Longman New English Listening and Speaking (Student's Book. Part 1)

Author: Helge
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-28
Features: Longman New English Listening and Speaking is a listening and speaking textbook specifically written for Asian English learners by Longman Publishing. Since its publication, it has quickly become a popular textbook for learning English listening and speaking in Asia. Due to its widespread popularity among learners, the textbook has been revised several times based on extensive feedback from students and teachers, making it even more perfect. The NewGoldEdition being introduced here is the latest version of this textbook.
Target Audience: This textbook is primarily intended for adult learners, especially those who have studied some English but still struggle to communicate directly with foreigners in daily life or work. The textbook consists of two volumes, with the first volume aimed at beginners. Upon completion of this series, English learners will be able to communicate fluently with foreigners on topics related to daily life or work.
Writing Objectives: The textbook aims to develop learners' English communicative competence. Communicative competence refers to the ability to flexibly use English based on the context of communication, the purpose of communication, and the audience. To this end, the textbook is based on the philosophy that learners can only truly master English through meaningful communication; it emphasizes "learning by using" and highlights "learning for use."
Key Features:
1. Authentic, natural, and idiomatic learning materials. The textbook aims to teach learners how to use English fluently and correctly in social life, work, or leisure activities. It closely revolves around basic communicative functions and topics, providing authentic, natural, vivid, and practical oral materials. All the materials are real-life resources that learners are bound to use in communication and can be applied immediately.
2. Close integration of communicative functions, topics, and language learning. Each unit of the textbook includes one or more key functions (e.g., self-introduction, asking personal information, greetings, expressing doubts, apologizing, etc.), teaching students how to initiate, develop, and conclude conversations in daily life, as well as how to express their opinions. Functions and topics are closely linked, with grammar and vocabulary learning incorporated into the content. Through repeated listening and speaking exercises, the textbook lays a solid foundation for students to participate in various communicative activities.
3. Emphasis on listening and speaking, integrating language learning with skill development. Effective communication requires understanding the other person first. The textbook starts with listening, designing various listening tasks to repeatedly train learners' listening comprehension skills, enabling them to communicate based on what they understand. Meaningful communication also requires sufficient language support. This textbook integrates language learning with the development of listening and speaking skills, incorporating language learning into conscious communication. This allows learners to experience and understand the expressive function of language structures in meaningful contexts, avoiding rote memorization and simple application.
4. Innovative and engaging activities, rich in inspiration and challenge. The textbook places great importance on learners' personal experiences and journeys. Many activities, tasks, and exercises are centered around learners' own experiences, making these oral practice activities highly inspiring and challenging. The purpose is to provide learners with opportunities to use the language they have learned to narrate their experiences and express their thoughts and opinions, thereby internalizing the English they have learned and truly achieving practical application.
5. Rich and practical content, closely related to daily life. Each unit of the textbook covers a topic, all of which are closely related to daily life, with rich and idiomatic content. At the same time, through a large number of pictures, tables, and illustrations, the language materials and communication scenarios are vividly presented, undoubtedly sparking learners' strong interest and greatly enhancing the textbook's practicality.
6. Well-organized unit structure, following the principle of progressive learning. The textbook design progresses from listening (Listening) to speaking (Conversation). The duet-style conversational activities (Duet) are the core of the textbook, with "information gap" exercises interspersed among them and combined with personal experience activities, which can increase learner interest and training effectiveness. The language review (LanguageCheck) module highlights the training of key knowledge and structures. Ensemble activities are mostly fun tasks that emphasize interaction among learners. Although they include "operation" instructions, they are also challenging, aiming to build learners' confidence and improve fluency. Solo activities in each unit are application-oriented exercises that combine listening, reading, and writing, serving both as review and reinforcement while emphasizing the integration of learning and application.
Classroom Time Allocation: Each volume of the textbook requires approximately 40–60 class hours. If class time is ample, the teacher's book and the dedicated learning website (www.efcafe.com) developed for this textbook provide many additional learning materials for both teachers and learners to fully utilize.
Learning Tips: Being able to speak fluent, accurate, and appropriate English is every learner's dream, but many English learners often suffer from "high expectations and low execution." The textbook may seem easy at first glance, but when it comes to speaking, they lose confidence. In reality, from the perspective of language itself, understanding something is still knowledge, while being able to use it is only when a habit is formed. To transform knowledge into habits and make it applicable, conscious and meaningful repeated training is required, as well as full physical and mental engagement. The textbook is accompanied by CDs for classroom and extracurricular training. Repeatedly listening to and reciting these materials should not just aim to understand them but to make them come out effortlessly. Only then can it be said that true mastery has been achieved, and language habits can gradually be formed. Since language is the carrier and externalization of thought, language expression is the expression of thought. A person's language habits cannot be without good ones. Therefore, speaking appropriately, expressing accurately and fluently should be the learners' highest goal. Wishing everyone an enjoyable learning experience!