can be said for the course book.
Course books should consider the needs of the learners in order
to be useful for them.
At the beginning of the course books
and the teachers’ books the needs of the students should be
mentioned and the book should be prepared according to their
needs. In this book it is mentioned neither in the course book
nor in the teacher’s book. The teacher’s book only mentions
about the goals and objectives.
In this book, a multi-syllabus approach is
used. There is a balance between the systematic learning of
grammar, vocabulary and practice in communicative language use.
4.II.II.
Principles and Approaches
4.II.II.I. Language learning approaches of
the course book
There is an emphasis on the
development of linguistic sub-skills and on the details of
spelling and pronunciation. There are approximately five
different listening sections in each unit. They all help
learners to recognise sounds and reproduce them correctly.
The course book doesn’t cover its
guiding principles clearly. In teacher’s book, there is not
emphasis on the techniques and principles used in the course
book. Also the needs of the students are neglected in teacher’s
book.
The book encourages an inductive method.
Firstly, the examples are given and expected to find out the
grammar rule, when necessary information about the grammar
subject takes place. For example, in the 8th activity
of unit 4 of Student’s Book 1, the grammar subject is
“possessive pronouns” (See Appendix XLVIII). There are some
examples, which include possessive pronouns (See Appendix XLIX).
In this activity students tries to find the correct one. By this
way the student becomes familiar to the subject and fins out the
rule on her own.
Also, in unit 7 of Student’s Book 1,
there are three letters. (pg.49). In these letters, mostly the
present continuous tense is used. On the next page (pg.48) there
are matching exercises in 3rd, 4th and 5th
activities. All the sentences in these three exercises are
formed with present continuous tense (See Appendix L). By this
way the students become familiar to this tense. On the following
page there are three different letters. In these letters mostly
the present continuous tense is used. Then the rule is given on
page 50. But still there are blanks in the information and the
students are expected to fill in the blanks as she/he learned
from the examples given before (See Appendix LI).
Sometimes students listen to
dialogues from cassettes and they do exercises according to
these dialogues (See Appendix LII). These listening sections are
very often used to make the students familiar to the new grammar
items. For example, in 6th activity of Student’s Book
3, there is a listening part. In this activity, the aim is to
teach “making suggestions”. Two people are talking to each other
and they suggest different things to each other (See Appendix
LIII). Students answer the questions about the dialogues and
then they are given a short information about giving advice and
making recommendation.
In this book, the emphasis is on
communication. A communicative approach is used. The
communication sections provide varied practice involving
meaningful exchanges, which resemble real life communication and
include language functions and the standard expressions
associated with communicative expressions appropriate to formal
and informal social contexts.
The communication sections involve
authentic examples. There is a listening section on page 22. In
activity 17 of Student’s Book 1, students learn how to tell an
address and telephone number. It will be useful for them in
their private lives. Especially for Turkish students it will be
useful to see the difference in giving the telephone number
because in English and Turkish it is told differently.
4.II.II.II.
The way the skills are taught
In language teaching, four skills
that are reading, writing, speaking, and listening are very
important. All of them have different functions in the period of
learning a new language. It is better to explain them one by
one.
There are two different ways of teaching
skills. In one way, the skills are taught separately. It means,
the emphasis is only on one skill. For example, there may be a
topic in the course book and the teacher wants students to write
an essay about this topic. There are many examples for this in
the course book. For instance, on page 51 of Student’s Book 1,
in the writing activity, the students are expected to write a
paragraph about the different seasons in their country. Here,
the aim is to test students’ writing skills only. In another
example on page17 of Student’s Book 3, students listen to a
dialogue and put a tick in blanks according to the dialogue.
Also, there is another example on page 66 of Student’s Book 1.
There is a listening part. Here, students listen to the two men
talking about themselves and they fill in the blanks in the
table given. The aim of this exercise is testing students’
reading skills.
As another way of teaching skills, an
integrated way of teaching. It means that two or more skills are
taught or tested together. There are many examples for
integrated way of teaching skills in the first exercise of
Student’s Book 1 (pg.80) This includes two skills; the reading
and listening. Firstly, the students read a story and then they
listen to some explanations and answer the questions about the
text. Also, on page 87 of Student’s Book 1, there is a similar
kind of exercise. There is a reading passage but there are some
blanks in the passage. Firstly, the students read the passage
and then listen to the full text and fill in the blanks.
In
fact, the best way is to use the skills both in an isolated way
and in an integrated way. In this book there is a balance
between them.
4.II.III.
Learning and teaching procedures
In the process of learning a new language,
when the new item is facilitated, students will learn better.
This may be done through comparison and contrast, similarity
etc. Also when the students first meet the familiar item and
then meet the unfamiliar items, this will be easier for them to
learn. The course book should consider all these.
As it is mentioned before, an inductive
approach is used in this course book. The book, which takes an
inductive approach, should use examples of language, which are
the representative of the rule that is being taught. An obvious
example of this; when the aim is to teach the “reported speech”
the emphasis should be on this item and students should be given
the chance to understand the grammar rule. For example, in unit
13 of Student’s Book 1, the new grammar items are “be going to”
and “ present continuous tense”. First of all, students listen
to the one who is reading a letter. This letter mostly includes
these tenses.
4.II.III.I.
Presentation and practice of new vocabulary
In the process of presenting the new
vocabulary, one of the most important things is to present the
items in a clear way with one another. When the new words are
presented in relation to each other or when they are presented
in an understandable context, it will be easier for students to
learn. Context makes the meaning clearer. By this way, students
recognise the meanings of unfamiliar words using contextual and
other clues. Pictures may also used for presenting new words
because when visual aids are used, it will be easier to store
the words in the brain.
In this book, generally the vocabulary
exercises include the new words, which are taken from the
passage. The unfamiliar words are written in bold and there are
pictures, which both summarise the story and give clues about
the meaning of new words.
For example, on page 80 of Student’s
Book 1, there is a reading passage named the “The boy who saved
the Netherlands”. Some of the words are written in bold (blind,
notice, flow, cold water). There is a blind man in the picture
and as we look at the picture, we understand that the boy
notices a hole in the wall, and he understands that water flows
from this hole. This picture will help the students to
understand the story and the vocabulary better.
As it is mentioned before, when
contrasts and similarities are used in teaching of vocabulary,
the words are stored easily. This way of teaching is used very
often in this book. For example on page 18 of Student’s Book 3,
in the activity 6, students are expected to match words with
their opposites. For example, delicious – tasteless, beautiful –
ugly, dry – wet etc. Also the words which have similar meanings
are given together. For example, on page 45 of Student’s Book 3,
in activity 7, there are similar words and students are expected
to fill in the blanks with the correct words. Some of the given
words are; cure – treat isolated –lonely – alone etc.
4.II.III.II.
Students’ role
In the process of learning a new
language, students have the most important role. When the
students aren’t voluntarily involved in this process, nothing
may help them to learn this language. The course books should
give the chance to the learners to involve in this process.
Course book also should be aware of the differences in the
learning styles of students and these differences should be
prepared in respect to them.
The course book expects an active
input from the students. If usually encourages them do create
something on their own and use their abilities. Especially in
the writing sections of the book, students are given the chance
to use their creativity and their imagination. For example, on
page 47 of Student’s Book 3, students are expected to write
their ideas about the life by the year 2050. In this exercise,
students will use their expectations and their imagination.
The listening sections of the book
may also help the students to have a role in the exercise. For
example, on page 51 of Student’s Book, students look at a
picture and they try to imagine what is happening in the
picture, they express their ideas about the picture. Then they
listen to the tape and learn the real story of the picture. By
this way they compare their ideas with the story and also they
listen to the tape carefully to learn.
The course book provides additional
material for independent study for the students. For example,
students use the cassettes and the workbook of the course book.
Students use workbook at home, and check them in the classroom
with the teacher. They may also listen to the cassettes at home
in order to improve their pronunciation.
There is not a key for the students
but there are grammar references at the end of the book. By this
way students may check which grammar item they learned on each
unit. This part is in a format of the units.
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