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    Headway Intermediate Teachers Book

    Uploaded by

    avignoli

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 77
    Feaching- . Headwe %, % termeaiat qr contaly HEADWAY TEACHER'S BOOK INTERMEDIATE John & Liz Soars Oxford University Press Foreword Liz and John Soars have worked for International House for over ten years, as teachers and teacher trainers, on Preparatory and Diploma Courses. Liz has also taught in Tanzania and John in Corsica, and they have given teachers’ courses in countries as far afield as France, Portugal, Spain, and Venezuela In his post as Director of Studies at International House in London, John’s principal responsibility was to advise teachers on their classes and to develop materials. Asa result, he has had the opportunity to share the problems of hundreds of different teachers. Inher position as Director of Teacher Training, Liz was involved not only in the initial training of thousands of people new to the EFL. profession, but also in the direction and the teaching of RSA Diploma courses for more mature and experienced students. ‘Thus both John and Liz Soars have been at the central crossroads of a large international teaching organization for many years. They are. therefore, particularly suited to identifying with the needs of both students and teachers — whether worried recruits, fresh from a Preparatory course, or experienced practitioners who have held several posts abroad. It is this varied experience which has enabled them to produce a book so up to date and so well tuned to what both students and teachers need today. Wes Leste John Haycraft Director General International House, London WI Description of the course Headway Intermediate is the first volume of a comprehensive intermediate and upper- intermediate course for students abroad or in the United Kingdom, Headway is written to meet the needs of adult learners, whose main aim is most commonly to break through the difficult intermediate plateau of school English and to achieve accuracy and confident language use at an upper- intermediate level. Itis a revision and extension course which provides a comprehensive coverage of the English grammatical system, combined with extensive practice of language skills in a communicative context It provides approximately 120 hours work. that is eight hours per unit. The materials are organized in a way that makes Headway suitable for blocked intensive courses, or for the traditional academic year. —_—_$ Key-notes Innovative Skills Development Work This course is unique in its attitude to skills development. A detailed and systematic skills development syllabus exists within the syllabus, providing balanced work in listening, reading, and writing development (See the skills syllabus, pp. vi-vii.) ‘Comprehensive Grammar Reference Section ‘The Grammar Section in the Student's Book (page 87) is a Introduction condensed grammar book which can be used for reference purposes at any stage of the students’ studies. Even when the student stops learning systematically, but needs to refresh his or her English quickly, this section can be referred to for rapid revision. ‘The grammar areas are dealt with in more depth than is usually found in course books, but more concisely than is found in grammar books. The Grammar Section is cross-referenced to provide more detailed information about the forms and uses of the language introduced in each unit. Adult Interest Topics have been selected to appeal tothe mature adult, rather than the maturing adolescent Effective Teaching For teachers, the key-note of Headway is its comprehensiveness and effectiveness, Ithas been designed to meet the practical lesson-to-lesson needs of the teachers. The units can be used chronologically to provide the following stages: ~ presentation of new language ~ concept checks and controlled practice ~ skills work to revise the new language ~ challenging skills development work that follows a strict syllabus to ensure proficiency. This does not mean that teachers will not want to select and supplement, but that they can rely on the book to provide thorough handling of input and skills development with variety of activity and control Effective Learning For students, the key-note is accessibility and comprehensibility, It speaks directly to the students themselves. The contents page, headings, instructions, explanations, and questions are designed to guide students through the book with full understanding of what is expected of them and why. If they are made aware of the aims of the course and the elements that constitute language learning, their contribu- tions will be all the more relevant, and they can assume a considerable amount of responsibility for their own learning ‘The students are challenged to work out language concepts for them- selves, to apply language rules in both controlled and free activities, and to contribute their own opinions and experiences. Piloting Headway is rooted in the classroom. ‘To ensure teachability every unit has been extensively tested in different teaching situations and further developed or re-written accordingly. The Organization of the Course The organization of Headway is simple and logical. The Presentation Section is accuracy-based, and guides students to an understanding and practice of significant target items, ‘The Development Section is fluency- iii based, and comprises one extensive activity for each language skill: listening, reading, speaking and writing. Skills work is also integrated, with listening and reading, listening and writing, writing and speaking, reading and speaking activities, ‘The four skills are systematically developed. The receptive skills work consists of authentic and semi- authentic material. Tasks are graded, and sub-skills such as prediction, exploiting prior knowledge, summarizing, scanning and skimming, guessing unknown vocabulary, exploiting topic sentences, and inference are carefully developed. As well as there being discussions and role plays in the Speaking Development section, there are many free speaking activities throughout. Writing is given special attention, and follows its own carefully planned syllabus to give part-skill and whole-skill practice. Great attention is given to the acquisition of a wide and useful vocabulary. This means in part the teaching and testing of discrete lexical areas, but more importantly, the development of vocabulary learning skills for students to continue learning lexis on their own. Methodology Headway incorporates and encourages what is generally considered to be a communicative methodology ~ Students are challenged colved in the learning ~ They are asked to contribute their own opinions, experiences, and feelings. ~ They take part in real or realistic activities. ~ They are encouraged to work closely with peers. ~ They are encouraged to assume a certain responsibility for their own learning, and to develop learning skills. ~ The teacher adopts differing roles iv (informer, monitor, resource consultant) according to the stage of the lesson. Syllabus There is no such consensus on what constitutes a communicative syllabus. Any of the following syllabuses can be adapted to a ‘communicative approach: — asstructural syllabus which introduces grammatical items under a structural heading; — a functional syllabus which introduces grammatical items and phrases under a functional heading: ~ asituational syllabus which introduces grammatical items and lexis according to frequeney and usefulness in certain situations; ~ a task-based syllabus which does not aim to introduce language items in any order at all, but consists of doing real activites which require real language use Headway incorporates all of the above, but particularly the first in the formal language syllabus of the Presentation Section, and the last in the challenging and realistic tasks in the Skills Development section In recent years, ‘syllabus’ has come to mean more than just the selections and grading of structural items. In Headway, many other elements that constitute language earning are selected and graded to form parallel syllabuses. There is ~ agrammatical syllabus ~ a vocabulary acquisition syllabus ~ areading syllabus ~ allistening syllabus ~ awriting syllabus — aspeaking syllabus. Accuracy versus fluency ‘There has been much debate in recent years about the amount of classroom attention that should be given to language in isolation, as ‘opposed to language in use for real purposes. If more was known about precisely how languages are learned, this debate would be defused. Unfortunately. very little is known about this, and we continue to concentrate on the parts we can control. It remains to be seen what the correlation between these two separate activities is. Accuracy work consists of presenting new structures, new functional exponents, and new lexis and their controlled practice, as well as remedial work and pronun practice. Fluency work consists of the performance of real. or realistic, tasks which require language. In the classroom such tasks are realized as skills work, where the students’ attention is on meaning, not form. Without doubt, both have their place in language learning. Asa result of previous experience, students often equate language learning with earning grammar, and although this not very useful as an end in itself, it isan excellent means to an end. ‘Time spent focusing on the component parts will enable students to generate appropriate sentences of their own, However, language use consists of more than the sum of its parts, and that is why fluency work is also important. It increases students’ confidence in their language use outside the classroom, and through their involvement in the task and the interaction with other language users, the processes of language acquisition and assimilation are taking place Headway aims to resolve the accuracy/fluency dilemma by the approaches, techniques, and procedures described in the following. Accuracy work in Headway Grammatical syllabus The items introduced in the Presentation sections constitute an overview of the verb systems. Tenses are given structural headings, and modal verbs have functional headings. The areas covered are: ~ Present Simple and Continuous ~ Past Simple and Continuous ~ Present Perfect Simple and Continuous ~ Future time with will, going to, the Present Continuous, and might ~ First, Second, and Zero Conditionals — Active and Passive Voice — Reported Statements, ‘Commands, and Questions — Modal verbs of request, offer, ability, permission, obligation, and certainty. ‘There is also a unit on describing people and places, which deals with the appropriate questions and also with comparatives and superlatives. ‘Translation ‘On the Language Review page in each unit, students are given a résumé of the rules of form and use, and are invited to translate a short, significant example of the target language. Headway does not teach the skill of translation, but uses it as an additional tool in relating the new language system to the student's existing knowledge of his or her own system. Some teachers might raise objections to this but we feel that the potential dangers are outweighed by the advantages, Several points are worth making: 1 Intheir attempt to understand and apply new language, students can be right or wrong. As teachers, we need to employ every resource available to check the accuracy of learning. Examples of checking are Grammar Questions, controlled and free use of the item, and translation With very few exceptions, all the concepts will translate into the students’ language, with a different or very different form. By re-examining the target. language in the light of translation, students develop a cognitive awareness of its form and function, and of its place within the language system. Areas of potential confusion are confronted, thus drawing students’ attention to main problems. As they realize that forms do not transfer, or that one language is richer, more precise, more logical, more versatile than the other, their awareness of language systems in general develops. 3 Some students translate consciously, and no doubt more do so sub-consciously. By formalizing the translation, students can be surer of an accurate translation. Sparing use of the first language can be most beneficial and time-saving, as it serves to confirm or refute hypotheses that students have formed. Confirmation should lead to an increase in confidence, and having a translation of the target language makes revision easier. 4 The authors are not suggesting a reversion to a Grammar/Trans- lation approach, although both elements are present in Headway Translation is only one of the many ways of highlighting the similarities or differences between the mother tongue and L2. Language Review - Grammar Section Incach unit there is at least one Language Review page which summarizes the newly taught grammatical item. At this stage grammar is closely related to the context in which it was introduced, At the end of this short summary the students are referred to the Grammar Section at the back of the book for more information. The Grammar Section consists of paradigms of form, concept rules, notes on potentially confusing areas, introductions to modal verbs and the aspects of continuous and perfect tenses, spelling rules and common mistakes. ‘The grammar is given such prominence for several reasons. 1 Itis the mechanism that generates the infinite number of sentences that we produce and receive. 2 Itisa tangible system, and can provide one element of a systematic approach to teaching a language. 3 It develops students’ cognitive awareness of the language. Language is rule-based, and knowledge of the rules is the key to generalizability’ and creativity Students can do a lot of work on their own outside the classroom if the grammar is presented in clear, digestible portions, 4 Itconforms to students’ expectations of language learning, and meets an often-heard request for ‘more grammar’. It will be of assistance to teachers in the planning of their lessons. Vocabulary syllabus ‘Vocabulary is often the poor relation tostructure in the language classroom. This is probably because the grammar isa closed set, while the vocabulary is an open set which consists of an infinite number of words. There are tried and tested approaches for the testing of structure, but little attention has been paid to the acquisition of vocabulary. It has been speculated that at lower levels at least, students ‘can convey more information with a knowledge of lexis than with a Knowledge of structure. Teachers can adopt one of the two approaches: 1 Teach students a lot of new words as often as possible, providing for adequate practice and revision. 2. Show students ways of approach- ing their own vocabulary learning. Both are necessary, but obviously the second is more powerful. In Headway, there are many activities that introduce lexical areas. Examples of these areas are sports, the weather, adjectives of description, television programmes, accidents and illnesses. ‘The majority of the vocabulary work, however, concentrates on introducing students to the systems of vocabulary and vocabulary- earning strategies. They are of an enabling nature, and should train students to systemize their own ion. Examples of these are: onary work — word construction: prefixes, suffixes, antonyms — -ed and -ing adjectives — compound nouns — phrasal verbs ~ nationality words ~ synonyms ~ base and extreme adjectives and their intensifiers ~ guessing unknown vocabulary ~ keeping vocabulary records. Fluency work in Headway The Skills Development section of each unit has two aims. 1 To provide further practice, both in the recognition and production of the target items introduced in the Presentation section and to show them ina wider. more natural context. To develop students’ abilities and proficiency in the four language skills and their integrated use, and to motivate students to use language for real purposes. {tis impossible to express in absolute percentage terms the ideal proportions of time to be given to accuracy and fluency. This will depend on many factors, such as the preferred learning styles of your students and their reasons for learning, the time available, and the frequency of the contact hours. In terms of time taken to complete a unit of Headway, itis expected that more time will be devoted to the Skills Development section than to the Presentation section. vi In the activities, students’ attention ison the task and the achievement of the task, and language is the medium of communication and interaction with peers. Naturally the role of the teacher is different in such activities. The teacher should set them up so that students know what they have to do and are motivated, but teachers should not interfere too much thereafter. An excess of attention to accuracy would stop the flow of such activities, Many of the approaches to the skills work can be transferred to other material that teachers may wish to use from supplementary books. Exploiting topic sentences, pyramid debates, advantages/disadvantages, interest points, jumbled paragraphs, and word building exercises ate all easily exploitable with other material Reading and listening An important distinction when considering receptive skills is the difference between testing and teaching them, and the importance of the latter over the former. Broadly speaking, work done in the classroom before students hear or read a text will develop their proficiency, and work done after they have read or listened will test it. Here are some of the factors which make a text more or less comprehensible. ~ The amount of unknown language. — The amount we already know about a subject. The less that is known, the harder itis to understand. If there is too much new information to absorb, we cut off. — Our interest in the subject. ~ Having a reason to read or listen. — Understanding the context. Is it a newspaper article, an advertisement, a radio phone-in, two neighbours gossiping, a husband and wife out shopping? Such contexts are easier to reproduce for reading texts, as they can appear in their original form. Listening texts by their nature are ephemeral. It is our understanding of the context and ‘our prior knowledge of the topic that allow us to predict. Again, the Jess we can predict, the harder it is tounderstand. In Headway, pre-comprehension tasks evoke students’ interest bring previous knowledge to the fore. and give the context. Comprehension check questions test their global and detailed understanding, and the “What do you think?” questions invite students to give their own opinions and reactions. Toa certain extent, students can be helped in their reading and listening with part-skill work, and training them in appropriate comprehension strategies. The main improvement will come with practice, the development of their linguistic knowledge, and the confidence that comes from successful encounters with texts. The reading syllabus includ ~ skimming and scanning = summarizing main points exploiting topic sentences inferring meaning analysing style analysing discourse markers. The listening syllabus includes: gist listening listening for specific information note taking summarizing main points = inference. Speaking There is at least one fluency speaking activity per unit, but many of the pre-comprehension tasks and the “What do you think?” questions lend themselves to extensive speaking practice ‘There are many reasons why the speaking skill is the one given most prominence in the language classroom. Students are learning English because they want to use it, and when asked what they want from lessons, their answer is often ‘Conversation’. It is via the processes of listening and speaking for real reasons that first languages are learned, and there is evidence to suggest that second-language acquisition might not be so different. Fluency speaking activities in the classroom have several characteristics of real speech. There isan information gap to be filled, speakers need to listen carefully and amend what they are going to say, but above all there is a reason for speaking and hence a motivation to achieve a goal. Approximately half of the speaking activities are roleplays, (where students are given some information on the roles they are adopting and the aims they hope to achieve) and half are discussions. ‘The advantage of roleplaysis that, in theory, even the quiet students participate, whereas a discussion can be dominated by one or two vociferous students. However, discussions can be managed so that pair work or group work precedes the open discussion, or replaces it altogether, and if the topic is stimulating, students are giving their real opinions, and interacting as themselves, not under the mantle of an assumed role. Naturally the teacher should not interrupt to correct while these activities are proceeding. Equally he or she should not hesitate to take part and give personal opinions on a subject. The teacher is a person with opinions as well, not a manipulator of others. Writing Just as vocabulary is often the poor relation to structure in terms of language input. so writing is the neglected skill in many classrooms and course books. There might be several reasons for this. Speaking is probably the skill given most prominence, and there isa feeling that writing is a waste of valuable classroom time. Situations for speaking activities are easier to predict for the general English student than occasions when they really might need to write Furthermore, good writing is not the written form of spoken language, but has its own styles, conventions, and

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