ThinkTHINK EnglishENGLISH ELEMENTARY UNITS 1-6 Teacher’s Book Educasia Education in Context ABOUT US AND THIS BOOK This book is published under Creative Commons license: CC Atribution-NonCommercial- NoDerives-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-ND-SA) ShareAlike is only possible upon a written permission from Thabyay Education Foundation. For more information about our copyright policy and Creative Commons licenses, please visit http://www.thabyay.org/creativecommon. html Published 2015 We value feedback. If you have any comments, corrections or suggestions for improvement, please contact us at [email protected] and [email protected] For more information about our services and products, or to order our books, please contact us or visit our websites: www.educasia.org and www.curriculumproject.org Graphic design and layout by Katherine Gibney: www.accurateyak.carbonmade.com Contents Introduction i Placement Test viii Course Map xiii Unit 1: Names and Countries 1 Unit 2: Family and Jobs 18 Unit 3: People and Things 36 Unit 4: Times and Activities 56 Unit 5: Food and Numbers 74 Unit 6: Houses and Directions 92 Pairwork 110 Revision 114 Language Reference 130 Grammar and Usage 130 Phonetic Alphabet 137 World Map 138 Audio Scripts 139 Resources 156 Progress Tests 162 Units 1-2 Test 162 Units 3-4 Test 166 Units 5-6 Test 171 Answers 176 Introduction Think English Elementary information about the main language and is the first half of a 12 unit English course grammar points covered in each unit, a designed for adult learners from Myanmar. phonetic chart and a world map It is useful for Myanmar people who want to • Audio Scripts communicate in English including: 2. Teacher’s Book • People who work with English speakers The Teacher’s Book 1-6 contains detailed • University students who want to teaching instructions and answers to exercises. At supplement their English studies appropriate points, Language & Culture Notes • Post-secondary students who want to explain specific linguistic and cultural features of improve their English English-speaking countries, and Extra Idea boxes • Adult learners in education courses and suggest activities for further practice. In addition, programmes the Teacher’s Book includes: • Teachers who want communicative teaching ideas for their classes • advice on how to use the course most • Teachers who want locally relevant material effectively: ways to adapt it to suit your class; to supplement a commercial English course ideas for extra practice exercises and activities; • People who travel abroad. explanations of frequently-used terms; and suggested extra materials to supplement the It is designed for adult and young adult course students of English (around 16+). Some of the • a Placement Test to check whether Think topics and functions are not appropriate for English Elementary is the right level for your primary, middle or high school students. students • a Resources section with classroom activities you can photocopy or copy by hand Components of Think English • three Progress Tests, one for every three Think English consists of a Student’s Book, a units, to let you know how well students can Teacher’s Book and audio recordings for the understand and use the language and skills listening activities. All these components and covered in the course other additional material can also be downloaded • a CD including audio recordings in MP3 from our websites: www.educasia.org and format. www.curriculumproject.org What’s different about Think English? 1. Student’s Book Think English is written for Myanmar people The Student’s Book 1-6 has 6 units, each with a and context. Most other commercially published structural, functional and skills focused syllabi. courses are written for Europeans or Latin Americans who want to live or travel in the Every unit includes a Learning Strategies section, UK or North America. Teachers and learners in where students look at ways they can improve their Myanmar, and throughout Asia, often find that own language learning, and a Practice section the topics and functions in these materials have covering language studied in that unit. little in common with their lives, experiences and ambitions. At the back of the book there are: • a section of Pair-Work activities for Partner A Think English focuses on the specific needs, and Partner B context and learning environment of Myanmar • two Revision sections where students review learners, while also including a lot of world the language covered in Units 1-3 and 4-6 knowledge content. • a Language Reference containing i THINK ENGLISH ELEMENTARY TEACHER’S BOOK INTRODUCTION Think English teaches mostly British English as this the language within the course. For classes with is more familiar to Myanmar students. However, less time, we provide guidance on what parts to we highlight potentially confusing differences skip. between British English and other dialects such as American and Australian English. A wide variety of At the end of each unit is a short, optional accents, both native and non-native, are used in Learning Strategies section. This encourages the audio recordings. students to reflect on their own language learning and suggests practical ways to improve. A module for your context Think English was developed to meet Myanmar Methodology people and classrooms’ needs. It focuses on the Learning a language requires both input (listening language and skills that Myanmar people need to and reading) and output (speaking and writing). communicate effectively in English. Vocabulary and grammar are part of these. Learners need to understand vocabulary and Think English has a world knowledge, social grammar when they listen and read, and use awareness and critical thinking focus. Topics them when they speak and write. include social, environmental and developmental issues. International settings are fully explained Think English includes a lot of interaction for teachers or students who are not familiar with activities, as many Myanmar learners get few Western cultural norms. opportunities for English language interaction outside class. During interaction they get both There is a little more emphasis on speaking and exposure to the new words and structures listening than reading and writing. Middle and (reading and hearing them), and practice using high schools in Myanmar tend to focus on reading them (speaking and writing). This makes it easier and writing, so students’ speaking and listening for them to learn the language. skills are often weaker and require more practice. Many Myanmar teachers are familiar with a more There is more structural detail about the traditional approach to teaching English that English language than you may find in most focuses on grammar, translation and memorising. communicative textbooks, as Myanmar students This is a communicative course, focusing on (and teachers) are often interested in this. the skills and language needed for real-life Teachers are not expected to be fluent in English communication. However, communicative activities and the Teacher’s Book has clear, step-by-step are explained step-by-step for teachers without instructions and explanations, without too much much experience of communicative classrooms, complicated language. and there are opportunities to use more traditional learning methods where appropriate. Learning tasks for classrooms are designed for low-resource settings. The only equipment that teachers need is a board, pens or chalk and an audio CD or cassette player. A few activities require text to be copied from the back of the book, but this can be done by hand if a photocopier is not available. Think English is cheap to photocopy or print as there are no colour images inside. The student’s material is all in one book (not separate classroom book and workbook) to reduce expense. The course is longer than other elementary courses. Many Myanmar learners have few opportunities to practise English outside the classroom, so there are more opportunities to use THINK ENGLISH ELEMENTARY TEACHER’S BOOK INTRODUCTION ii How do I use Think English 5. I don’t have a tape player / CD player / Elementary? electricity / photocopier. Most of the listening exercises are easy to make 1. Is it the right level for my students? into reading exercises, using the Audio Scripts. This is an elementary course. It starts at a high You can read out the scripts yourself, or get beginner level, and the final few units are at an students to read them to the rest of the class. early pre-intermediate level. If you are not sure There are only five activities that require copying whether students are at the right level to study text (see pages 156-160), and you can do it by this, give them the Placement Test. hand if you don’t have a copying machine. If it is much too difficult, students should study a 6. How can I check that they are learning? beginner course. If it is much too easy, students As you are teaching, ask students questions using should study a pre-intermediate or higher course. the functions and structures they have been studying (see point 3 above). 2. My students find this quite easy, but they are not ready to study a pre-intermediate Observe students’ performance of the activities in course. the book. See if they are mostly getting exercises Before you start teaching a part of the book, you correct, and are completing tasks without can give students the Progress Test, Practice difficulty. Pay particular attention to how well they section or Review section, to find out what they complete the Practice exercises at the end of are good at and what they are not so good at. each unit, and the Revision exercises after every Then you can focus on the language and skills three units. they most need to improve, and skip the rest. Teach it quickly. Skip activities that take a lot of Use the six Progress Tests.