Page 30 - ELG2205 May Issue 480

REVIEW .

HISTORY’S MYSTERIES
Created by Taylor Sap with Catherine Noble,
Peter Lacey, Mina Gavell and Andrew Lawrence
Alphabet Publishing, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-956159-00-4
f asked to research, discuss and try to
solve some of history’s biggest puzzles,
I wonder how many learners of English
Iwould turn down the opportunity to do
so; not many that I can readily think of.
In fact, puzzles are the central theme to
this title, another great resource from the
publishers who brought us the enticing Stories
Without End (see EL Gazette issue 467), in
which learners were asked to write endings
to weird and wonderful tales. As many of
the lengthy readings in History’s Mysteries
involve monsters, murderers, disappearances,
aliens, witches and ghosts, reviewing this
material made a wonderful change from my
recent focus on pedagogic tomes on drilling
and 21st-century skills. Put simply, I was
engrossed by the mysteries and can guarantee
your classes will be, too.
First things first; the purpose of the
readings is to create history-themed topics
which, by capturing and holding learners’ PHOTO BY PIXABAY
attention, help develop a variety of
language skills. Each chapter is organised
in the same way. Open-ended topics titled
‘Your Briefing’, such as the real identity of
serial killer Jack the Ripper, are preceded Learning through
by questions to engage the reader. Also
included are short tasks with a focus on
lexis needed to process the texts which
each range from 300-800 words. The ‘Your the unknown
Mission’ section is the most appealing, since
here learners are asked, for example, how
they might prevent the assassination of JFK.
Following each text is a comprehension quiz, From a pair of trainers to the Loch Ness monster,
then discussion questions. But that’s not all!.
To complete each theme, learners are able Wayne Trotman looks at unusual teaching tactics
to choose a related follow-up project from
three options.
The opening focus is on Monsters and probably be looking for another job soon accidents? The learner’s mission here is to
Mysterious Creatures, such as dinosaurs, the after delving into that area. interview locals, police and others. I think
Loch Ness Monster and the ancient ape we’d all agree that writing this up might be
known as Bigfoot. Included are photos of more interesting than filling in the gaps on a
each for learners to discuss. As related tasks I think we’d all grammar worksheet.
involve questions like ‘What are the benefits agree that writing this A degree of caution is advised in dealing
of studying dinosaurs and their extinction?’, with the material in this resource. As much
and vocabulary tasks with work on items such up might be more of the above might well indicate, several
as ‘diverse’, ‘emissions’ and ‘asteroids’, we topics would be unsuitable in a school
can surmise that material is aimed at adult interesting than filling classroom. They would, however, be excellent
learners who already possess a decent amount in the gaps on a material for sparking enthusiasm on a
of English language skills, perhaps at good university preparatory-year course in language
intermediate level and beyond. grammar worksheet classrooms filled with sluggish learners glued
Other themes include Heroes and Villains, to their phones. In the right hands, I would
where we find work on a certain Adolf Hitler. strongly recommend this title.
In all my years in ELT (touching 40, if you My favourite puzzle, admittedly a rather
must know) until now I can’t ever recall any ghoulish one, is ‘Floating feet’, which
language-teaching material involving such concerns Reebok training shoes washed up
a figure. Learners are asked how they might on the beach off the coast of Vancouver. Wayne Trotman is
stop Hitler from causing the deaths of so Nothing too unusual about that, you might a teacher educator
many innocent people. That’s fine, though think, until further reading discloses how at Izmir Katip
some of the questions here might not go sticking out of the trainers were human feet. Çelebi University,
down too well, in particular those on the The appearance of such items is apparently Izmir, Turkey.
topic of military coups. Teachers in countries quite common. Explanations are given
where they have recently occurred would on pages 88-89 of this book. Suicides or
30 May 2022