Life in words

Abstract

LIFE IN WORDS is a didactic material for teaching the English language aimed at teenagers and adults, to be used in the context of language-teaching institutes. The focus of the project is to develop different communicative and critical skills for low-intermediate to intermediate students. This textbook is divided into two main units: Unit 1, Cleaning, a discussion about hygiene and cleaning habits leads students to develop productive and active skills regarding information that can make them reflect about very incorporated habits; Unit 2, Overplanning, uses a positive skill – planning – and its negative twin – overplanning – to help students to start planning their tasks a little better, without overplanning and getting frustrated. Each of these units have been structured into seven main thematic domains: (1) First words, the lead-in moment aimed at activating students’ overall knowledge about the subsequent topics; (2) Words in Print, focused on developing reading skills and lexical acquisition; (3) Word of Mouth, the speaking main section, with different patterns of interaction; (4) Word for Language, the grammar-oriented section; (5) Listen to the Words, focused on developing listening skills and lexical acquisition; (6) In Other Words, the main writing section through process-writing techniques; (7) Playing with Words, which leads students to develop their metalinguistic abilities. Teachers are invited to follow some content-based instruction principles, as summarized by Richards & Rodgers (2001 [1986]: 207-216): (i) people learn a second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring information, rather than as an end in itself; (ii) content-based instruction better reflects learners’ needs for learning a second language. We adhere to these principles because we also support that language is text- and discourse based, language is purposeful and language use draws on integrated learning.