Page 19 - ELG1601 Feb Issue 433

ELreviews
February 2016 Page 19
Learning for life

Wayne Trotman on a groundbreaking new series Book of the month

C21 – English for the 21st sons. You’re way off the mark C21 is efficiently set out. Level Eyes Open 3 Living’ and ‘Adventure’ should appeal to the
Century already! 3 Unit 4 is entitled ‘Teams and
Level One Coursebook (Nina OK, so what else does C21 do Groups’ and starts, as all oth- Ben Goldstein, Ceri Jones and Vicki target users. Each of the eight units starts
Anderson with Eoin Higgins, CUP and
with an eye-catching photograph,
O’Driscoll), Level Two that might float your boat? Well, ers do, with an open question
Coursebook (Nina O’Driscoll even a quick glimpse through the designed to encourage students Discovery Education; accompanied by an invitation to ‘Be curious’
978-1-1074-6764-4
and several questions to engage students’
and Jake Hughes), Level Three three titles will draw your atten- to formulate their views and
Coursebook (Jake Hughes) tion to that fact that they contain discuss them with their peers. This new general English coursebook for interest. The authors’ intention is to make
learning a meaningful experience. The
Garnet Education culturally sensitive material, In this case it asks what sorts of B1-level teenagers includes a series of additional Clil strand is excellent, with useful
which will of course appeal to teams and groups the class can high-interest videos provided by Discovery input on renewable energy, geography and
lthough this series con- the ever-increasing numbers of think of. Clearly stated are the Education. These videos are informative, perspectives in art. There are useful
sists of five levels in international students on courses skills in focus in the unit plus providing cultural knowledge on areas such grammar and vocabulary banks at the back
Atotal, this review covers everywhere. Along with global the C21 skills, which on this as ancient Mayan calendars, Australia and of the book. This visually stimulating
only the first three, which cater superstars such as Penelope occasion include learning from the explorer Magellan. The topics ‘Extreme coursebook is full of rich content.
for learners at CEFR levels Cruz and Shakira, we find out mistakes and finding solutions.
A1 to A2. Each level provides about the more humble lives of Four pages of tasks support-
over a hundred study hours. those such as a young lady called ing the development of these A Practical Introduction to snapshot of a lesson. vocabulary syllabus is based
Having got that off my chest, Funda from Izmir, my own city. skills can be found at the end of Teacher Training in ELT ‘Terminology pelmanism’ is on the Oxford 3000, a list of
I know that regular readers Call me sentimental if you like, each unit, following which are John Hughes, Pavilion; a useful game-like activity; frequent and relevant words.
of reviews immediately think but this immediately gave C21 further activities encouraging 978-1-9103-6699-8 cards are supplied. The prose Like the other books in this
coursebooks tend to re-invent a personal feel to me. Imagine the learner both to reflect and is clear; the tone is friendly general English series, the
the wheel by churning out how your own students from to plan ahead. As you will have This highly practical and personable. This approach to teaching the four
the same grammar grind via Korea might react when, per- worked out by now, there will be 168-page book introduces handbook fulfils the aim language skills is based
ever-more fabulous-sounding haps far from home, they read in very few bored early finishers in language teachers to the outlined in the title and is partly on recent academic
topics. Well, sorry to disap- Level One about Lee Min-Jung your class when using C21. world of teacher training. most suitable for those new research. The texts are
point, because this series does from Seoul. Although the coursebook is at The six chapters cover to this area. Worth suitably short and often
the opposite – and extremely All well and good thus far, the heart of C21, accompanying training techniques, investigation. intrinsically interesting;
well. Still interested? but for me the major strength this is the possibility of a digital monitoring teaching practice, ‘Geo-caching’ – using an app
Level One topics, for exam- of C21 is how it would fit in workbook containing quizzes, lesson observation and Navigate, Elementary A2 to locate hidden treasure – is
ple, will be familiar to most of with institutions which wish to crosswords, word searches and managing training Paul Dummett, Jake Hughes a fascinating topic. The
us: ‘People and Places’, ‘Work’ be paper free. ‘What does that several other games, all of which programmes. One innovative and Katie Wood, OUP; digital support material
and ‘Time’ being three of the mean?’ I can almost hear you may be monitored by the teacher aspect of the book is the 978-0-1945-6637-7 includes online exercises, an
six there. It’s what is done with say. Answer: all components in order to check learner progress. focus on online training, such ebook version and a ground-
such topics and how which are also available digitally. To One more smashing feature of as delivering webinars. I like The A2 level of this new breaking app which recycles
is groundbreaking. C21 inte- give an example, apart from this exciting series is the slide- the ‘graph observation form’ flagship coursebook consists vocabulary. The book has a
grates both 21st-century skills the printed coursebook, which shows, which take a humorous which provides a visual of twelve units. The fresh, modern design.
and academic skills; while the comes with audio DVD and glance at topics covered in each
former prepare students for the MP3s, the interactive version level. Oh, and I nearly forgot, to
workplace and life in general, has embedded audio. The same save the teacher’s valuable time, Reviews by Pete Sharma for the Bournemouth English Book Centre: www.bebc.co.uk
academic skills prepare them feature applies to both work- at the back there are progress
for tertiary-level study. Go on, book and teacher’s book. No tests for each unit. n
admit the truth, you thought need for learners or teachers to
C21 would be one more title carry around a sackful of books Wayne Trotman teaches
devoted only to the needs of with them. EAP at Izmir Katip Çelebi
higher education entry per- Here’s an example of how University, Turkey

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