Longman International English Course Teacher's Book (4)

Author: Molinsky (S.J.), Bliss (B.) Eds., Shao Yanyi, He Ping Translated and Annotated
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-06-01
Features: There are two main approaches to writing textbooks for the foundational stage of English learning: one centered on grammatical systems and the other centered on communicative functions. Both approaches have their own strengths and weaknesses. Textbooks written with a grammatical system as the main focus emphasize systematic mastery of grammar, proficiency in constructing sentences, and accuracy, but they often neglect the development of students' communicative skills. The extreme manifestation of this is knowing grammar well but being unable to speak fluently. Textbooks written with communicative functions as the main focus prioritize the cultivation of students' ability to use language for communication, but they often overlook the requirements for linguistic accuracy (including grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.), with the extreme manifestation being bold in speaking but riddled with language errors. Communication is the fundamental purpose of learning a foreign language. Spending hours studying grammar rules but being unable to communicate with others is almost equivalent to learning for nothing. Conversely, the grammatical rules of a language (broadly speaking, including grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation) are the foundation of the language, and no sentence can exist without grammar. Those who only seek to meet immediate communicative needs without pursuing solid language proficiency will eventually find themselves unable to express themselves clearly and lacking the ability to perform, only to be mocked by others. Ideal textbooks and corresponding teaching methods should strike a reasonable balance between grammatical ability and communicative ability, as well as achieve an organic integration of the two. In recent years, many textbooks written domestically and internationally have made efforts in this direction and achieved varying degrees of success. This set of "Side by Side: An International English Course" for secondary school English teaching, adapted and published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press after being introduced from Longman Publishing Group, is considered a relatively successful example. In the four books of this series, each lesson has a grammatical focus point, along with communicative scenarios where the grammatical item is frequently used, allowing students to immediately apply the grammar they learn to language communication.