Next 1.
III. 2.
FLEXIBILITY
Enterprise
Teacher's Book includes optional oral or written activities, besides there is a
suggested range of films for classroom viewing, moreover, it is noted that
teachers can create their own questions to use with films of their choice if
they have a different choice. Hence,
they are let to use their own initiative.
For the profits of
students there is a grammar reference section in latter three books of the
course which broadly explain grammatical forms of each unit respectively.
Also Irregular Verbs List and Word Lists are appendices which ease
individual -out of class- study of the coursebook.
Also Workbook is a material that can be used for self-study.
1.
IV. SEQUENCE OF THE CONTENT
Enterprise grades
the content to be taught in a graded basis, considering the ease of grammatical
forms both in the sense of structural complexity assuming that "more
complex structures are more difficult to learn".
So, for example, while Past Simple Tense is introduced in the 7th Unit of
Coursebook 1- Beginner, Past Continuous Tense is presented within a higher
stage; 4th Unit of the Coursebook 2- Elementary.
Also within the units the content is sequenced from comprehension to
practise; there is lead-in sections in every unit of all Coursebooks and
communicative practises follow subsequently.
The Course takes
authentic cultural topics into account which are sensible and interesting to
learn, especially through reading sections which consists of cross-cultural
texts. (see Appendix 3, Enterprise 1- Beginner, p.99)
Functionality is
also taken into account in design as "communicative funtions are selected
according to 'usefulness' to the learner, the extent to which they meet the
learner's communicative needs" (Ed. Yavuz, M., Lecture
Photocopies, p.32). Namely,
items which the students need most are taught.
So, it can be said that usefulness is considered in Enterprise since the
topics are chosen from real-life, students learn new vocabulary, grammar usage
(such as early teaching of Present Continuous Tense which allows to talk about
immediate present and pronouns necessary to initiate a communication in English)
and students are presented actual articles.
V.
CLEARANCE OF THE LAYOUT
In brief, it is
observed that language items plus grammar forms, skills are organized and
presented systematically in clear contexts so it can be said that it is easy for
students to find their way around the Coursebook.
PART
2 LANGUAGE
CONTENT
2.
I. GRAMMAR
Grammar is the
basic determiner of any language course, in sense of its being the skeleton of a
language. It's impossible to think of a language without a grammatical
structure. Therefore, an effective
teaching of grammar enables learners to create their own utterances and use
language for their own purposes
Different syllabus
types have different styles of teaching grammar items as mentioned briefly
before in Part 1. For instance,
Situational Syllabus primarily focuses on language form in situations and
settings while Structural and Functional Syllabuses give grammar items either
from their structure to their function or from their function to their
structure, which means Situational Syllabus follows an inductive way to teach
grammar items whereas Structural and Functional Syllabuses give these grammar
items to the learners deductively.
On the other hand,
Integrated Syllabus, which Enterprise Course adopt, teaches grammar items not
just in one specific way, but in various ways such as presenting the item
firstly in a setting and supporting the presentation with skill-based activities
and then showing the rules and usages of the item in a grammar diagram or box.
In the 1st Unit of
Enterprise 1- Beginner, Coursebook, the very first grammatical objective that is
aimed, is to teach verb 'to be'. Adopting
the Integrated Syllabus, the book starts with giving a small passage to be
listened and repeated. In the
passage, a man introduces himself and tells where he is from, how old he is and
what his job is by using the proper form of the verb 'to be'.
Then comes the reading activity. There
are four short passages about different people from different parts of the
world, introducing themselves. The
learners are expected to read those passages and give answers to the given
questions. This reading activity is
followed by a speaking activity. This
time students are expected to read the short texts given and then ask and answer
questions about different people in a similar way.
At that stage there is still no directly given grammar rules on how to
use verb 'to be' in different utterances with different pronouns.
However, in the 'Language Development' section, there is a 'Grammar'
part, in which a grammar box about afirmative and negative, and interrogative
forms of the verb 'to be' in Present Simple Tense is given.
(see Appendix 4-a, Enterprise 1- Beginner, Coursebook, p.8)
These boxes are,
then, followed by fill-in exercises to improve the ability of the learners to
adapt the rules to different situations. After
the rules about the verb 'to be' is given, there is another grammar box
explaining how and when the indefinite articles 'a' and 'an' is used.
(see Appendix 4-b, Enterprise 1- Beginner, Coursebook, p.10)
This sequence is followed in each unit of all the four levels.
2.
I. 1.
CORRESPONDENCE TO STUDENTS' LANGUAGE NEEDS
The question why
students want to learn English is the most essential key question in determining
the method of giving the grammatical items to the learners in order to satisfy
their needs such as the need to communicate effectively, to be familiar with the
langauge systems, the need for challenge, for cross-cultural awareness, the need
to take on more responsibility for their own learning.
These needs have an importance on deciding which way students may learn
more effectively beside the needs that arise due to individual differences.
As Enterprise has
adopted Integrated Syllabus type, various kinds of needs, which students may
feel, have been taken into consideration while designing the content.
That means the Books follow not only one kind of method to present and
give the grammar items but through the units they give the students the
opportunity to take what is given either in a deductive way or in an inductive
way, either by using those grammar items actively or by just seeing it used by
its native speakers, either by hearing it spoken or by applying the rules
freely. As all students may have
different learning strategies, the books have tried to fore-seen those
differences and minimized the possibility of neglecting some students of the
course. Thus, it can be said that
the book is sensitive to what students need in order to learn well.
The presentation of
any grammar items in small units is a lot better for easy learning.
Especially for the beginner and elementary levels, whose students just
meet the language, it is important that the grammar items are given in small
units in order to make sure that the students' attention isn't distracted by
focusing on too many items.
In Enterprise
Coursebooks, presenting the grammar items in small units has been given
importance. Enterprise 1- Beginner
Coursebook starts with presenting the verb 'to be' and the indefinite articles
'a' and 'an', and no other grammar item is focused on.
In the next Unit the verb 'have (got)' and the verb 'can' is given to the
learners. The other grammar items,
although it's impossible to present the verb 'to be' or 'have (got)' without
using them in other grammatical structures, aren't focused on as it would be too
difficult for students to follow all of those structures at the same time.
From that angle, it can be said that Enterprise Coursebooks are suitable
for students' needs to be given small amounts of grammar items to be able to
handle the language more easily.
2.
I. 2.
BALANCE OF FORM AND USE
According to the
course's syllabus coursebooks either emphasizes on language form or on langauge
use, or on both. If the designer of
the course adopts Structural Syllabus, the language form is emphasized. If Situational Syllabus is adopted, then, the emphasis goes
onto the language use.
As the Enterprise
takes up Multi-Syllabus, in other words, Integrated Syllabus for its course, the
emphasis is balanced which means it is both on the language use and form.
The treatment of form and used is tried to be balanced by first
introducing the item in a context, in which students are expected to understand
the meaning, and then explaining and showing the forms by formulating it.
However, the use of the language is prior to the form of it in some cases
such as comparing two different grammar items.
If so, then students are expected to gather the information on the
language form by discovering the differences between those items.
For instance, in Unit 1 of Enterprise 2- Elementary, the items, aimed to
be taught, are 'Present Simple' and 'Present Continuous' Tenses. In the grammar section, students are asked to name the tenses
of the verbs in bold and match them to their uses in Exercise 21.
Till that section they aren't given any clues on the forms of those
tenses. They are expected to
understand the meaning of the sentences and then to find out which tense is used
when;
1. I'm having a
fantastic time.
a. habits/routines/repeated
actions
2. We spend our days
hiking in the b.
permanent states
mountains.
c. actions happening at the
time of
3. Norwegians really love
the outdoors.
speaking
4. Next week we're going to
Oslo.
d. fixed arrengements in the
near future
5. At the moment we are
having a
e. actions happening around
the moment
cup
of hot chocolate.
of speaking
(see
Appendix 5-a, Enterprise 2- Elementary, p.10)
However, in the
following unit, in which 'Present Simple', 'Past Simple- used to' and 'So-
Neither/ Nor' are being taught, students are first given an article that they
can see how Present Simple is used without knowing the grammatical rules of it. This time in the grammar sections they are given extra
informations in boxes explaining them how and when to use these items;
Grammar:
Present Simple
Use:
We
use the present simple to talk about daily
routines and habits. e.g. He
goes to work by bus.
·
Grammar:
Past Simple - 'used to'
Use:
We
use used to or past simple to describe past habits and states which don't
happen / exist any more.
I
worked/ used to work as a cleaner.
(past habit)
I
didn't have/ didn't use to have long
hair. (state)
(see
Appendix 5-b, Enterprise 2- Elementary, pp. 14-15)
2.
I. 3.
RELATION OF ITEMS
It's important to
make a connection between the unknown items and the items already familiar to
the learner. This results in meaningful learning for the learners as they
can load meanings to abstract concepts by linking the newly introduced items
with the items they have already stored in their short/ long term memories.
Relating the unknown items to the already known items can be basicly done
in two ways, which are comparing and contrasting.
In Enterprise
Coursebooks, most of the grammar items being presented are related to each other
in some ways. The sequence of the
items which are the objectives of the course has been designed by making sure
that the learners can build them onto a strong basis which would be their
knowledge of previously given grammar items.
For instance, in Enterprise 1- Beginner,
'Was/ Were' is being presented by saying "Was/ Were (past simple of
the verb 'to be')" and again 'Had' is being presented by saying "Had
(past simple of 'have') which learners learnt in the Units 1 and 2 (see Appendix
6). In Unit 3 of Enterprise 2-
Elementary, the students are given the item 'adjectives'.
It says "adjectives describe nouns" and when moved on to Unit
4, where adverbs are going to be taught this time, it is repeated once again
that "adjectives describe nouns" just before stating that
"adverbs usually describe verbs or other adverbs" (see Appendix 7).
So, by contrasting the adjectives and adverbs students are enabled to
relate the new items to the familiar ones.
Therefore, they can realize a meaningful learning.
2.
II. VOCABULARY
Every coursebook
select its vocabulary based on some criteria.
One criterion alone is inadequate for selecting a workable
vocabulary
as it's a tricky subject and isn't so simple to gather a useful and
necessary vocabulary in a coursebook, and after this step is successfully done
then the development of the given vocabulary should be provided.
Good vocabulary development activities tend to exploit some or all of the
following;
·
semantic relations - word groups according to meaning, synonyms,
hyponyms, opposites
·
situational relationships - word sets associated with particular
situations, e.g. sport, transport, politics
·
collocations - word commonly found in association, e.g. food
and drink, for better or worse, also noun + preposition links and phrasal
verbs (verb + particle links)
·
relationships of form (often referred to as 'word building'), e.g. long,
length, lengthen.
(Cunningsworth,
A., 1995, p.38)
Enterprise 1 and 2
claims that reading texts present new vocabulary in a meaningful context and the
vocabulary sections practise and extend the vocabulary introduced in the reading
texts, through various types of exercises and that a particular feature of the
books is the teaching of collocations, helping students to remember vocabulary
items as parts of set expressions, whereas Enterprise 3 claims that reading
texts allow students to understand vocabulary from the context and that
vocabulary practise sections focus on exploiting the vocabulary introduced in
the reading text through various types of exercises such as 'word attack' (in
which students deduce the meaning of words from context), gap-filling,
collocations which help students remember vocabulary items as parts of set
expressions, and sets of commonly confused words and that text-related idioms,
phrasal verbs and prepositions are also included.
(Enterprise 1, 2 and 3, p.5)
When the books are
examined, it can be seen that collocations and situational relationships are
mostly used through-out the books. For
instance, in Enterprise 1- Beginner, vocabulary given is as in the following;
·
Unit 1 - countries & nationalities (collocation)
·
Unit 2 - people's appearances (collocation)
·
Unit 3 - furniture & appliances (collocation)
·
Unit 4 - free time activities (situational), family relationships
(situational) etc.
And
in Enterprise 3- Pre-Intermediate;
·
Unit 2 - Phrasal verbs: look (collocations)
·
Unit 4 - holidays (situational), phrasal verbs: run (collocations) etc.
In the Beginner
level the amount of the vocabulary given is at the maximum level as every word
is new to the learner. In the Unit
1 of Enterprise 1- Beginner, there are over than 50 words presented to the
students such as countries, nationalities, ordinal/ cardinal numbers and jobs. This continues in every unit even in Elementary level.
However, when moved on to the Pre-Intermediate level the number of the
new words given decreases a bit.
Recycling plays an
important role in developing the vocabulary as students are expected to be able
to use the words, presented, actively in their own utterances.
Students should store the words from their short term memory to long term
memory to be able to use them in future but storing in the long term memory is
not enough alone as there is a possibility that the vocabulary stored in the
long term memory and not used frequently may become passive vocabulary which
means the students can understand the meanings of the words when they come
across them in future but can't use them in building up sentences of their own.
At this step recycling gains importance as it should be enabling students
to remember the words more frequently and not to let these words become passive.
In Enterprise
Coursebooks there are exercises, in which students have the opportunity to
practise the vocabulary introduced in the reading texts, in the vocabulary
sections and the vocabulary exercises are designed to help the students to
remember vocabulary items as parts of set expressions.
Also the words learnt in a level such as in Enterprise 1- Beginner are
repeated in the next levels. For
instance, vocabulary on people's appearances is given in Unit 2 of Enterprise 1-
Beginner, and in Unit 1 of Enterprise 2- Elementary this vocabulary is repeated
with some changes. Daily routines
in 5th Unit of Enterprise 1 is extended and repeated in the 2nd Unit of
Enterprise 2 and so on.
The vocabulary is
mostly chosen from the daily life language such as family relationships (in Unit
4), daily routines (in Unit 5), weather conditions (in Unit 7), feelings &
reactions (in Unit 11 of Enterprise 1- Beginner) and health/ illnesses/
accidents (in Unit 7), technology/ computers/ internet (in Unit 15 of Enterprise
2- Elementary). Choosing the
vocabulary from daily life situations increases the quality of the vocabulary as
they are more useful for the learners due to the fact that there is a higher
possibility that they are going to come across those words or will feel the need
of using them elsewhere.
2.
III.
PHONOLOGY
"Emphasis should be at least as much on the global aspects of
phonology - weak forms, stress, rhythm, stress - as on producing individual
sounds, because the production of natural sounding connected speech depends on
the speaker's ability to handle the sentence stress and intonation of English
with some degree of appropriateness.
These systems will most probably operate in English quite differently
from the way they are used in the learners' mother tongues."
(Cunningsworth, A., 1995, p.41)
When talked about 'phonology', articulation of individual sounds, words
in contact (assimilation), word stress, weak forms, sentence stress, intonation
should be considered.
Whether the emphasis is on areas of pronounciation that are important to
meet learners' needs and help avoid misunderstandings becomes one of the most
important questions under the topic of phonology.
In Enterprise Coursebooks, it is claimed that pronounciation activities
help students to recognise sounds and reproduce them correctly and added that
intonation is regularly modelled and practised in numerous dialogues through-out
each unit and all pronounciation exercises are on the cassettes accompanying the
coursebook.
(Enterprise 1 - 2 - 3, p.5)
In Enterprise Coursebooks, pronounciation work is generally stand
seperately from the other types of work such as dialogue practising, except
listening works.
For example, in the first unit of Enterprise 1, similar sounds are aimed
to be studied as pronounciation activity.
Students are asked to listen and circle the odd word out.
The words, given, are;
1.
where wear
we're
2.
she
sea
see
3.
hair hear
here
4.
know
no
now
5.
been bin
bean
6.
dear deer
dare
This
is the whole pronounciation activity.
The words aren't given in a context.
There is no dialogues or meaningful setting.
Students will just listen to the cassette and circle the odd word out.
The phonological topics that are taken up by Enterprise 2 are; similar
sounds, silent letters, /h/, sentence stress, '//, like/ 'd like, /ęd/, word
stress, words that rhyme, syllabus stress and in the last 2 units intonation
have been planned to be studied over.
In the 14th Unit, there is a pronounciation exercise which asks students
to listen and tick how the speaker sounds. The given information is;
1.
Oh no!
Not again!
o
scared
o
angry
2.
Oh
no!
Not again!
o
bored
o
puzzled
3.
Really?
That's nice!
o
pleased
o
shocked
4.
Really?
That's nice!
o
excited
o
sarcastic
In
this kind of exercise student has to put the intonational features of the
language and the mind states of people together and solve which sentence implies
what kind of mind state by just hearing the voices of people.
There
are cassettes and audio CDs for pronunciaiton practice.
They provide good models for learners as they are authentic, good in
quality, clear and understandable.
Phonemic
alphabet is used starting from the second unit of Enterprise 1- Beginner, and
continues to be given in small units to the learners in each unit.
In Elementary and Pre-Intermediate levels, the phonemic alphabet is given
to the learners regularly as one of the most effective pronunciation exercise.
PART
3 SKILLS
Emphasis
on skills in coursebooks can change according to the students' needs, syllabus
type that is adopted or to the aim of the course.
If the learners are people who have migrated to another country and want
to learn the language just to communicate with the people around their new
neighbourhood then writing and reading wouldn't be primary skills to be
practised and developed in the course, or in a coursebook designed to be used by
native-speaker teachers, who would want the emphasis to be on listening and
speaking, extensive reading wouldn't be desirable. So, if the skills should be balanced or if some skills should
be primary is decided accordingly.
Coursebooks
should develop students' skills in using English every bit as much as they help
to develop student's knowledge (explicit or not) of the system of English.
(Cunningsworth, A., 1995, p.64)
In
Enterprise Coursebooks, it's claimed that they provide the students with
extensive, systematic and well-integrated practice in the productive (speaking
and writing) and receptive (reading and listening) skills necessary for
successful communication in both oral and written forms of the language.
Practice
in all four skills is included in the books.
In each unit of all four levels there are reading, listening, speaking
and writing sections which are sometimes integrated into each other according to
the type of the activities. First
comes a listening passage, then what is listened to is read from the book, and
after that speaking section comes in which the students are asked to talk about
the place/ situation etc. which they have listened to and read about.
In the writing sections students are generally asked to write a similar
kind of writing which is in the reading part.
The
presentation and practice activities include the integration of skills in
realistic contexts. In the 2nd Unit
of Enterprise 3, there is an article about the famous actress, Daryl Hannah.
Students, firstly, are asked to listen to that article and answer the
questions just after listening it and then read it and again answer the
questions. In the latter parts
there is an exercise (exercise 21, p.13), in which the students are expected to
read a table and then listen to the tape and fill in the blanks on the table.
It's about an actor who acted in Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
This activity can be shown as an example which includes the integration
of skills in realistic context. (see
Appendix 8)