QSE Pre-Intermediate
A modern, controversial and refreshing short-course pack ideal for young adult learnersMost English language teachers find it difficult to find a course book that is both up-to-date and sufficient in its exposure to natural English language. This intermediate course book provides rich practice of the four language skills, whilst exposing learners to modern and controversial topics that are often forgotten about in most course materials, and which foreign students often want to learn about.
The course book itself consists of 16 units. Each unit is made up of 8 sections (Big Question, Focus on Vocabulary, Reading, Listening, Your Turn to Speak, Your Topic and The Last Word), with all topics culminating in a speaking activity which brings together all of the elements of the topic and allows students to use these elements more freely with their own devices. The inner cover of the course book also features a ‘language bank’, with lots of useful language structures that can easily be found for each topic. This can also be used to prompt students in the right direction with each speaking activity at the end of each topic.
The audio CD is labelled clearly as to which topic it correlates to and makes use of both American and British English accents (which is obviuously a good thing). The ‘Focus on…’ vocabulary section in each topic also makes learners aware of American English words, by presenting their American equivalent, e.g. “handbag, (US) purse”.
At the end of each topic, this course book contains references to workbook activities, allowing further language practice. The Last Word section allows students to reflect upon what they have learnt in each topic, which is a great way to get learners to think about the language they have been exposed to. Another great feature of this course book is that it contains lots of useful and up-to-date topics, such as Fair Trade, Online Shopping and Reality TV. Along with this great range of topics comes an excellent selection of useful vocabulary (i.e. baggy, cool and casual to talk about/describe clothing).
At the back of the book is a glossary, which contains key words and definitions taken from each unit, along with page references of where they appear in each unit.