The course book aims at helping learners to develop the confidence and competence to communicate effectively in English, as well as understanding and processing information from a wide range of sources. It also looks beyond the classroom and promotes the values of family and friendship: co-operation, sharing, helping and appreciating who help us.
The course book is intended to accomplish its goal in a 12 -month - course through developing students‟ language skills to:
- Read and understand the main ideas of a variety of texts.
- Participate effectively in a short conversation using appropriate language and understand the main ideas in short oral communications.
- Produce a range of text types using coherent and cohesive paragraphs in an adequately
developed response.
- Demonstrate control of a range of grammatical structures with minor inconsistencies.
2.2.1. Unit structure
The book includes a starter unit and 15 units and a review lesson after every three units that supplies additional exercises of vocabulary, structures and sounds presented in the three preceding units. Except for the starter unit which presents four lessons, other fifteen units always come up with six lessons.
Lesson 1 introduces ten new words with flashcards and a story that creates a context to use the new words. The topics are about the restaurant, the concert, the dinosaur museum, sports time, directions, describing words (adjectives), in space, at the airport, audio-visual entertainment, computers, places, illness, making smoothies, family and jobs. There aren‟t any exercises in this lesson.
Lesson 2 introduces the first grammar spot and two exercises for students to practice.
Grammar includes present simple and continuous, past simple of have and be, past simple: irregular verbs with negatives, possessive pronouns, have to and giving directions, , comparatives and superlatives of long adjectives, the future with will, expressing quantity, infinitive of purpose, present perfect, modal verbs should/ could, object and relative pronouns and past continuous. The activities presented in these lessons are fill in the blanks with the given words, sentence matching and say, fill in the blanks with the given words, use the pictures/ given words then ask and answer/
point and say.
In lesson 3, there will be a further grammar box and a song that help students to reinforce the target language of the unit. It covers time markers in present simple, present continuous, future and past simple, questions in irregular verbs in past simple, regular and irregular adverbs, why/ because, irregular comparatives and superlatives, some. Any, how often…, present perfect: questions, answers and negatives, could/ couldn‟t, dates and grammar homophones. The activities focus
mostly in speaking and writing such as look at the board, say and answer; look at the given information and fill in the blanks, write notes or ask and answer; talk about the pictures, use give information; write about the content of speaking part. In lesson 3, there is a song for children to listen and sing which contains the new target grammar structures.
The phonics knowledge with flashcards is the main point in lesson 4 which enables children to decode new words, thereby improving reading skills and helping them to grasp spelling and pronunciation pattern quickly. This lesson normally introduces through 6 flashcards, some short passages with pictures and 2 exercises. Students can learn about the relationship between letters or letter combinations and the sounds they make such as long a, long e, long o, long u, and long i sounds; f and ph spellings; ll, endings; ck and c endings; soft c and g sounds; au, aw and or spelling;, er and or endings; ur and ir spellings; ea and e spellings; le and al endings; el and il endings;
tion and shion endings; vocabulary homophones. The exercises are circle the words with the sounds; Circle the odd -one -out; Sound matching; Fill in the blanks and Sound classifying
Finally, lesson 5 and lesson 6 are skills times in which reading, listening, speaking and writing skills are concentrated on through various exercises.
Reading texts are about different topics and types, it can be a magazine article, a poem, a non –fiction text, an informative webpage, a fable, an interview, a letter, a TV guide, an account, an information leaflet, a traditional story or online instructions. The first activity is always pre-reading. This stage is about looking for clues to help students understand the meaning of the text. This includes looking at the picture and the text style to guess what type of text it is and what it is likely to be about. The second activity is reading for gist while listening to the recording. The next two activities focus on reading for detail, students have to identify the new vocabulary (underline the target words in the text, guess their meanings then check dictionary) and look for certain information (gap filling exercises, multiple choice questions,
answering questions, true/ false / exercises, story ordering and matching the titles with the right text).
The topics of listening are about eating habits, identifying different musical activities, favorite things on a school trip, children‟s favorite sports, understanding directions, identifying chronology in a fable, identifying details about holidays, identifying details about children‟s favorite TV shows, identifying children‟s computer use, identifying details about life in the Antarctic, children‟s healthy lifestyles, matching people with how they help others, identifying favorite memories and children‟s wishes. The students are requested to listen for gist (activity 1) and listen for detail (activity 2) through exercises such as listening and correcting mistakes, listening and answering questions, note-taking, matching conversation with pictures, gap filling, true/ false questions, completing the table and ordering pictures.
In lesson 6, the students learned key writing and literacy skills such as the double consonant rule, exclamation mark, instruction, identifying irregular plurals, compound words, addressing envelopes, the prefix “un”, topic sentences, connecting sentences using because and so, identifying and using sub clauses, poem structure and rhyme and using speech marks which were then further practiced in the Workbook. There were two workbook pages dedicated to writing practice in each lesson 6, started with a model for their writing, then activities using target literacy skill from the unit as well as providing ideas and vocabulary for support during the writing. Finally, there was space for children to complete their own texts with various types and topics such as writing about my eating habits, writing a description of a picture or writing instructions for a sport. The data used in this research rooted from this source.
The speaking part in lesson 6 is a controlled practice of the target language and topic, for example, talking about eating habit, asking and answering questions about musical preferences or school trip; most of them involve pair work or group work.
The students can ask and answer about the others; they can discuss the question and finally role-play. The activities are concerned with social and cultural aspects of the language which enhance communicative skills.
2.2.2. Appearance and materials
The book is printed in color. The cover is attractive. Most of the pages include colorful pictures. The pages are designed clearly and easy to follow.
Family and Friends 4 first published in 2010 is supported by the following materials:
Supplementary materials for students - Workbook
- Audio CD - iTools
• Supplementary materials for teachers - Teacher‟s book
- Photocopy Master Book - Testing and Evaluation Book - Words flashcards
- Phonics cards
- Values posters interest and hotels…