Upstream-Pre—intermediate book' summary
DIDACTICS
Upstream-Pre—intermediate
Virginia Evans-Jenny Dooley
USA-2004
Upstream Pre-intermediate is an English course book for adolescents and young learners of English language. It is presented in a student’s book and a workbook, with ten units each.
This book shows an important influence from the communicative method for students to effectively speak English. Students are encouraged to use the language in classroom to interact with classmates (unit 1 page 11 and 13). Then you can count different techniques such as role play and language games, also you may find information gaps (unit 1 page 10), opinion gaps (unit 1 page 12, 17), reasoning information activities (unit 1 page 9, 11) and most of the exercises are focused on the student’s awareness of the language systems and how it works.
There are also some Content-based approaches activities incorporate as History (page 28), Geography (page52), Math (page 76), Science (page 100) and Art and Design (page 124). In addition the book includes activities to motivate students to make a link between the topic of the lesson and their own life in every single unit, and the cross-cultural contexts in it encourages discussions making learning interesting for students.
The Book’s layout is clear and simple. The topics are presented in a meaningful context giving students important exposure to the target language. There is a mixture of illustrations and colourful photographs with pleasant topics and activities which involve the learners immediately.
On the other hand, there are some disadvantages of this book. Firstly, the participatory approach in not included, the student participation is reduced to the classroom discussions; the action is not a priority. Secondly, most of the listenings are focused on listening for specific information and there is few extensive listenings. Finally, the book’s units are too extensive for just three hours a week, so it is very difficult to complete them in just a
Upstream-Pre—intermediate
Virginia Evans-Jenny Dooley
USA-2004
Upstream Pre-intermediate is an English course book for adolescents and young learners of English language. It is presented in a student’s book and a workbook, with ten units each.
This book shows an important influence from the communicative method for students to effectively speak English. Students are encouraged to use the language in classroom to interact with classmates (unit 1 page 11 and 13). Then you can count different techniques such as role play and language games, also you may find information gaps (unit 1 page 10), opinion gaps (unit 1 page 12, 17), reasoning information activities (unit 1 page 9, 11) and most of the exercises are focused on the student’s awareness of the language systems and how it works.
There are also some Content-based approaches activities incorporate as History (page 28), Geography (page52), Math (page 76), Science (page 100) and Art and Design (page 124). In addition the book includes activities to motivate students to make a link between the topic of the lesson and their own life in every single unit, and the cross-cultural contexts in it encourages discussions making learning interesting for students.
The Book’s layout is clear and simple. The topics are presented in a meaningful context giving students important exposure to the target language. There is a mixture of illustrations and colourful photographs with pleasant topics and activities which involve the learners immediately.
On the other hand, there are some disadvantages of this book. Firstly, the participatory approach in not included, the student participation is reduced to the classroom discussions; the action is not a priority. Secondly, most of the listenings are focused on listening for specific information and there is few extensive listenings. Finally, the book’s units are too extensive for just three hours a week, so it is very difficult to complete them in just a