World Class 2. - Teacher's Book [antikvár]

Introduction General principles I Themes For young learners, motivation and interest are crucial factors in tiie learning process, and so tiie course is based around themes wliich have been chosen for their interest and relevance to this age group. There are three main thematic elements in World Class. Students can use English to find out about the world; they can develop their imagination and have fun in English; and they can relate English to their own lives and environments. 2 Skills In the second level of the course, half of the lessons are skills-based, with fluency the primary goal. The four skills are developed systematically in the following ways: speaking. Students are encouraged to develop this skill through activities such as information gaps, roleplays and games, through which they can communicate freely and develop fluency. Effective communication, rather than accuracy, is the goal. ustening. The texts vary from radio programmes to dialogues, games and interviews. Graded extensive listening tasks encourage smdents to listen for gist or for specific information. Intensive listening tasks give smdents opportunities to focus on spoken language in depth. reading. Reading is developed by the use of a vride range of authentic text types. Like listening this falls into two areas: graded extensive reading tasks giving practice in skimming and scanning, while intensive reading tasks concentrate on the stmcture of texts and ways of dealing with new vocabulary. wrtting. There are three kinds of tasks which systematically develop the writing skill. First, there are those which are strongly guided, in which specific sub-skills are highlighted. Secondly, there are freer writing tasks, in which smdents are given help with tiie writing process. And finally, Project options allow students to write more freely and imaginatively. 3 Language Input For younger leamers, language acquisition (without any conscious attempt to leam tiie language) is as important as the conscious learning process. In Skills lessons, the reading and listening texts provide exposure to authentic language and provide opportunities for acquisition. In Language focus lessons, target input is conttoUed and graded, witii new language items (structures and functions) previewed, presented and practised. Functions are highlighted when they present difficulties of form or usage and the emphasis on fimctions increases throughout the course as leamers become more aware of the need to use English in the outside world. The rate of this input is related to leamers' cognitive development. Thus at the second level (when leamers are younger) there are eighteen Language focus spots, in the third there are twenty-one and in tiie fourth there are twenty-four. Presentation of new items is varied, but students are encouraged to work out the rules for themselves, and to be aware of and to use basic grammatical terms followed up by both spoken and written practice activities. In addition, the speaking and writing activities in Skills lessons provide opportunities for using this language communicatively. Leamers are helped to deal with lexical input, hnportant vocabulary sets are presented (e.g. furniture, weather) and also leamer training activities develop smdents' capacity for selecting, classii^Tng, storing and learning new lexis. Pronunciation is dealt with systematically and input is graded according to difficulty and in the fiKt level, problems of recognition are given priority over those of production. 4 Recycling New language is recycled within each module, with the last lesson devoted to consolidation and revision. Language is also recycled between modules of each level. In addition, recycling occurs between different levels of the course. 5 Learner training Smdents of this age group are long-term leamers, so leamer training is cmcial. In this course they have many opportunities to think about their learning and evaluate their own progress. There are also activities which discuss and develop different strategies for reading, listening, speaking and vmting. Study skills are also developed systematically; tills enables smdents to become more independent. These study skills include dealing with new vocabulary and, from the second level, the storage and learning of new stmctures. Finally there are graded tasks to develop dictionary use, which are linked with the Mini-dictionary at the back of the book. This is a valuable aid for leamers to work independentiy and 1