English at Work 3

By Eugene J. Hall

Subjects: Business English, English language, Text-books for foreigners

Description: Foreword English at Work, Book Three, is the third of a series in four levels—four texts, four workbooks, four teacher's books, and recorded tape cassettes— comprising a complete course in English for students whose interest in their new language is primarily vocational. The context which introduces both structural patterns and vocabulary items deals with a number of different work areas and skills. All students learning a new language face a double task: acquiring the grammatical forms of the language—often quite different from those of their native language—and then using these forms in all of their variety within meaningful contexts, whether listening, speaking, reading, or writing. To make this task easier for the students, English at Work introduces new material in a short reading. New structural patterns are then given a more intensive presentation, after which they are practiced in exercises which emphasize their formal elements. After this, the material is again practiced in dialogues that will help the students to use the new structures and vocabulary in the same kind of situations in which native speakers use them. There are twenty lessons in this book; Lessons Ten and Twenty are review lessons that emphasize the formal elements of the material which has been presented. Each of the remaining lessons begins with a reading. The readings in Book Three use some of the narrative techniques that appeared in Books One and Two, but combine them with expository material that presents concepts and ideas about business in general or about specific kinds of businesses. The readings are divided into short sections that are followed by comprehension questions. The teacher should read each section of the reading aloud while the students listen, first with their books closed and then with them open. The teacher should then answer any question the students have about meaning. Next the teacher should call on individual students to read each section or, in larger classes, a sentence or two. For students at the high intermediate level of Textbook Three, repetition practice should be necessary only on sentences which give actual problems in pronunciation or phrasing. After the reading practice and whatever repetition proves to be necessary, the teacher should go on to the comprehension questions. The teacher should read each question and give the answer while the students listen with their books open. Still with books open, the teacher should then ask individual students to answer the questions. The same procedure should be followed with books closed.