"Now You're Talking!": Conversation English for Travel & Tourism
Teacher's Book

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to "Now You're Talking!" In these days of information technology and the global village, "travel" English is important to everyone, whether traveling abroad, guiding visitors to our country, or doing business with foreigners. This book helps students to develop necessary "real-life" functional skills by promoting communication and interaction in the classroom: i) developing oral skills; ii) effectively taking on (and using) new language; and iii) reviewing what has already been learned.

Every "speaking" situation in life is a communication problem, in which "meaning" needs to be transferred and information or opinions must be communicated. "Now You're Talking!" helps students to experience and solve these problems using authentic materials in real-life settings, evaluating their success by the level of communication achieved.

Each Chapter of "Now You're Talking" takes a situation in which communication occurs in real-life, and presents a number of activities which use that situation. Some activities are designed around lexis (vocabulary), some around fluency, some suggest relevant language, and others just look at the situation itself, with no linguistic emphasis.

The text speaks directly to the students, and uses language appropriate to their level, reflecting an "interactive", student-centered approach. Instructions (e.g. on how to perform an activity) are tasks in themselves (comprehension tests), and indicate learning levels and needs. Students who perform tasks without asking for help will not only be demonstrating comprehension, but will also be enabling the teacher to assist others who need immediate help and counseling.

This approach assumes a degree of freedom in the classroom which reflects another aim of this book - to encourage students to work by themselves, and to set out on the road to autonomous learning. Chapter 2 actually deals with "Study Skills", and helps the students evaluate the way they currently approach learning. Students who can move from one task to another with ease, should therefore be allowed to do so, as well as being encouraged to take on some sort of project-activity as a follow-up. Those who feel more comfortable working at basic tasks (one-way flow of information, controlled language), should also be allowed to do so. The teacher, as facilitator and counselor, will then be able to judge what input is appropriate for different groups, and will be able to offer this, having been freed from the burden of having to present the same lesson content to everyone.

Because of this, many activities can (and should) be performed in a variety of ways. This is true of many language-learning activities, which can be adapted to the needs of the students, but the aim here is to encourage the students themselves to do the adapting and the creating. A useful follow-up (or review) for any activity (however basic) is to suggest that the students find another way of performing it.

Thank you for choosing to use this book. We hope that it will be a rewarding and enjoyable experience for teachers and students alike, and that the contents will encourage, stimulate, motivate, inform, amuse, and extend all those who use them.

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Andrew E. Finch, Hyun Tae-duck

January 2000, August 2001

 
 
 

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