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CoursebookAnalysis
Dannae Del Campo, Gabriela Quezada, Angel Sandoval
Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (UCSC)
Teacher’s Interview
As Paula Morales expresses course books are important to guide teachers in
certain specific topics using grammar, pronunciation and listening. However, according
to Miss Morales’ point of view some sequences of units are not coherent to be followed
step by step. Therefore, she states that when the activities are boring and not appealing
to students’ interests it is important to adapt and supplement them by taking into
account students’ background, students’ age and their likes and dislikes. Moreover, her
own preferences are another important fact because if she can find another activity that
suits the class better and that deals with the features that students have to learn, she
changes it. For this reason, she explains that the way for adapting and supplementing
the activities of the course book it is based on having present the level of students and
the topics covered in the book so they become motivated.
Although Miss Morales supplements a big part of the course book she uses, she
finds very useful the speaking activities it has. She mentions that she develops the
speaking parts because students can practice grammar and phonetics at the same time,
being grammar one of the aspects which students found boring.
At last but not the least, Miss Morales considers that course books are useful as a
guide for teachers although is not advisable to be ruled by them. Moreover she
expresses that she would like them to have more music and more kinesthetic activities
that allow students to move and speak at the same time.
FACTUAL DETAIL
Title
Author

Straight Forward Pre-intermediate
Student’s book
Philip Kerry

Publisher

Macmillan Publishers Limited

Price

$14.720

ISBN

978 1405 01057 3
978 0230 02079 5 (with CD Rom)
159 pages

N° of pages
Components

Level

Workbook without key and CD pack
Workbook with key and CD pack
Teacher’s book
Class CDs
Portfolio
Pre-intermediate level

Length

One year

Units

12 units

Lesson/sections

48 lessons (four per unit, ABCD)

Target Skills

Speaking (is the main skill to be
emphasized)
Listening
Reading
Writing
Young adults and adults

Target Learners

Assessment (* Poor ** Fair *** Good
Factor

Rating

Rationale

****

Availability

*

**** Excelent
Comments
It can be said that the book
integrate the four skills in a
very balanced form. It
integrate functional language
The Straight forward book is
available in LibreriaInglesa in
Concepción.
Layout/graphics

****

The straight forward book is
appropriate for young adults
and adults due to the images,
pictures, graphics and some
cartoons are authentic pictures
and full of color.

Selection/grading

**

Authenticity

****

Cultural bias

****

The units of the book are not
graded due to every of them
has independent topics and
target language.
In terms of dialogues the
“Straight Forward” course
book presents very authentic
material, in which most of the
dialogues are related to reallife situations and
conversations and spoken by
native speakers.
The book is British oriented
primarily, due to the CD audio
is mainly recorded by British
native speakers
This course book includes
components that help to
stimuli the students in their
own learning. It contains
workbook and CDs that also
help students to improve
properly their abilities
development.
The course book units are not
interrelated, so the teacher
could skip some units without
affecting the learning process.

Stimulus/practice//revision ****

Flexibility

****
The following activities were taken from the pages 46-49 and 52-53 of the book
“Straight Forward”.
Lesson

U5D:
Holiday
heaven.
We decide
to put first
the lesson
5D
because it
makes
more
sense to
deal with
the places
of
destination
than mean
of
tranport.
(Planes)

Select / Adopt

Reject

Adapt

Reading (part 1): Read the Reading (part Vocabulary(1).Speaking
webpage and match the 2): Read about (1,2).
pictures A-H to the some
more
different holidays.
holidays.
These activities
What type of
will be adapted
It worth retaining this holiday
are
by mixing them
activity because it is a they?
in
just
one
good introduction to the
activity.
With
topic.
We do not
the vocabulary
intend to use
provided
the
Reading (part 3): Match this activity
student has to
the paragrahpd 1-4 to the because
the
create a dialogue
holidays in the webpage part 1 of the
in which he/she
advertisement.
reading
is
is a tourist guide
enough as an
of her/his own
It is worth retaining this introduction
city so they have
activity because students to the topic.
to decide what
can relate the use of the
he/she intends to
vocabulary in a real Vocabulary
do with the
context.
(part 2,3)
tourists
to
present it in
Pronunciation (1,2,3).
We do not
class.
intend to use
It is worth retaining this this activity
In this way it
activity because students because they
would be easier
can practice and learn the have
to
for the student
new vocabulary of the prepare
a
to create the
unit.
dialogue and
dialogue
with
it will be
the
new
boring to have
vocabulary
two
similar
because
the
activities.
activity will be
more
personalized.

U
5B: Speaking: Work in pairs. Think of
Planes
a
long/interesting/boring/frightening
journey you have been on.
Describe your journey.

Pronunciation: Vocabulary (1)
Intonation
Listening (1)
(1.45,1.46, 6)
These activities will be
We do not adapted by mixing
intend to use them. Students will

Extra
Material
It is worth retaining this activity these
because it is an effective way to activities
introduce the topic.
because there
are more like
Vocabulary (2) : Put the phrases listening
in the correct order.
activities than
pronunciation
It is worth retaining this activity practice and
because student can identify the they already
verbs often used with the new practice
vocabulary.
listening.
Listening (2,3):

Roleplay (7).

It is worth retaining these
activities because they have to
acquire listening skills and this is
a good way to develop it.

We do not
intend to use
these
activities
because they
already had
other listening
activities that
we considered
more
important that
this one and
having
a
similar
one
would
be
boring
for
them.

Pronunciation: Intonation
(1.45)
It is worth retaining this activity
because it is important for second
language students to acquire the
correct intonation as a part of the
pronunciation.
Functional
(1).

language:

Requests

It is worth retaining this activity
because completing the chart with
the different ways of responding
the request it is a good way of
learning them by hard.

Functional
language:
Requests (2).
Find 5 more
mistakes
in
the dialogue
and
correct
them.
We do not
intend to use
this activity
because it is
not necessary
if
they
complete the
chart with the
correct form.

have to find new
vocabulary
in
the
pictures above and after
that describe what is
happening in
each
picture.
In this way it would be
better for the student to
use the new vocabulary
previously recognized
in the pictures to create
sentences.
U
5A: Speaking (1).
Tourist
Trail.
It is worth retaining this activity
because
students
would
participate more if the activity
involves their real context.
Reading (2,3).
It is worth retaining these
activities because there are good
ways to prove they understood the
reading.
Vocabulary (1,2,3).
It is worth retaining these
activities because it is necessary
that
students
learn
about
compound nouns and discussing
with a partner is a good way to
activate previous knowledge.
Grammar (1,2,3).
It is worth retaining these
activities because they need to
read the grammatical rule for
future plans, in that way they
would be able to develop any
activity related with the future
tense. Moreover, the 3rd part of the
activity is a more interesting way
to make them produce what they
just learnt.

Reading (1).

Vocabulary (4).

We do not
intend to use
this activity
because
it
does not seem
relevant for us
to do it.

This activity will be
adapted by doing it as a
speaking, because in
that way students can
make a relation between
the compound nouns
they learnt and use them
in a real conversation.
The following activities were taken from pages 48-49 and 50-51 of the book “Straight
Forward”.
Lesson:
Planes

5B

1. Speaking: This activity is Communicative of the social kind
because although the book give the students the topic they
have to discuss, they can answer however is more convenient
to them and also giving freedom in their answers.
2. Vocabulary (1): This is a Pre-communicative activity of the
quasi-communication type because students have to relate the
vocabulary words studied with the images provided of a real
context.
3. Vocabulary (2): This is a Pre-communicative activity of the
structural type because students have to practice the
grammatical rules previously learnt at the moment of ordering
the phrases.
4. Listening (1): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because they have to produce a speaking by
making a relation with the structures previously learnt.
5. Listening (2): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because is a controlled activity and they have
to relate the new vocabulary with the images of the book.
6. Listening (3): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because students have to listen and make a
relation between what they learnt and what they are hearing of
a real context situation.
7. Functional Language: requests (1): This is a precommunicative activity of the structural type because they are
learning the grammatical structure of requests by identifying
them in a text and completing a chart.
8. Functional Language: requests (2): This is a precommunicative activity of the structural type because they
have to correct grammar mistakes inside a text.
9. Pronunciation (5): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because students have to listen and make a
relation between what they learnt and what they are hearing of
a real context situation.
10. Pronunciation (6): This is a pre-communicative activity of the
quasi-communicative type because students have to practice
with a given situational dialogue which is more a controlled
activity.
11. Role play (7): This is a communicative activity of the
functional type because they have to use the language they
learnt in a given situation.
Lesson: 5C A
weekend
break.

1. Vocabulary and speaking: Hotels (1): This is a Precommunicative activity of the quasi-communicative type
because they are relating the new words learnt from the box to
the use of language in a real context.
2. Vocabulary and speaking (2): This is a Pre-communicative
activity of the quasi-communicative type because they are
choosing from a given list of activities so they are making
relations between what they learnt and a real context.
3. Vocabulary and speaking (3): This is a Communicative
activity of the functional type because there is not an
interaction with other person so it cannot be social.
4. Vocabulary and speaking (4): This is a communicative activity
of the functional type because students have to answer to
specific question so it is more guided.
5. Listening (1): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because they have to explain why they would
like to stay there using the language they have learnt.
6. Listening (2): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because students have to listen and make a
relation between what they learnt and what they are hearing of
a real context situation.
7. Listening (3): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because of the same reasons of the listening
above.
8. Listening (4): This is a communicative activity of the
functional type because they have to retell a story which was
given using the structures learnt.
9. Grammar (1): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because students have to complete a sentence
with the words given so they solve the problem.
10. Grammar (2): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because the students have to make a decision
on what to say in a real context.
11. Grammar (3): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because although it seems as a grammar
activity they have to decide which verb it is the best in a
sentence which they already learnt the grammatical structure.
12. Grammar (4): This is a Pre-communicative activity of the
quasi-communicative type because although they have to
practice a dialogue in pairs, this is a situational dialogue which
means it was given.
13. Did you know? (1): This is a communicative activity of the
functional type because students have to infer what it is the
answer of the question before reading the text.
14. Did you know? (2): This is a Communicative activity of the
functional type because students have to answer the given
questions which makes the activity more guided.
Skills and Topic
Tomlinson (2011) suggested that a course book aims to provide as much as
possible in one book and is designed so that it could be used as the only book that the
students necessarily use during a course. Such a course book frequently includes work
related to the systems of the language, functions and the four skills. The Straight
Forward course book seems to be very complete not only in terms of the four skills but
also in terms of the system of the language, which are grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation, due to every unit has been divided into them in order to promote a
complete learning of the language. Concerning grammar, the straight forward book
emphasizes it through targeted activities at the end of each unit in which the
grammatical rules are explained in detail.
In terms of the skills, they are emphasized in a great number of activities. First
of all, regarding to reading activities, the Straight Forward book contains a great number
of reading activities (two or three per unit) that are associated with the interests of the
students; moreover, the contents of the reading, and the vocabulary of it corresponds to
the level of the pre-intermediate students level.
in terms of listening, Ur (1996) argued that in listening comprehension activities
the students should learn to function successfully in real-life listening situations, what
means that is not very helpful for them to base listening exercises on passages that are
read aloud and followed by comprehension questions, on the contrary, Ur(1996)
highlighted that the listening activities should be based on simulated real-life situations,
because it will be more interesting and motivating for the learners than contrived
textbook comprehension exercises. In the case of the course book the reading and
listening comprehension activities are presented in a contextualized way, in which the
students have the chance to predict before they start reading or listening the text or file;
moreover, the organization of the activities follows the receptive skills lesson plan
format which is pre-task, while-task and finally post-task. Listening activities are
presented in at least one or two lessons in each unit and they are related to specific topic
and real-life situations such as phone calls, school days experiences, and radio interview
to mention some of them. As complements, there are two CDs recorded by British
native speakers. The first volume is just for the recordings and there are 64 files that
correspond to the 12 units presented in the book. The recordings emphasize some
features of phonetics such as pronunciation, specifically intonation and stress. The
second volume contains the activities and the tests from the 12 units. There is a wide
variety of topics including social issues and other ones related to social life. The fact
that the files are recorded by British native speakers makes it to promote real and
authentic language.
Speaking is one of the most important skills in a second language, due to it is the
primarily form of communication, and as Ur (1996) mentioned, most of the foreign
language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak. The Straight Forward
book presents a lot of speaking activities; there are at least one or two speaking
activities per lesson, which indicates that the book emphasizes speaking activities over
the rest of the skills. McGrath (2002) argued that “drama activities” such as role play
and to lesser extent simulation are used to provide opportunities for students to use
language spontaneously and creatively; furthermore, Ur (1996) suggests that role-play
activities are virtually the only way that gives learners the opportunity to practice
improvising a range of real-life spoken language in the classroom and it is a particularly
effective technique if the students are confident and cooperative. In the straight forward
book it can be found a lot of activities related to role-play, dialogues and describing that
help students to become more flexible communicators in English language.
Finally, in terms of writing, the straight forward book does not present many
activities related to writing; moreover, in most of the activities the instructions and the
structures the students have to follow are very clear, and also they are related to realcontext due to students are asked to write emails (formal and informal), descriptions (of
their friends or family members and of their cities, for instance) restaurant and film
reviews among others.
Another important component of this book is related to its topics. Regarding this
issue, the Straight Forward presents a wide range of topics, which are interrelated in
every unit.
The material presented in all the units are separated in different lessons
connected to the main topic of the unit. The content of every lesson is sufficient for
students’ interest due to it includes many themes, such as, education topics, tourist
trials, global issues, fashion, and animal lovers among others. To complement this, Ur
(1996) suggests that teachers can adapt some themes and make them even more
interesting for students. For this reason, students are able to be involved sooner or later
in the lessons. Together with this, students are put in different current situations while
doing the activities; therefore, they can enrich their experience when learning the target
language with highly sophisticated content carefully selected based on students’ level of
English. In addition, the Straight Forward course book put especial emphasize on social
and cultural contexts, so students can learn and use the language in common real
situations and make use of it in order to promote fluent interaction with native English
speakers. Another important aspects that is worthy to mention, is that this book does not
present genre preferences, in other words, it can be used for both, men and woman, with
no disadvantages for any of them. Moreover, in several units this book presents
different lessons related to different cultures around the world such as the Machu Picchu
and the Empire of China, which makes this course book very flexible for the teacher due
to its variety of content.
As a conclusion, it can be mentioned that the book integrates the four skills in a
real-life context activities and in a very organized form. Besides, it is necessary to
highlight that the Straight Forward course book emphasizes speaking over the other
skills with the intention to promote a communicative learning. This linked with a
perfect variation of topics to cover up all students’ interests in order to make the lessons
more catchy and interesting for them.
References
McGrath, I. (2002). Materials evaluation and design for language teaching.
Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (2011). Materials development in language teaching.Cambridge
University Press.
UR,

P.

(1997).

A

course

in

Language

Teaching:

CambriageTeacher Training and Development.

Practice

and

Theory.

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Coursebook Evaluation

  • 1. CoursebookAnalysis Dannae Del Campo, Gabriela Quezada, Angel Sandoval Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (UCSC)
  • 2. Teacher’s Interview As Paula Morales expresses course books are important to guide teachers in certain specific topics using grammar, pronunciation and listening. However, according to Miss Morales’ point of view some sequences of units are not coherent to be followed step by step. Therefore, she states that when the activities are boring and not appealing to students’ interests it is important to adapt and supplement them by taking into account students’ background, students’ age and their likes and dislikes. Moreover, her own preferences are another important fact because if she can find another activity that suits the class better and that deals with the features that students have to learn, she changes it. For this reason, she explains that the way for adapting and supplementing the activities of the course book it is based on having present the level of students and the topics covered in the book so they become motivated. Although Miss Morales supplements a big part of the course book she uses, she finds very useful the speaking activities it has. She mentions that she develops the speaking parts because students can practice grammar and phonetics at the same time, being grammar one of the aspects which students found boring. At last but not the least, Miss Morales considers that course books are useful as a guide for teachers although is not advisable to be ruled by them. Moreover she expresses that she would like them to have more music and more kinesthetic activities that allow students to move and speak at the same time.
  • 3. FACTUAL DETAIL Title Author Straight Forward Pre-intermediate Student’s book Philip Kerry Publisher Macmillan Publishers Limited Price $14.720 ISBN 978 1405 01057 3 978 0230 02079 5 (with CD Rom) 159 pages N° of pages Components Level Workbook without key and CD pack Workbook with key and CD pack Teacher’s book Class CDs Portfolio Pre-intermediate level Length One year Units 12 units Lesson/sections 48 lessons (four per unit, ABCD) Target Skills Speaking (is the main skill to be emphasized) Listening Reading Writing Young adults and adults Target Learners Assessment (* Poor ** Fair *** Good Factor Rating Rationale **** Availability * **** Excelent Comments It can be said that the book integrate the four skills in a very balanced form. It integrate functional language The Straight forward book is available in LibreriaInglesa in Concepción.
  • 4. Layout/graphics **** The straight forward book is appropriate for young adults and adults due to the images, pictures, graphics and some cartoons are authentic pictures and full of color. Selection/grading ** Authenticity **** Cultural bias **** The units of the book are not graded due to every of them has independent topics and target language. In terms of dialogues the “Straight Forward” course book presents very authentic material, in which most of the dialogues are related to reallife situations and conversations and spoken by native speakers. The book is British oriented primarily, due to the CD audio is mainly recorded by British native speakers This course book includes components that help to stimuli the students in their own learning. It contains workbook and CDs that also help students to improve properly their abilities development. The course book units are not interrelated, so the teacher could skip some units without affecting the learning process. Stimulus/practice//revision **** Flexibility ****
  • 5. The following activities were taken from the pages 46-49 and 52-53 of the book “Straight Forward”. Lesson U5D: Holiday heaven. We decide to put first the lesson 5D because it makes more sense to deal with the places of destination than mean of tranport. (Planes) Select / Adopt Reject Adapt Reading (part 1): Read the Reading (part Vocabulary(1).Speaking webpage and match the 2): Read about (1,2). pictures A-H to the some more different holidays. holidays. These activities What type of will be adapted It worth retaining this holiday are by mixing them activity because it is a they? in just one good introduction to the activity. With topic. We do not the vocabulary intend to use provided the Reading (part 3): Match this activity student has to the paragrahpd 1-4 to the because the create a dialogue holidays in the webpage part 1 of the in which he/she advertisement. reading is is a tourist guide enough as an of her/his own It is worth retaining this introduction city so they have activity because students to the topic. to decide what can relate the use of the he/she intends to vocabulary in a real Vocabulary do with the context. (part 2,3) tourists to present it in Pronunciation (1,2,3). We do not class. intend to use It is worth retaining this this activity In this way it activity because students because they would be easier can practice and learn the have to for the student new vocabulary of the prepare a to create the unit. dialogue and dialogue with it will be the new boring to have vocabulary two similar because the activities. activity will be more personalized. U 5B: Speaking: Work in pairs. Think of Planes a long/interesting/boring/frightening journey you have been on. Describe your journey. Pronunciation: Vocabulary (1) Intonation Listening (1) (1.45,1.46, 6) These activities will be We do not adapted by mixing intend to use them. Students will Extra Material
  • 6. It is worth retaining this activity these because it is an effective way to activities introduce the topic. because there are more like Vocabulary (2) : Put the phrases listening in the correct order. activities than pronunciation It is worth retaining this activity practice and because student can identify the they already verbs often used with the new practice vocabulary. listening. Listening (2,3): Roleplay (7). It is worth retaining these activities because they have to acquire listening skills and this is a good way to develop it. We do not intend to use these activities because they already had other listening activities that we considered more important that this one and having a similar one would be boring for them. Pronunciation: Intonation (1.45) It is worth retaining this activity because it is important for second language students to acquire the correct intonation as a part of the pronunciation. Functional (1). language: Requests It is worth retaining this activity because completing the chart with the different ways of responding the request it is a good way of learning them by hard. Functional language: Requests (2). Find 5 more mistakes in the dialogue and correct them. We do not intend to use this activity because it is not necessary if they complete the chart with the correct form. have to find new vocabulary in the pictures above and after that describe what is happening in each picture. In this way it would be better for the student to use the new vocabulary previously recognized in the pictures to create sentences.
  • 7. U 5A: Speaking (1). Tourist Trail. It is worth retaining this activity because students would participate more if the activity involves their real context. Reading (2,3). It is worth retaining these activities because there are good ways to prove they understood the reading. Vocabulary (1,2,3). It is worth retaining these activities because it is necessary that students learn about compound nouns and discussing with a partner is a good way to activate previous knowledge. Grammar (1,2,3). It is worth retaining these activities because they need to read the grammatical rule for future plans, in that way they would be able to develop any activity related with the future tense. Moreover, the 3rd part of the activity is a more interesting way to make them produce what they just learnt. Reading (1). Vocabulary (4). We do not intend to use this activity because it does not seem relevant for us to do it. This activity will be adapted by doing it as a speaking, because in that way students can make a relation between the compound nouns they learnt and use them in a real conversation.
  • 8. The following activities were taken from pages 48-49 and 50-51 of the book “Straight Forward”. Lesson: Planes 5B 1. Speaking: This activity is Communicative of the social kind because although the book give the students the topic they have to discuss, they can answer however is more convenient to them and also giving freedom in their answers. 2. Vocabulary (1): This is a Pre-communicative activity of the quasi-communication type because students have to relate the vocabulary words studied with the images provided of a real context. 3. Vocabulary (2): This is a Pre-communicative activity of the structural type because students have to practice the grammatical rules previously learnt at the moment of ordering the phrases. 4. Listening (1): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because they have to produce a speaking by making a relation with the structures previously learnt. 5. Listening (2): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because is a controlled activity and they have to relate the new vocabulary with the images of the book. 6. Listening (3): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because students have to listen and make a relation between what they learnt and what they are hearing of a real context situation. 7. Functional Language: requests (1): This is a precommunicative activity of the structural type because they are learning the grammatical structure of requests by identifying them in a text and completing a chart. 8. Functional Language: requests (2): This is a precommunicative activity of the structural type because they have to correct grammar mistakes inside a text. 9. Pronunciation (5): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because students have to listen and make a relation between what they learnt and what they are hearing of a real context situation. 10. Pronunciation (6): This is a pre-communicative activity of the quasi-communicative type because students have to practice with a given situational dialogue which is more a controlled activity. 11. Role play (7): This is a communicative activity of the functional type because they have to use the language they learnt in a given situation.
  • 9. Lesson: 5C A weekend break. 1. Vocabulary and speaking: Hotels (1): This is a Precommunicative activity of the quasi-communicative type because they are relating the new words learnt from the box to the use of language in a real context. 2. Vocabulary and speaking (2): This is a Pre-communicative activity of the quasi-communicative type because they are choosing from a given list of activities so they are making relations between what they learnt and a real context. 3. Vocabulary and speaking (3): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because there is not an interaction with other person so it cannot be social. 4. Vocabulary and speaking (4): This is a communicative activity of the functional type because students have to answer to specific question so it is more guided. 5. Listening (1): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because they have to explain why they would like to stay there using the language they have learnt. 6. Listening (2): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because students have to listen and make a relation between what they learnt and what they are hearing of a real context situation. 7. Listening (3): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because of the same reasons of the listening above. 8. Listening (4): This is a communicative activity of the functional type because they have to retell a story which was given using the structures learnt. 9. Grammar (1): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because students have to complete a sentence with the words given so they solve the problem. 10. Grammar (2): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because the students have to make a decision on what to say in a real context. 11. Grammar (3): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because although it seems as a grammar activity they have to decide which verb it is the best in a sentence which they already learnt the grammatical structure. 12. Grammar (4): This is a Pre-communicative activity of the quasi-communicative type because although they have to practice a dialogue in pairs, this is a situational dialogue which means it was given. 13. Did you know? (1): This is a communicative activity of the functional type because students have to infer what it is the answer of the question before reading the text. 14. Did you know? (2): This is a Communicative activity of the functional type because students have to answer the given questions which makes the activity more guided.
  • 10. Skills and Topic Tomlinson (2011) suggested that a course book aims to provide as much as possible in one book and is designed so that it could be used as the only book that the students necessarily use during a course. Such a course book frequently includes work related to the systems of the language, functions and the four skills. The Straight Forward course book seems to be very complete not only in terms of the four skills but also in terms of the system of the language, which are grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, due to every unit has been divided into them in order to promote a complete learning of the language. Concerning grammar, the straight forward book emphasizes it through targeted activities at the end of each unit in which the grammatical rules are explained in detail. In terms of the skills, they are emphasized in a great number of activities. First of all, regarding to reading activities, the Straight Forward book contains a great number of reading activities (two or three per unit) that are associated with the interests of the students; moreover, the contents of the reading, and the vocabulary of it corresponds to the level of the pre-intermediate students level. in terms of listening, Ur (1996) argued that in listening comprehension activities the students should learn to function successfully in real-life listening situations, what means that is not very helpful for them to base listening exercises on passages that are read aloud and followed by comprehension questions, on the contrary, Ur(1996) highlighted that the listening activities should be based on simulated real-life situations, because it will be more interesting and motivating for the learners than contrived textbook comprehension exercises. In the case of the course book the reading and listening comprehension activities are presented in a contextualized way, in which the
  • 11. students have the chance to predict before they start reading or listening the text or file; moreover, the organization of the activities follows the receptive skills lesson plan format which is pre-task, while-task and finally post-task. Listening activities are presented in at least one or two lessons in each unit and they are related to specific topic and real-life situations such as phone calls, school days experiences, and radio interview to mention some of them. As complements, there are two CDs recorded by British native speakers. The first volume is just for the recordings and there are 64 files that correspond to the 12 units presented in the book. The recordings emphasize some features of phonetics such as pronunciation, specifically intonation and stress. The second volume contains the activities and the tests from the 12 units. There is a wide variety of topics including social issues and other ones related to social life. The fact that the files are recorded by British native speakers makes it to promote real and authentic language. Speaking is one of the most important skills in a second language, due to it is the primarily form of communication, and as Ur (1996) mentioned, most of the foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak. The Straight Forward book presents a lot of speaking activities; there are at least one or two speaking activities per lesson, which indicates that the book emphasizes speaking activities over the rest of the skills. McGrath (2002) argued that “drama activities” such as role play and to lesser extent simulation are used to provide opportunities for students to use language spontaneously and creatively; furthermore, Ur (1996) suggests that role-play activities are virtually the only way that gives learners the opportunity to practice improvising a range of real-life spoken language in the classroom and it is a particularly effective technique if the students are confident and cooperative. In the straight forward
  • 12. book it can be found a lot of activities related to role-play, dialogues and describing that help students to become more flexible communicators in English language. Finally, in terms of writing, the straight forward book does not present many activities related to writing; moreover, in most of the activities the instructions and the structures the students have to follow are very clear, and also they are related to realcontext due to students are asked to write emails (formal and informal), descriptions (of their friends or family members and of their cities, for instance) restaurant and film reviews among others. Another important component of this book is related to its topics. Regarding this issue, the Straight Forward presents a wide range of topics, which are interrelated in every unit. The material presented in all the units are separated in different lessons connected to the main topic of the unit. The content of every lesson is sufficient for students’ interest due to it includes many themes, such as, education topics, tourist trials, global issues, fashion, and animal lovers among others. To complement this, Ur (1996) suggests that teachers can adapt some themes and make them even more interesting for students. For this reason, students are able to be involved sooner or later in the lessons. Together with this, students are put in different current situations while doing the activities; therefore, they can enrich their experience when learning the target language with highly sophisticated content carefully selected based on students’ level of English. In addition, the Straight Forward course book put especial emphasize on social and cultural contexts, so students can learn and use the language in common real situations and make use of it in order to promote fluent interaction with native English speakers. Another important aspects that is worthy to mention, is that this book does not
  • 13. present genre preferences, in other words, it can be used for both, men and woman, with no disadvantages for any of them. Moreover, in several units this book presents different lessons related to different cultures around the world such as the Machu Picchu and the Empire of China, which makes this course book very flexible for the teacher due to its variety of content. As a conclusion, it can be mentioned that the book integrates the four skills in a real-life context activities and in a very organized form. Besides, it is necessary to highlight that the Straight Forward course book emphasizes speaking over the other skills with the intention to promote a communicative learning. This linked with a perfect variation of topics to cover up all students’ interests in order to make the lessons more catchy and interesting for them.
  • 14. References McGrath, I. (2002). Materials evaluation and design for language teaching. Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (2011). Materials development in language teaching.Cambridge University Press. UR, P. (1997). A course in Language Teaching: CambriageTeacher Training and Development. Practice and Theory.