Aims

The English Course - Speaking, Book 1 is an integrated Lower Intermediate English language course, which comprises a Textbook, DVD and self-access web site. This first edition is principally intended for young adult Japanese students at college or university level. The aim of the course is to form a balance between activities associated with the communicative approach; such as, listening, role-playing and information gap tasks, with the use of cutting-edge technology, for both classroom use and student self-access study. Each unit in the course includes: at least five video conversation clips; at least four guided and semi-guided role-play production tasks; and a variety of associated visual, audio and oral tasks.

The video material features actual Japanese EFL students interracting with native and a variety of nationalities of non-native speakers of English in conversational situations that are realistic and plausible in terms of the target learners' likely English-speaking opportunities in their present or future lives.

Each unit in the textbook is designed to teach an important language function and is divided into two sections, each concentrating on a different, but related language function. Each section of the unit comprises two realistic video conversations, associated listening tasks and role-playing activities. The language which is presented is intended to be basic, commonplace, contemporary, age-appropriate, internationally understood and interesting to students.

The course is designed to make learning English enjoyable and interesting, and takes into account the fact that individual students have both different learning styles, and different strengths and weaknesses. By offering self-access to the DVD and a wide variety of practice exercises and quizzes on the web site, The English Course - Speaking, Book 1 allows students to study at their own pace and to concentrate on the areas that they feel that they need to improve most. The authors recognise that most students have a particular need to improve their English oral production skills and aural receptive ability. Consequently, the aim has been to give students as much opportunity as possible to listen to and speak in English.

The course can be taught in any classroom with DVD capability, or in a multi-media room. Ideally, students could be taken into the multi-media room every few weeks to allow them to review the work covered at their own pace and with teacher support. However, the DVD is linked to the website, thereby allowing students to work on both the DVD or the web site activities, in either the classroom or their own homes.

Components

The English Course consists of three main components: a student book, a DVD and web site.
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The Student Book contains eight learning units, two review units, and five appendices of useful material. The book can be used either in class or at home (or other self-access situations), along with with the DVD (as each student has a copy of the DVD).

Here's a quick tour of the book:

At the front of the book, after the contents page, there's a chart outlining the format of each unit. Each of the eight main units follows the same pattern.

Each of the eight units includes four question sections for audio comprehension based on the DVD's video clips. There are eight speaking activities within each unit. These build up from basic to more complex and from structured and controlled to more free-form. There are two language structure focus sections. There is also one social, cultural or geographical survey or quiz.

With a class that meets once a week for 90 minutes, each of the main units might take three to four weeks to complete, depending on the level of the students. The intention is to give teachers the opportunity to pick and choose what material to actually use and how and where to use it. On the otherhand, as some universities and colleges are increasing the number of class sessions scheduled during each semester, The English Course already contains the material to cover the lengthening of course durations.

In addition to the eight main units, there are also two review units. One follows and covers the first four units and the second covers the last four units of the book. Each of these units feature several audio comprehension exercises along with a board game for speaking practice.

There are five appendices at the back of the book, packed with useful material for students. This includes: transcripts; role cards and realia; vocabulary lists; a cast and character list that also includes biographical background data on characters and; answer keys.

There is also a Teacher's Guide to the The English Course. This is available for downloading from the teacher area of The Study Centre on this web site. The first three chapters of the guide are freely available in this unrestricted access side of the web site in the for Teachers section on the Guidance page.
The DVD contains audio and video material for the eight learning units and two review units. Each learning unit contains five separate video clips. English subtitles are available where appropriate (in the first four videos in each unit). Audio and video tracks can be switched on or off as required. There are also slideshows of pictures and additional interactive material. The DVD has menus which allow for linking directly to material in The Study Centre on the web site.

Here's a quick tour of the DVD:

The unit menus allow the user to jump to any video clip within the unit. You can also jump quickly from unit to unit.
Each video or audio clip within a unit has its own video menu. These menus allow the user to play the content, adjust settings (of subtitles, visual and audio content). Where appropriate, there are Instructions to support student self-access use.
The most important menu of these is the settings menu.
Each unit also has an extras menu which contain the intermission and finale material for the unit.

On the intermission menu, behind each number is a question for students to ask and answer in pairs, groups or as a whole class.

Finale is a student self-access activity which can be used in conjunction with The Study Centre on this web site.
The Study Center contains a variety of reading, writing and listening activities for students to use in self access mode. Student activity and performance can be monitored by teachers.

Here's a quick tour of The Study Centre:

The Study Centre is a secure location as every student and teacher has a unique username and password and everyone must login to access The Study Centre.

The Study Centre has two distinct areas: The student site and the teacher site.

The student area can be accessed by both students and teachers.

The teacher area is restricted to teachers as it contains material that should not be freely available to students (e.g. test material, teacher guides, answer keys and other confidential material).

In the student area, each of the eight main units contains eleven activities of varying types. Some of the tasks include vocabulary matching, building full sentences from skeletal elements, gap-fill, true false, selecting appropriate language in context, listening comprehension, and multiple choice.
Students receive feedback for their submissions, which varies depending on the type of activity. Students can see which items they got right or wrong and (usually) have the option of making multiple attempts at quizzes and exercises
Teachers can view logs of any of the students that they teach. These logs show detailed information about each student's activity and performance in The Study Centre. These logs provide substantial objective data on students motivation and ability, which can be useful when trying to grade the large-sized classes that are so prevalent in Japanese universities and colleges.

Students can also download video and audio files compatible for use on mp3 players such as Apple Computer's iPod ® and on mobile phones. Students can then listen to these anywhere, anytime.