SUMMARY

The worldwide demand for English has created an enormous demand for quality
language teaching materials and resources. Millions of people today want to improve
their English or to ensure that their children achieve a good English. And
opportunities to learn English are provided in many ways such as through formal
instruction, travel, study abroad, as well as through the media and the Internet. The
demand for an appropriate teaching methodology is therefore as strong as ever.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) remains the dominant model in English that
views the language as an instrument to do something else better. Materials writers
have ensured that a task-based approach includes the four skills naturally. Also, the
learner's active contribution to language learning has had a significant impact on
materials design in recent years.

Conscious knowledge of grammar was again seen as an important tool, often through
a CLIL-type approach which seeks to incorporate a more substantial sense of topic
content into language classes. On this hand, participation in meaningful tasks
automatically lead to language acquisition to the view that the learner and the things
he/she does affect the outcome.

Another recent trend in coursebooks has been an emphasis on the need for 'authentic'
materials where students can now be much more active as producers of the target
language through blogs, threads, wikis and chat-lines. For this reason, another
important issue to mention are the “VLE” (virtual learning environments) and how
designers cater for this new phenomenon.

The inclusion of multi-level materials is a response to factors in context due to any

book can be read on small digital apparatus and teachers are finding it much more
plausible to incorporate online materials and contents into lessons through
interactive whiteboard technology. In fact, blended learning approach can combine
face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction.
The importance of language use, based around the skills, gained strength, and findings
about language processing underlined the importance of giving students practice in
sub-skills. Stern gave a list of ‘materials’ which showed the wide range that could be
considered "supplementary" and find them in the market by the publishers.

Stern pointed out that each axis represented different "teaching strategies”. He
referred to intralingual and crosslingual as the role that the first language (L1) plays
in the teaching and learning of the second language (L2). Stern's next two sets of axis
were related: explicit-implicit and analytic-experiential. One emphasizes the nature of
language learning and its conscious or unconscious nature, and the other emphasizes
the feasibility of analyzing the complexity of language.

Littlewood (1981) mentioned that functional communication activities require

students to use their language resources to overcome an information gap or solve a
problem whereas social activities require the learner to pay attention to the context
and the roles of the people involved. So once again, there has been a shift away from
focus on form to focus on communicative function in a competence-based society.

To conclude, there is no single or agreed upon set of practices that characterize

current communicative language teaching. Rather, communicative language teaching
today refers to a set of generally agreed upon principles that can be applied in
different ways, depending on the teaching context, the age of the learners, their level,
their learning goals, and so on.

REFERENCES

1) Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language Teaching. New York:

Cambridge University Press.
2) Arzamendi, J. (2010). Materials and resource in EFL. IEXPRO Anthology.
EXPLAINING THE BOOK’S FEATURE: OXENDEN, C. & SELIGSON, P. (1996). English
File Student's Book 1. O.U.P.

English File 1 has been designed for young adults and beginners. I consider that it will
give my students a real sense of achievement and progress due to this coursebook
offers clear learning objectives and an organized approach to revision and reference
work.

As a teacher, I would like to work with this coursebook because there are well-
planned lessons, a realistic syllabus focusing on what can be achieved in a first level
course, and a complete source of ready-to-use supplementary materials such as:

 Lessons which cover the grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary syllabus of

the course, with in-built revision and recycling.
 Systematic pronunciation work, with a memorable and learner-friendly
introduction to English sounds.
 Graded listening materials and tasks.
 Travel with English. Functional language, practical communication in
international “survival” contexts.
 Revision and extension. Consolidation and development of core lessons
through skills work.
 Vocabulary file. Systematic vocabulary development and revision, and learning
tips.
 Grammar file. Self-check grammar reference in language graded for beginner
level.
 Word bank. An active picture dictionary for memorable study and reference.

I am sure that English File 1 will get my students talking thanks to its unique formula
combining confidence-building, opportunity, and motivation. High-interest content is
organized in lively, achievable lessons, using humor and imagination to encourage
them to communicate and enjoy learning English. There is no doubt that I will select
this book for teaching English considering its features and the content syllabi from my
educational context.