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INTEGRATED ENGLISH
PROGRAM
2007 SCOPE AND SEQUENCE
Members of the Integrated English Program committee at present, or in the past:
Professors Erica Aso, Naoyuki Date, Joseph Dias (IE Program Coordinator), James
Ellis (past IE Program Coordinator), Matsuo Kimura, Asuza Nishimoto, Wayne
Pounds, Peter Robinson, Hiroko Sano, Don Smith, Minako Tanni, Naomi Tanooka,
Jennifer Whittle, Teruo Yokotani, Hiroshi Yoshiba, Michiko Yoshida, and Gregory
Strong, NIBU Coordinator, and course writer.
The curriculum guide, scope and sequence, and resource book have been
augmented with many suggestions from teachers at the Sagamihara (formerly,
Atsugi) Campus of Aoyama Gakuin University. The IE Program integrates the
teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in a task-based syllabus
organized by themes.
Copyright, Aoyama Gakuin University
Gregory Strong, March, 2007
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I. PROGRAM ORGANIZATION
The IE Program is organized into 4 semester-length integrated English courses: IE
Levels I, II, III, and in the final semester of the IE Program, an IE Seminar on a
specialized area of content. The courses are integrated in the sense that the IE Core
course integrates the four skills and the themes at each level of the program link the
IE Core, IE Writing, and IE Listening courses. There are about 380 freshmen and an
almost equal number of sophomores in the program. Students are placed in classes
according to their performance on the ITP, or Institutional Testing Program, a
simplified version of the TOEFL test available the Educational Testing Service.
At IE Levels I, II, and III there is a Core Section of integrated skills taught in a
weekly 180-minute class. At each level, there is also a 90-minute Listening Section
and a 90-minute Writing Section. The grade for each student at the end of the term
is based on the following formula: 40% for IE Core; 30% for IE Listening, and 30%
for IE Writing.
IE Core (180 min)
IE Writing (90 min)
IE Listening (90 min)
IE I
* Childhood
* Urban Life
* Food
* Travel
IE II
* Changing Times
* The Workplace
* Geography
* Biography
IE III
* Relationships
* Cross-cultural
Values
* Environment
* The Media
IE Seminar
*Communications
* Linguistics
* Literature
Fig.1 The IE Courses and their themes at each level.
The courses are taught by approximately 2 full-time faculty, 33 part-time native
speakers, and 18 part-time Japanese teachers, some of whom are recent English
Department graduates. At the end of each term, students evaluate the courses.
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II. A PROGRAM SNAPSHOT

A student who enters at level I and completes the IE Program will
participate in some 36 small group discussions and lead about 12 of them.

The same student will read 6 novels, write an analysis of each one, and
describe each novel to other students in a small group.

He or she will learn a variety of reading strategies and be introduced to various
genres of literature.

He or she will draft, revise, and complete 4 essays of about 350 words, and
upon finishing Academic Writing, one of 1,500 words.

The same student will have hours of guided listening and received instruction in
listening strategies.
Published research on the Academic Skills program suggests that students show
significant improvement in their comprehension and note-taking abilities. Likewise,
experimental data on the discussions in the IE Core classes shows significant
increases in communication and confidence in using English, and significant
increases in vocabulary.
III. PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES
A teacher resource area in the English Department office, Room B-520 on the
Sagamihara Campus, offers secretarial assistance, photocopying, a library of
professional texts, language teaching journals, student workbooks, computers with
Internet access, video and DVD players for teacher and student use, a portable DVD
region-free player, a video and DVD library, grading software, and teacher
mailboxes and lockers.
Also available at the English Department office are the IE Core textbooks, Mosaic 1
and Interchange 2, along with accompanying audio CDs and videotapes, and
student guidebooks with sample discussion and writing activities for IE Core, IE
Writing, IE Listening, Academic Skills, and Academic Writing, supplementary
videos and DVDs, as well as a professional teaching library with academic journals.
These are for use in the office. Computers there offer e-mail access and printing.
Additional DVDs for IE Listening and Academic Skills can also be found there as
well as a wireless internet connection for your laptop, a Sony wireless mic for
recording with a video camera and a portable Sony DVD region-free player.
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There is an annual teacher orientation in April, as well as lunchtime meetings at the
end of each semester and as required. Teachers are asked to join an electronic
‘mailing list’ used for disseminating information about the program and on
upcoming teacher vacancies.
Some 3,500 graded readers for student self-access, and to be used for Core book
reports, can be found on the first floor of the library in Building B on the
Sagamihara Campus.
Teachers are issued two different cards: a library card and a PC access card. Web
hosting for course-related content is offered. Teachers may also publish in the
department journal. Parking space for cars and bicycles is available on the
Sagamihara Campus.
IV. GRADING STUDENTS
Because students receive a final IE grade comprised of their scores from the IE
Core, IE Listening, and IE Writing sections, the instructor for each section must
provide a numerical score rather than a letter grade for each student. Because of the
importance of the score, it should be as precisely recorded as possible. For example,
it would be preferable to assign a score of 73% rather than rounding the figure to
70%. The weight for each of the IE courses is as follows: 40% for IE Core; 30% for
IE Listening, and 30% for IE Writing. We owe our students as efficient and as an
accurate grading as possible, so please use the grading software that we provide.
It should be possible for students to achieve a score of 90% or higher in any of the
I.E. sections. However, very few students in any class should be awarded such a
high mark. Students attaining such distinction should have made effort and
achievements superior to those of most students in the class. Conversely, you
should have a few students that achieve an AA score of 90% or higher, even in an
IE I Core or IE I Writing section.
IV.(a) MARKING FOR ATTENDANCE
Since 1996, we have had the following attendance policy. In the first class, students
should be warned about regularly attending classes. Please take a pro-active role.
Obtain contact telephone numbers and email addresses from your students. Warn
students early if they start missing classes. Instructors must use their discretion
when presented with student excuses. Serious illness with a doctor’s note, or a
family-related matter such as a funeral, are acceptable reasons for absence.
Otherwise, students should forfeit points from their final grade.
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IV.(b) STUDENT PLAGIARISM
Student plagiarism, particularly of IE Core book reports has become a problem.
Some students wait until the last moment to read a book and faced with an
impossible deadline, are tempted to copy another student’s work or even plagiarize
a book report that they have written for another IE class.
We would like to minimize the problem while keeping our demands on teacher time
as little as possible through a new policy of (a)stiffer penalties, (b)better teacher
administration, (c)computerized record-keeping.
At the beginning of each term, explain the matter to students, and how will we be
setting up a new database, and warn them that plagiarism of an assignment will lead
to a fail on that assignment (no rewrites), and that if they are caught with a second
plagiarism, they will fail the entire IE Core class.
In terms of teacher administration, please try to get your students to choose a book
by the 3rd IE Core class in the semester at the very latest. Ask them to choose their
2nd book and bring it class when you are collecting their first reports. When your
students bring their books to class, have them write down their choices on a paper
that you circulate in class. Please file the paper.
Any students who unable to produce the book that they are going to read, or
suddenly switching books for the written report will be a red flag for plagiarism. As
well, this “book check" will start students reading their books earlier, so there will
be less temptation to cheat.
Finally, we will ask you to have your students e-mail you a copy of their two book
reports. We hope to be setting up a pass-protected website to receive these at some
point in the term. Later, teachers will be able to check a book reports’ database.
Absences
Maximum Grade
1
2
3
4
5 or more
95
90
80
60
Fail
Fig. 2 Absences and Grades
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V. LANGUAGE LEARNING TASKS
Researchers in Second Language Acquisition have proposed transforming
grammatical or functional language teaching syllabuses to those that are more taskbased. We have identified key language learning tasks at each level of the IE
Program: (a)small group work, (b)writing a journal, (c)reading 2 novels,
(d)analyzing the 2 novels, (e)reporting on them to a small group. Additional tasks
are found at the IE II and IE III levels.
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COMBINED IE I, II, III TASKS
Small Group Work
1. Use English to participate in pair and small group activities in speaking,
listening, reading, writing.
2. Learn how to read and listen to authentic audio and video materials.
Write a Journal
3. Maintain a weekly journal in a notebook, blog, or message board.
4. Communicate with (a) partner(s).
5. Describe feelings, explain ideas and narrate events to another person.
Read 2 Novels
6. Learn to read fluently.
7. Acquire new vocabulary.
8. Develop analytical skills through applying literary terms.
Report on the 2 Novels
9. Using the MLA style, note the author, title, place of publication, publisher, and the year.
10. Describe the book using the literary terms: setting, point of view, conflict, climax, symbol,
irony, theme.
11. Summarize the events.
12. Express an opinion about the book.
13. Give an oral report to classmates.
IE I
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
5.
6.
7.
Participate in a Discussion
Brainstorm discussion topics.
Introduce self; learn and use the names of classmates.
Make eye contact.
Use gestures to communicate.
Solicit opinions.
(Dis)agree and give reasons.
Interrupt someone politely.
Ask for clarification.
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IE II
Join a Media Discussion
Group Presentation
Use a news item from Japanese radio, TV,
Use one of the themes in the course to
newspapers, or magazines. Note the author, and
develop a topic.
publisher. Do some note-taking on it: an
analysis of it, noting what, when, where, who,
1. Brainstorm topics
why, and how
2. Use English to negotiate duties in
the presentation
Discussion Leader
3. Select the main points
1. Note the main idea of the news item
4. Outline the presentation
2. Record the source using the MLA style
5. Develop a conclusion.
3. Paraphrase the news item in a
written paragraph
4. Explain it to partners
5. Introduce self; learn/ use the names of others
6. Make eye contact
7. Use gestures to communicate
8. Solicit opinions
9. (Dis)agree and give reasons
10. Interrupt someone politely
11. Ask clarification, provide follow-up questions
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IE III
Join a Newspaper Discussion
Survey Project
Copy an article from an English newspaper or
Use one of themes to develop a survey.
Online news and attach it to your written work.
Note the author, and publisher. Do your
1. Brainstorm survey items
analysis of it, noting what, when, where, who,
2. Determine subjects
why, and how
3. Ask survey questions
4. Collate the answers
1. Note the source using the MLA style
5. Negotiate duties of group members
2. Summarize the article
6. Prepare an outline and create graphs
3. Write down an opinion about it.
and charts.
4. Explain it to partners
5. Introduce self; learn/ use the names of others
6. Make eye contact
7. Use gestures to communicate
8. Solicit opinions
9. (Dis)agree and give reasons
10. Interrupt someone politely
11. Ask for clarification
Make a Commercial
Use one of the themes in the course to develop
a topic for a commercial.
1. List potential products and services
2. Choose the product
3. Use English to negotiate duties in
the presentation
4. Plan the commercial using storyboards
and a shooting script
5. Depict different characters and
create realistic dialogue.
6. Use persuasive language to promote
products or services
Fig. 5 IE Core Classes: Language Learning Tasks
* Forming student groups of 3 instead of 4 cuts the time needed for discussions yet still allows
for full student participation.
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VI. WRITE A JOURNAL
We require IE Core teachers to use written journals, taped journals, or blogs with
their classes as part of the writing component of the IE Core Section. Journals
encourage them to use English communicatively in correspondence.
They are also a forum for students to describe their feelings, experiences, and ideas.
Research on emerging student writing indicates how useful his task can be in
improving their writing.
The chief objection instructors have toward journal writing is that it takes too much
of their time to respond to students. One of the best solutions to this problem is to
use "secret friends" or penpals in your class. Rather than the teacher responding to
each student, students exchange journals with one another and respond accordingly.
Keeping their identities secret from one another makes the task more exciting for
the students. In the "secret friends" approach, they only reveal their identities to one
other in the last class.
Of course, you must give your students a clear explanation of what you expect of
them in journal writing and provide them with models. Generally, we ask students
to write the equivalent of 3 double-spaced pages each week. Over the term, they
should have written about 36 entries or pages. Half of these entries will be in their
notebook and the other half in their partner's. Make it clear to students that,
eventually, you will be reading the notebooks and their entries will figure in their
final marks.
In the first class, you might introduce journal writing by giving students 10 minutes
to write their first journal entries. This is a good opportunity to emphasize that the
point of this activity is to improve writing fluency and not grammatical accuracy.
Some students will have great difficulty concentrating on their writing for the whole
ten minutes and in writing more than 50 words as well. You should write during
this time, too, so that you have a benchmark of what you might expect from
students writing for ten minutes.
You should show the class a simple word count formula where you count the words
in the first 3 lines of a journal entry, and divide by 3 to get the average number of
words per line. Multiplying this figure by the number of lines in the journal entry,
you will arrive at a word count far more quickly than by counting each word as
students do. List some student scores on the board as well as your own. There
probably will be a range from 40 to 240 words. Putting the scores on the board
encourages students to concentrate more and to write faster.
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The students should finish the other two journal entries at home during the
following week. Then you should take in all the journals to see how the students are
doing, assign them an initial score, and, according to interests and personality,
match "secret friends" together. In the next class, read a few of the “better” journal
entries to let the class know your expectations. Then, assign "secret friends.”
You maintain the secrecy of the students' partners and increase student excitement
by requiring everyone in your class to purchase the same style and colour of
notebook. Preferably, this should be an inexpensive one such as the B-5 size
(250cm x 18cm) Campus notebook available in the school bookstore for about 100
yen. You should bring a notebook to the first class to show the students exactly
what to purchase.
Each student chooses a secret name and writes it on the inside cover of his/her book.
At some point later in class, you should find out each student's secret name and
record it on a journal checklist.
An easy way to manage the exchange of the journals and to keep their anonymity is
a "mail bag." At the beginning of class, students put their journals into the bag. At
some point in class, the teacher checks them off on the class checklist, and then
passes the bag back to a student in class, who then looks for her partner's journal in
the bag. From that student, the mail bag circulates to the other students.
With this approach, you only read the students' journals once in the first month of
the semester to set your standards for the activity and to make students aware of
them. Then you take them in on the second-to-last class which will allow you to
return them the students. Yet all through the term, students will still be receiving
regular, detailed responses to their writing from their secret partners.
Finally, at the end of the term, you assess each student's effort at journal writing.
You should also provide a detailed written response to their journals on the last
page of their notebooks, describing what you liked reading and encouraging them in
writing. You might grade their work with three simple categories: unsatisfactory,
satisfactory, and outstanding (minus-check, check, check-plus signs).
VI.(a) EMAIL EXCHANGE
As an alternative to exchanging notebook journals, you may wish to set up an email
exchange between students in your class, or with students in another class. This
would be very effective in IE III, where students will have already done journals in
IE I and IE II.
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The parameters of the activity would be very similar to those for journals. Students
would be required to make about three entries each week and they might use "pen
names" to add interest to the activity.
To monitor initial student efforts, you could ask each student to send you a message,
or you could require them to print out their first exchange of email.
To assess their efforts, at the end of the term you would ask each student to print
out a copy of their email correspondence. (Note: this would require students to save
copies of their correspondence)
VI.(b) TAPE JOURNALS
An additional alternate activity involves the weekly exchange of cassettes, MDs or
MP3 sound files between students. The students generate their own topics or
respond to given topics such as "What are the qualities of a best friend?" or "What’s
your favourite music?" and they record a three-minute impromptu speech on tape.
The following week, students exchange tapes with each other. Each student listens
to a tape and records a three or four minute response to it.
The student also answers a question about the tape for the teacher such as "How did
you partner define a best friend?" and "Do you agree with the definition you heard
of a best friend?" The tapes may be collected once or twice a semester to check
how students are doing or to comment on them. There are many possible variations
on this activity including one where students transcribe all or part of one another’s
taped conversations and analyze them for one another.
VI.(c) ONLINE JOURNALS (BLOGS/WEB LOGS)
The newest type of journal that IE teachers have been using in class is a web log or
blog. Blogs are online diaries in which the blogger can be anonymous or reveal
his/her identity. Students can post ‘comments’ on each others’ blogs after reading
them. It is just as important with this approach to set clear expectations and to
provide students with examples of desirable entries and ‘comments.’ Blogger.com
(maintained by Google) is one of the most popular blog hosts and has a
straightforward interface.
The approach encourages greater computer literacy and a stronger identification of
the students as a class. Blogs also provide a semi-permanent and public forum for
writing, all of which are excellent in terms of promoting purposeful student
communication through writing.
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Finally, it imparts an interesting twist on journal writing for IE III Core students, in
particular, who may have been using the same kind of journal in their IE I and IE II
Core classes. One excellent site that can host online “diaries” and discussions (and
where you can also post homework assignments) is Nicenet:
http://www.nicenet.org
[Note: It’s without cost and completely free of advertisements.]
VII. READ 2 NOVELS
Students read two books over the term to develop their fluency and their ability to
analyze literature. Afterward, they will write a summary and detailed report.
Additional activities might include maintaining a reading journal of commentaries
on the chapters they read, writing letters to the author, and keeping a vocabulary
journal. In small groups, they might make oral presentations, debate issues that arise
from a story, or dramatize a scene from a novel. Several students might do a group
presentation or a panel discussion based on novels with a shared theme.
The English Department has purchased over 3,500 books for student self access.
Many of them have been set aside in the Sagamihara Library (1st floor of Building
B. If you are teaching an IE Level I class, or if you are teaching at another level in
the Spring semester, but your students have never had an IE course before, you
should take them to where the graded readers are located in the library.
All of the books have been designated as Stage I, Stage II, or Stage III readers. Each
book has a controlled vocabulary of 1,000 words or less, 1,000 to 2,000 words, and
2,000 words to about 3,500 words. Many of the Stage I and Stage II books are
abridged versions of English classics such as A Room With a View, Dr. Zhivago,
and Middlemarch. There are books associated with films such as Dances with
Wolves, and The Secret Life of Laura Palmer, and thrillers such as Rear Window,
The Poseidon Adventure, and The Day of the Condor. There are even non-fiction
accounts of famous persons such as Gandhi, Malcolm X, Bruce Springsteen, and
Marilyn Monroe, but students should be steered away from choosing these books
for their book reports as they are required to read novels. Students should be able to
find something that suits their taste and level of ability.
Many students are unaware of their level of vocabulary, and hence find it difficult
to select appropriate books. You should have them do a quick and easy vocabulary
self-assessment at http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/levels/.
If you are teaching students who took an IE course previously, then you should get
them to list the books they already have read in the IE Program.
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This can better ensure that they are reading new books, and challenging themselves
by reading books at higher Stages. In addition, the Book Report form in the student
guide includes a blank for students to indicate the number of pages in their books.
Generally, books under 100 pages are Stage I, YELLOW, under 200 pages, RED,
Stage II, and over this amount, Stage III, BLUE, so you will have some idea of how
much they are challenging themselves.
VII.(a)
READING FLUENCY
Japanese students are skilled at decoding individual words. However, they rarely
read for fluency or the main idea. Some students constantly refer to their dictionary
while reading. The purpose of the Self Access component of the IE program is to
emphasize fluent recreational reading in addition to teaching the reading skills
described earlier.
You can introduce reading fluency as well as encourage students to choose their
first book early in the semester by setting aside about ten minutes of class time in
the first few lessons of the program for SSR (Sustained Silent Reading). In this
strictly controlled activity, students read silently for the entire ten minutes without
using their dictionary or stumbling over unknown words. To further promote this
activity, you should read silently yourself.
VIII. REPORT ON 2 BOOKS
Book report forms are included in the student guide book. The literary terms used to
talk about books and analyze their structure are described there as well. In their
written reports, students should note the bibliographic information about the book
such as its author, title, publisher, and place and date of publication.
You should emphasize literary analysis with your students and see that they avoid
plagiarism by copying from the book jacket, Cliffs Notes which has plot summaries
and character notes (http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/Section/id106146.html,) or other internet sites such as Spark Notes
(http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/). These sites have all of the classics up on them,
from Tom Sawyer to newer books like The Color Purple, and the latter site includes
notes on characters, themes, and symbols. Earlier in this guide, we mentioned the
steps we will be implementing to control plagiarism. But the first and strongest step
we can take is for you to warn students early of the penalties involved, of how easy
to catch students copying, and most important, get them to commit to a book and to
bring it class early in the term.
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The cheating that does occur, often happens as a result of desperate students who
leave the assignment to the last minute and find it impossible to read their book.
Early in the term, class time should be spent going over the literary terms setting,
point of view, conflict, climax, plot, symbol, irony, and theme. A list of these
terms and their definitions is included in the Appendix of this curriculum guide. We
include these terms so that students will become familiar with them and their use.
This will help them in future courses in the English Department, especially if they
elect to go into the English or American literature streams. Using the terms when
discussing books and writing about them also helps students to think about books
analytically, in terms of their structure.
There are many possible activities for introducing the terms. In your first class, you
might introduce them (or review them for students who have taken an IE course
before).
Then give the students a list of terms to study for a quiz the following week,
perhaps a simple matching quiz (See the student IE Core and Writing Guide). In
this same class, ask the students to analyze a very short story using the terms. Then
discuss their results.
Setting could be introduced through showing students 1 or 2-minute video clips of
such films as City of Joy, Back to the Future, or Iron and Silk, and asking them to
note details of the setting such as country, time period, and environment.
Point of view is a complex literary term. You might introduce it in a class by a
jigsaw reading giving groups a short passage illustrating three literary points of
view: first person, third person, and omniscient; and having them identify the
respective points of view [See the IE Core and Writing student booklet]. Each
group is given a different point of view to identify: groups 1 and 4 might have "first
person," groups 2 and 5 might have "third person," and groups 3 and 6 might have
omniscient. Then you make new groups made up of 1,2,3 and 4,5,6. Each student in
the new group reads the story with its point of view and the other students try to
guess it.
The next stage of this activity would involve some writing. Students in their new
groups would work together to produce a first person, third person, or omniscient
narrative using a film as the basis for their writing. For IE III students, Unit 1,
"Relationships" you might show the wedding scene in Father of the Bride and ask
one group to write a first person narrative from the father's point of view, another
from the bride's perspective.
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Possibly, for a large class with seven groups, you might include another first person
point of view, that of the groom. Then you ask two groups to write third person
narratives, and two groups to write omniscient narratives. After they have finished
writing, you ask them to return to their original groups, read their new narratives
and encourage the other students to guess the point of view.
A good way to familiarize students with the use of symbols is to bring in some
objects, and ask each student to choose one and to write a description of how the
object could be used as a literary symbol. Afterward, students in groups explain
their symbols to each other. For example, a pen could represent an idea, or a
message; a padlock, a secret. Another activity to introduce literary terms is to give
students short summaries of popular films or famous stories and ask them to find
the irony and themes in each. Samples are in the student guide book.
IX. LEADING A DISCUSSION
Teaching discussion skills begins in IE I Core. These same skills will be used in IE
II and in IE III with more complex tasks based on paraphrasing and summarizing
the news. Help your students to brainstorm topics for discussion based on the
themes for this level of the program. Rotate your discussion leaders weekly.
You also need to teach students the fundamentals of leading an effective group
discussion: using names when addressing other group members, appropriate turntaking language and questioning, including follow-up questions, and such nonverbal communication as making eye contact with them while speaking, and using
gestures. In addition, students need to acquire certain idiomatic phrases to solicit
opinions, to take turns while speaking, to agree and disagree with one another, to
ask for clarification and to make additional points.
As students may begin their course work at any of the three levels, many of the
activities and tasks are similar. The differences between book reports at each level
is in the size of the book read and the depth of analysis. Examples are found in the
student booklet. As noted earlier, one fundamental difference between IE I, IE II,
and IE III is in the discussions. In IE II and IE III, students are to summarize news
and use a proper MLA citation for their summaries. These summaries then become
the focus for the discussions in class. The summary writing is very important
because it will accustom students to using the MLA style, which they will be using
later in their studies, particularly in Academic Writing. Summary writing is also a
good opportunity to teach the students how to avoid plagiarism. It would be
difficult for students to plagiarize news that they hear on TV or radio, or of course
news that they read in Japanese.
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However, if the students are writing about an English newspaper article, then they
must attach the original newspaper to their summaries. A quick scan of an article
after reading the summary will indicate to you where portions that may have been
plagiarized.
You should organize weekly discussion groups. These groups might be formed by
placing students together who have similar levels of ability and interests. An intake
form distributed on the first day of class might be used as a basis for determining
how students should be divided into groups. Or on the first class, you might ask
each student to sign up as a discussion leader for three times over the term and use
this list, circulated in class, as a basis for rotating the group leaders.
IX.(a) TEACHER AS CHEER LEADER
In preparing students to participate in a discussion and to serve as discussion group
leaders, there are a number of steps to take. You must pre-teach the turn-taking and
questioning language, and you need to show the students the sample discussions on
DVD, and get them to rate the discussion leaders that they see, so that they can
internalize the performance standards.
During the discussion activity, you should circulate among the discussion groups,
encouraging students, correcting their language use (although in a relatively
unobtrusive way, by mirroring or echoing the incorrect pronunciation or grammar
by correcting it when speaking to them). You might comment on some of the things
they say, modeling the kind of contributions you would like other students in the
discussion group to make, and also showing that you can understand their points
well enough to discuss them.
IX.(b) INTERRUPTING, CLARIFYING
Numerous classroom exercises can be found in the Public Service Commission of
Canada Gambits series (rpt. 1993). Copies are available in the English Department
teachers' library at the Sagamihara Campus. An example of one of them is a game
to practice interrupting and asking for clarification:
1. The teacher or a student volunteer starts talking on any subject.
2. Anyone in the class can interrupt and disagree with the speaker or ask for
clarification if they use the right expressions.
3. The speaker quickly answers the person who interrupted or provides
clarification and resumes talking about the subject.
18
4. Everyone else keeps trying to interrupt or ask for clarification as often as
possible and in as many ways as possible to sidetrack the speaker.
IX.(c) GIVING A REASON
Another is to practice adding reasons:
1. Get a small group of students to write down the names of different jobs on
pieces of paper and then fold over their papers so they remain unseen.
2. A group member draws a paper and reads it as if it were about the student
sitting on the right: "I think you would be a great singer because..."
3. The first group member passes the paper to the left and that person adds
a different reason: "Furthermore..."
4. Humorous or arbitrary reasons are acceptable, too.
5. When the paper has gone around, a new group member draws a second paper.
ASKING OPINIONS
AGREEING
DISAGREEING
What do you think?
What’s your opinion?
What’s your idea?
What do you have to say?
How do you feel about it?
Could you tell me...?
I’d like to ask...
I’d like to know what you...
I’m interested in knowing…
I agree.
I have the same opinion.
I feel the same way.
Yes, this is what I think.
Likewise for me.
Certainly, that’s true.
Me too.
Likewise.
I disagree.
I can’t believe that.
I have a different opinion.
I have another idea.
I feel differently.
I don’t think so.
I can’t agree.
Fig. 10 Speech Actions A
Once in groups, students brainstorm topics and determine the order in which each
group member will serve as a discussion leader. The discussion leader is
responsible for making some points about the subject of the discussion, asking
group members questions, and promoting discussion.
19
INTERRUPTING
CLARIFICATION
GIVING REASONS
Excuse me for interrupting,
but...
May I say something?
Pardon me.
Sorry, but...
Wait a minute!
I might add here...
I’d like to say something.
Would you mind repeating
that?
I didn’t catch the last part.
Sorry, I don’t follow you.
What was that?
I didn’t get that.
The main reason is...
Because...
Seeing as how...
This is the reason why...
That’s why...
Furthermore...
And another thing...
Fig. 11 Speech Actions B
IX.(d) ROUND ROBIN
In this exercise, a topic goes around the circle or small group and students either
agree or disagree and offer a reason. Their reasons can be outrageous ones.
1. The world is really flat.
2. Santa Claus is a real person.
3. There is a rabbit making mochi on the moon.
4. The number four is unlucky.
IX.(e) WEEKLY DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
To start the weekly discussion activity, provide students with a handout of the
phrases and practice these in class. Then form the students into groups of three and
four. Review the useful expressions and guide the students in brainstorming topics
for the following week. The groups and the topics should change every week. Each
student should have several turns as a discussion leader.
From the 2nd week, students form into their groups and discuss their topics when
the class starts. Afterward, the discussion leader of each group briefly summarizes
the topic and the opinions of his/her group for the class, taking about 5 minutes.
The instructor should comment on the groups’ discussions by pointing out whether
they dealt with debatable topics, focused on only one point, involved a significant
issue, etc. Each student evaluates his/her own performance using a self-evaluation
form (See IE Core and Writing student guide). The teacher collects the selfevaluation forms, comments on them, and returns them in the next class.
20
In our classroom-based research, we discovered that the most effective way to teach
discussion skills to students was to spend about 35 minutes on discussions in each
class over the term. During that time, students learned discussion language and
techniques such as turn-taking and agreeing/ disagreeing with their group members.
They also analyzed their performance through reviewing audio cassettes and
videotapes that had been made of their discussions.
In two experiments, we compared task-based and skill-based approaches to teaching
discussion skills. In the task-based approach, the teacher assisted the students in
examining discussions that had been videotaped. The orientation was toward a
whole and complete task, that of participating in a discussion. These efforts were
videotaped. Students transcribed and corrected their part of the discussions and
rated their performance upon reviewing the tapes. For the second approach, that of
the traditional skill-based methodology, the teacher demonstrated discussion skills,
then the students practiced them, and finally performed them. These two approaches
were compared with two control groups in which the students simply did activities
from a conversation text.
The results showed impressive and similar gains for both the task-based and skillbased groups and negligible ones for the two control groups. The following two
charts outline the task-based and skill-based approaches.
TASK-BASED
SKILL-BASED
1. Pre-Task
For the first two sessions only, the
teacher helps students prepare for the
discussion task by describing the
elements of a discussion: turn-taking,
eye contact and gesture, phrasal or turntaking language, and discussion content.
Identifying the elements, students view
and rate a video of others doing a
discussion.
1. Presentation
In all sessions the teacher presents
selected components of a discussion and
examples of functional language, i.e.,
expressing agreement and disagreement.
Rules and examples of nonverbal
elements of a discussion such as turntaking procedures, appropriate use of
eye contact and gesture are also
introduced and described.
2. Task
In each session students are randomly
allocated to groups of 4 or 5 to read the
text and participate in a discussion.
2. Practice
In each session students read a text and
individually or in pairs.
21
They practice the appropriate language
and skills introduced earlier in the
presentation phase. Functional language
and discussion skills are introduced
separately, in stages over the semester.
3. Post-Task: Observation
Students watch themselves and other
groups doing the task, compare groups,
and rate each group’s performance.
Fig. 12 Task-based and Skill-based Approaches
3. Production
Students do further individual and pairwork exercises as the teacher corrects
and gives feedback.
22
Whole Task Activities
1. Students prepare transcripts and, by
reading and commenting upon
them, focus on form.
2. While engaged in small group
discussion, students are rewarded
with a counter or poker chip each
time they take a turn. The winner
has the most chips at the end.
Skill-based Pair and Class Activities
1. As a class, students form a circle
and play “wink murder.”
2. Students learn how to use gestures
by saying a word and doing the
appropriate gesture.
3. Using a check sheet, students count
how many times they use a
particular speech act.
3. To sensitize themselves to eye
contact, students participating in a
discussion draw slips of paper
identifying them as high or low eye
contact. Afterward, students have to
guess who drew which slip.
4. In a similarly-designed activity,
students find themselves designated
as a high or low user of gestures, or
a non-user.
Fig. 13 Task-based and Skill-based Activities
X. DISCUSSIONS AT IE I, IE 2, IE 3
At this IE I level, student discussion leaders generate their own topics, based on the
four IE I themes. Students should prepare notes and questions in advance of the
class in order to conduct the discussion smoothly.
X.(a) IE II MEDIA TOPIC DISCUSSION
There are several purposes for the discussion task at the IE II level. One is to
familiarize students with using sources and properly citing them. A second is for
them to acquire new vocabulary according to their interests because they choose
their media topics. An additional purpose of this exercise is to allow students to
practice paraphrasing, looking for the main points instead of attempting to translate
words.
23
Finally, as with the small group discussions in IE I, this is an opportunity for
students to acquire the language of discussion. A chart with “discussion language”
has been included in the student guide.
1. For homework, get students to choose a topic for the next week’s class. The
topic can be about anything as long as the student saw it on television,
heard it on the radio, or read it in a Japanese newspaper or magazine.
2. They create a title for their discussion, note the author and the original title of the
article or program, publisher or producer, place, and time. Then they provide
details about it, before expressing their own opinion (“I thought that...” or “I felt
that...”). They must cite the source using MLA style, as in these examples:
a) articles in a magazine or newspaper:
Right, Peter. “Portents for Future Learning.” Time 51 Sept 2004: 42.
b) programs on radio or TV:
Native Americans. Narr. Hugh Morning. Writ. and prod. Archie Crag.
NBC News Special. KNBC, Los Angeles. 1 Mar 2003.
c) article from an online newspaper:
Divine, Lisa. “Surfing at Enoshima.” Big Wave Magazine 28 August 2001.
23 April 2005.
<http://www.Bigwavemagazine.com/2001/gettingthe big one/surfing>.
(*More comprehensive samples of the MLA Style are in the IE Core and
Writing, student Guide.)
3. These paragraphs are collected in class so that students don’t read from them
while presenting and so that the teacher can copy the titles on the board.
4. In small groups, students discuss their media topics using eye contact,
gestures, and the appropriate language.
5. After the group discussions, the class votes on the topic (one from each group)
that everyone would like to hear about.
X.(b) IE III NEWSPAPER DISCUSSION
There is one main difference between this task and the Media Topic in IE II. For the
newspaper discussion, students are supposed to use English newspapers only and to
summarize them. This is harder than paraphrasing a Japanese news source.
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You should insist that students attach a photocopy of the original article with their
summary. In this way, you can evaluate whether or not they plagiarized any part of
it. Gradually, we hope to improve student awareness of the proper use of references.
(See student handout in the Appendix).
1. Students find articles in the library from English newspapers like
The Japan Times, or The Daily Yomiuri, or magazines such as Time or
Newsweek.
2. Get them to submit a photocopy with their summary.
3. Teach them how to note their source of information as completely as possible
(writer, title of the article, name of the newspaper or magazine, and date)
according to the MLA Style.
4. In point form, have students indicate who, what, where, when, why, how.
5. Each student should express an opinion (“I thought that...” or “I felt
that...”).
6. Finally, the students should prepare three questions for their group discussion.
X.(c) NEWSPAPER MINDMAPS
You may need to introduce students to the practice of mindmapping to assist them
with writing their newspaper summaries. This is particularly true for Spring
semester IE I, IE II classes. The activity begins with the use of short newspaper
articles. Then ask students in small groups to read an article quickly. Everyone in a
group has the same article. Tell them to skim the article for general ideas and
mention that they will find out what they don’t know afterward by asking questions
of the other members of their group. After a short period of time, ask the students to
turn over their papers and tell each other what they can remember.
In their groups, students write down the key words and phrases about the article that
came out in their discussion. Then they transfer the information to a “mindmap” of
the article, placing the topic in the centre and connecting the main ideas. The main
ideas should have supporting details by them. After each group has finished a
mindmap, the group members copy it, the teacher collects it, and then each group
member joins a new group to explain the mindmap and the article. Alternately,
students in pairs could explain their articles formed between members of different
groups.
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Explanations should be of sufficient detail, so that their partners can faithfully
summarize what they have heard. Then the students can offer opinions about the
articles. Time permitting, students who have heard about the articles but have not
read them, can be allowed to read them to confirm how much they understood. You
might also have them create role plays based on events from their articles and
invent what they believe will happen next. Students can write a summary of the
news article, too.
XI. RATING DISCUSSIONS
Early in the class, you must show students the Discussion DVD and rate the sample
discussions with them so that they understand the qualities of an “ideal discussion.”
First, show the explanation of the discussion leader’s task, then depending on
whether or not the class is an IE Core I, II, or III, show the part of the DVD that
needs to be rated. The students should then rate each group at their level according
to the following scale, which classifies the discussion leader’s efforts at explaining
and questioning, as well as using non-verbal communication. After the students
have done their scoring, let them know your score for the groups.
Discussion Leader Rating Scale
I. Explaining
a) describe the article thoroughly (without reading it from notes)
b) summarize partners’ comments after each question
II. Questioning
c) ask a variety of questions of partners
d) use follow-up questions when necessary
III. Non-verbal Communication
e) made frequent eye contact with partners
f) use gestures (such as pointing to a photograph or headline) when appropriate
Explaining
Questioning
Non-verbal
Communication
a) describing
c) asking
questions
d) using followup questions
e) eye contact
b) summarizing
f) gestures
Teacher’s Role: Discussion facilitator/ Chief cheerleader.
26
In addition to pre-teaching the use of phrases used to elicit discussion and follow-up
questioning strategies, the teacher should wander among the groups to encourage
them.
During discussions, the teacher should:
1) model language,
2) recast things verbally when a student can’t express his/her ideas,
3) encourage students to make thoughtful contributions to the discussion,
4) allow for 3 or 4 repetitions of the activity, so that the group leaders retell their
story (or news account) fluently, with minimal reference to their notes.
As part of the teaching activity, the teacher should:
a) drill the students in appropriate turn-taking language and teach the
fundamentals of the task,
b) videotape groups regularly and show part of the tapes to students for rating,
as well as using the videotapes to introduce the activity,
c) familiarize students with the checklist and use it as a basis for scoring the
students’ efforts
XII. IE II GROUP PRESENTATION
Besides being good speaking practice, presentations help students understand how
to organize a speech. From an organizational perspective, an oral presentation
should be like an essay with an introduction, main points, and a conclusion. In
addition, a group project like this one helps students to get to know one another
better and builds a sense of community in the class.
You can provide students with a sign-up list of topics related to the themes in your
course, or, preferably, help them generate their own topics related to the course
themes. For example, for IE II theme The Workplace, students could talk about their
part-time jobs, or for the IE II theme Geography, either places they have visited or
their hometowns can be suitable subjects for presentations.
The key to effective student presentations is to give the students a clear idea of the
form you expect and your standards for the activity. You should give them a little
class time in which to prepare, and break the assignment into components, each
with a separate deadline, and each graded separately. In one class, the students
might be required to hand in an outline of their presentation. Then, in the next class,
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a list of the audiovisual aids and props they intend to use can be submitted. At
another stage, you might require a detailed script.
XIII. IE III PROJECTS
There are two different types of projects at this level: surveys and commercials.
Both are intended to develop students’ confidence and skills and culminate in a
presentation to the class.
XIII.(a) SURVEY PROJECTS
This task involves preparing an outline, an introduction, main points, and a
conclusion. It also includes developing visuals for use in a presentation, conducting
community interviews, collating the findings and generalizing from them. This task
fits very well with the themes of the Environment and the Media, Themes 3 and 4,
in IE III. A class developing surveys for the Environment could have groups
working on recycling, use of public transportation, energy consumption, and
appreciation of nature. One working on the Media could have groups working on
TV news, radio, TV drama, movies, and newspapers. A group could ask questions
such as "How many hours of TV do you watch each day?" How many TVs have
you got?" Who's your favourite news anchor?"
You can prepare students for doing surveys by conducting practice surveys in your
class. The kinds of problems students encounter are in formulating appropriate
questions and overcoming their shyness about asking questions. Students should be
encouraged to create survey items which elicit a wide variety of response types: 1)
those that ask for numbers [i.e., How many newspapers does your family subscribe
to? (a)none, (b)one, (c)two, (d)three, (e)four or more], 2) those asking respondents
to make a choice from a limited number of possibilities [i.e., “Which type of movie
do you prefer? (a)Romance, (b)Adventure, (c)Comedy, (d)Horror, (e)Science
Fiction, (f)Other], and 3) ones requiring open-ended responses [Tell about the
scariest experience in your life?]. Students should find ways of picturing their data
using bar graphs and pie charts, etc. (Excel can be helpful in this regard).
As for dealing with student shyness, practice in formulating questions and asking
them in role plays is an excellent way to build student confidence. A grading form
for the survey activity is in the IE Core and Writing booklet..
Teachers using computer rooms can have students generate their surveys at
surveymonkey.com—a service for generating online surveys; the free mode is more
than sufficient for the small-scale surveys our students will be creating.
28
XIII.(b) CLASSROOM PRACTICE
1. Hand out slips of paper to your students. Ask them to write
down an answer to 3 questions (a),(b),(c),(d):
(a) Have you been abroad?
(b) How long does it take you to travel to the Sagamihara campus?
(c) How many people do you live with?
(d) Are you the eldest child in your family? the middle? or the youngest?
2. Collect the papers.
3. Ask several students to help you record the answers on the board.
4. Once all the data has been collected, show the students how you could
represent it using different kinds of visuals:
(a) pie chart for the percentages of those who have been abroad, etc.
(b) bar graph for the travel time
(c) line graph for family size
(d) proportional figures for birth order
XIV.(b) COMMUNITY SURVEYS
Community surveys where students survey each other—family members, people in
the community, or native speakers—are an excellent way to teach students about
rudimentary ethnographic research and motivate them to communicate purposefully.
There are many possible topics. These could be brainstormed in class and include
such issues as tuition and entrance exams.
The students should meet again after gathering their data so that they can interpret it.
You may suggest some methods of categorizing the data, such as by correlating
certain responses with sex and age. Afterward, each group makes a presentation to
the class, taking questions from the class. Students should be encouraged to use
visuals instead of reading from their notes.
Follow-up activities after the presentations could include summary writing.
Differences in opinion about the data could even generate topics for a class debate.
XIV.(c) EMAIL AND COMMUNITY SURVEYS
29
Several IE teachers have begun doing computer survey exchange projects in class.
This is an excellent way to encourage students to become more familiar with
computers. It is also a good way for them to learn English because they will be
making contact with other students through English.
1. Online surveys can be carried out in a variety of ways. One way is to have
students join yahoogroups (http://groups.yahoo.com/) related to their topic
and submit survey items in a message to the group. As most students will not
have had experience with electronic groups, such as yahoogroups or google
groups, it is worth familiarizing them with the basics of ‘netiquette.’ A much
more simple approach is to have students submit their survey items at a site
intended for the exchange of surveys by ESL students and those interested in
cross-cultural exchanges (e.g., IECC Surveys at: http://www.iecc.org/survey/).
A third method is to make use of SurveyMonkey’s free mode at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/.
2. For both email or web surveys and community surveys, the next step is the
same. Students generate survey questions, perhaps 10 different questions for each
group of four.
3. Class time should be set aside for group meetings and data collation.
4. Data can be presented graphically using the classroom’s OHC (i.e., overhead
camera) or through Powerpoint presentations from student computers in the
computer classrooms.
5. Evaluation might include peer assessment. Participating in this way
puts students in the position of being more active listeners.
6. Additional follow-up activities could include having students write summaries of
what they have heard, a kind of simple comprehension check. Another activity
might be a class debate on controversial issues raised by the survey.
See some examples of online surveys created by our students using
SurveyMonkey:
http://www.cl.aoyama.ac.jp/~dias/ControversialSurveys.html
XIV.(d) IE III COMMERCIALS
This task can provide an excellent context for students to write realistic dialogue
and descriptive language in a purposeful way. It can also be an opportunity to teach
them how to write persuasively. The English Department Library has an extensive
collection of commercials from around the world on DVD and video. Showing
these in class and using them for speaking and listening activities can help get your
students started.
30
Engaging PSAs and ad parodies can be accessed online at
http://www.cl.aoyama.ac.jp/~dias/EsllinksAds.html
1. After viewing the commercials, get students in small groups and have them
brainstorm as many products and services as they can think of within 5 minutes.
2. Following this, ask each group to try to develop slogans for a few products.
3. Each group member should take a Commercial Storyboard home and develop
a commercial. (See the IE Core and Writing student guide book).
4. Rehearsals may take place in class, but filming should be done as homework.
XV. CLASSWORK WITH TEXTBOOKS
Much of the classroom activity in an IE class involves pair and small group work
based on the themes found in IE levels I, II, and III. Materials for the development
of speaking, listening, reading, and writing are found in the two required texts for
the IE Program. These are an integrated skills conversation text, Interchange 2 (3rd
ed.) by Jack Richards, with Jonathan Hull and Susan Proctor (Cambridge: CUP,
2005), and a reading text, Mosaic 1 Reading: Silver Edition by Brenda Wegmann,
and Miki Prijic Knezevic (4th ed., Singapore: McGraw Hill, 2007).
Interchange 2 provides speaking and listening activities for the IE Core I, II, III
classes. The tasks and themes are different at each level and the expectations for
student performance should increase. [Using Interchange 2 is optional at the IE III
level.]
Mosaic 1 includes a variety of reading genres including articles, personal essays,
stories, and timed readings chosen to fit the themes at each of the 3 levels of the
course. The reading text emphasizes the teaching of reading skills and the
acquisition of vocabulary. Mosaic 1 is used at all 3 levels of IE.
XV.(a) NEW VOCABULARY LISTS
In all three sections of the IE Program (Core, Writing, and Listening) teachers should emphasize
to students that learning vocabulary items will be learned more effectively the more often they are
used. The vocabulary will be reinforced when students encounter them in readings and when
listening to films, and news.
31
It is our hope that teachers and students will make a conscious effort to recycle the vocabulary
associated with the IE themes. To aid in this task, we have listed (in the tables that
follow) vocabulary that appears in the readings for chapters associated with the four themes at
each of the three levels. Rather than testing students on the vocabulary, we recommend that
teachers have students make use of it productively in their discussions and writing—including in
the weekly Core journals. A page with the vocabulary will be included in the IE Core and Writing
student booklets. Teachers may simply write some key vocabulary on the board and encourage
students to use them that day. In addition, IE Writing teachers should incorporate these words into
student brainstorming and revision activities.
Please concentrate on the HIGH frequency vocabulary rather than some of the less common items
(e.g., monounsaturates or legumes), which have been listed because their meanings need to be
understood to properly understand specific readings.
Notice that Mosaic's Silver Edition has an excellent index of vocabulary associated with each of
the chapters on pages 249-251. Have students try to use words from these lists in their speaking
and writing in order to build their vocabularies.
The Academic Word List
The University of Wellington’s (NZ) School of Linguistics and Applied
Language Studies has a website called “The Academic Word List,” which
offers an extensive listing of academic vocabulary items that are arranged in
various ways. For example, students can download lists of headwords with
their corresponding “families” of vocabulary items (consent: consensus,
consented, consenting, consents) or study 10 sublists of words that are
organized by frequency -- the 10th sublist featuring the least frequent words
and the 1st sublist the most frequent. These lists can be used for further
development of vocabulary. Access them at...
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/research/awl/.
Student Self-assessment
Students can quickly and conveniently assess their vocabulary level at...
http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/levels/. They should be encouraged to
do so before selecting graded readers for their Core book reports.
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XV.(b). LEVEL I: THEMES AND MATERIALS
Video materials include the videos that accompany Interchange 1 (Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge, 1993) and Interchange 2 (Ibid, 1995), in addition to
Simul’s CNN Master Course: Video-Based English (Simul Press: Tokyo, 1994),
Culture Watch and Business Watch (Prentice Hall Regents, New Jersey, 1994), and
Focus on the Environment (Prentice Hall Regents, New Jersey, 1993). We also have
CINEX captioned videos and other films in the department library.
IE I THEMES IE I READINGS AND VIDEOS
(Interchange 2)
Memories:
childhood
pop culture
film classics
(pp.2-7)
(Mosaic 1: 4 selections for reading skills and vocabulary)
“Who’s Taking Care of the Children” (pp.57-65)


Grammar:
Past tense (p.3)
used to (p.5)
Vocabulary:
breakthrough, whirlwind,
fleeting, creepy (p.7)
Reading Skills:
skimming and scanning, reading a chart for information,
presenting your ideas
Vocabulary:
blended family, breadwinner, extended family, flex-time,
glass ceiling, househusband, immediate family, in touch,
job sharing, nanny, portrayal, radically, self-employed, trend
Videos: Culture Watch: Segment 7: Why Girls Lose Their SelfConfidence in Their Teens (p.61-70)
Interchange 1: Unit 5: What Kind of Movies Do You Like?
Unit 8: What Kind of Music?
Interchange 2, Unit 5, Has Anyone seen the Tent?
Unit 12, Welcome Back to West High
Hook, Hope and Glory, Hollywood Salutes Canadian Animation:
Every Child, Look Who's Talking, My Girl, Spinal Tap
33
Urban Life:
housing
city problems
(pp.8-13)
(pp.16-20)
“Hooked on Crime” (pp.221-231)


Grammar:
Adverbs of quantity,
Indirect questions
(pp. 9, 11);
evaluations and
comparisons (p.17)
or “Eye Witness” (231-244)

Vocabulary:
bright, comfortable,
convenient, cramped,
dangerous, dark, dingy,
expensive, huge,
inconvenient, modern,
noisy, private, quiet, safe,
shabby, small, spacious
(pp.16-18)
Reading Skills:
scanning, terms from context, finding the setting, meanings of
adjectives from context and structure, spelling variations
Vocabulary:
addled, backslide, burly, chapter, clean-cut, cons, contentious,
created, dependency, draft, extortion, jailhouse hard,
homelessness, imposed, making amends, meaty, modest,
principles, responds, robberies, tradition, trafficking, wrenching

Reading Skills:
identifying narrative elements, scanning, descriptive adjectives,
finding the plot, focus on testing, interpreting charts
Vocabulary:
abruptly, accessory, carefully, deliberated, fear, nervously,
personality, quickly, Old Man, suspiciously, taxpayer, tic,
underlings, warily, wearily
Videos: CNN: Black Americans: Unit 6: (p.43-49)
Culture Watch: Segment 2: Spike Lee on his movie Do The Right
Thing (p.11-20); Segment 3: Those Terrible Taxis! (p.21-30)
Interchange 1: Unit 11: Help is Coming (Crime Suspects);
Unit 12: A Suburban House; Unit 14: Over Golden Gate Bridge
Interchange 2: Sequence 1: What Do You Miss Most?
Sequence 3: A Great Little Apartment
Green Talk: Boomsville, The Quiet Racket, What on Earth;
Eight Mile, Hollywood Salutes Canadian Animation:
Neighbours, Special Delivery, The House That Jack Built,
The Street, Walking, Places in the Heart
34
“Eat Like a Peasant, Feel Like a King” (pp.80-90)
Food:
Reading Skills:
recipes
fast food restaurants  headings to preview, meaning from context, paraphrasing ideas,
recognizing synonyms, organizing information, analyzing
(pp.22-27)
Grammar:
Simple past and present
Perfect, sequence
adverbs (pp.23, 25)
Vocabulary:
Bake, barbeque, boil,
carbohydrates, fry, roast,
selenium, serotonin,
steam (pp.24, 27)

compounds, discussing charts
Vocabulary:
affluence, cuisine, diet, eclectic, elite treats, fiber, grain,
heart disease, king, legumes, monounsaturates, peasant, prevent
cancer, prosperity
or “The Luncheon,” (pp.139-148)


Reading Skills:
identifying setting, characters, conflict, words from context,
predicting events, understanding the plot,
Vocabulary:
absentmindedly, amicable, anticipated, drama, effusive,
enormous, flattered, found, imposing, inadequate, inclined,
mortifying, startled, succulent, vindictive
Videos: CNN: Unit 1: Food and Baseball Players
(p.1-8); Unit 4: Unsafe Food (p.25-33)
Interchange 1: Unit 20: American Ethnic Food
Interchange 2: Sequence 8: Thanksgiving Documentary
Travel:
budget trips
cultural values
(pp.30-35)
Grammar:
Future with be going to
and will, modals for
necessity and suggestion
(pp.31, 33)
Vocabulary:
Cash, first-aid kit,
Passport, vaccination,
visa, windbreaker
(pp.16-18)
“First Impressions” (pp.4-16)
Reading Skills:
 reading without knowing every word, recalling information,
analyzing paragraphs for main ideas, finding words from
contexts, analyzing suffixes, using a continuum
Vocabulary:
 acceptable, assume, blunt, brevity, chores, continental, desirable,
do-it-yourself, formality, heritage, inhabitants, leisure, menial,
nationalities, occasional, personal, refusing, responsibility, restless,
stigma, thoroughly
or (pp. 52-54)
Reading Skills:
Focus on testing
35
Videos: CNN: Unit 5: What to Take on a Trip (p.36-42); Unit 2:
Tamayo Otsuki, Japanese Comedienne in America (p.9-16)
Interchange 2: Sequence 2: Wait for Me,
Sequence 13: Street Performers
The Gold Rush, A Passage to India, Witness
Fig. 6 IE I Core Text, Readings and Videos
Your performance expectations should be higher at each level. That means, for
example, that students in IE III Core report on books that are 200 pages or longer
and do a more complete analysis. The student IE Core and Writing Guide has
examples of book reports at the IE I and IE III levels. In addition, students in IE III
Core have discussions based on newspaper articles instead of concentrating on
topics that they generate themselves, as students do in IE I Core. IE III Core
students also do a presentation or survey.
XV.(c) LEVEL II: THEMES AND MATERIALS
At the IE II level, the themes include: changing times, the workplace, geography
and biography. Your class will meet 12 or 13 times over a semester, which should
give you plenty of time to cover all the themes. These same themes will be used in
the IE Listening Section and the IE Writing Section.
The following table indicates the themes for Level II and some thematically-based
reading materials suggested by teachers in the program. The materials drawn from
Mosaic 1 feature different levels of difficulty for I, II and III.
The other video materials are from CNN Master Course: Video-Based English,
Culture Watch, Business Watch, Focus on the Environment, the CINEX series of
captioned videos, other commercial videos, and Interchange 1 and 2.
The CNN Master Course, Culture Watch, and Business Watch series are intended
for use at the IE Level I and II levels. They are easier than the Focus on the
Environment series, which is reserved for IE III.
36
II THEMES
(Interchange 2)
IE II READINGS AND VIDEOS
(Mosaic 1: 4 selections for reading skills and vocabulary)
“How Hybrid Cars Work” (pp.104-113)
Changing Times:
technology
society
(pp. 44-49)


Grammar:
Infinitives, gerunds,
imperatives (pp.45, 47)
Vocabulary:
browse, drag and drop,
geek, hacker,
highlight, satellite,
technophile,
transmission(pp.45-46)
Reading Skills:
skimming and scanning, inferring meaning, using a graphic
organizer chart
Vocabulary:
braking, charge, components, cool, efficient, exhaust, fuel tank,
gas pump, global warming, greenhouse effect, hybrid,
interwoven, locomotives, mileage, parallel, propulsion, shocked,
SUV, tailpipe emissions, twofold
Videos: Business Watch: Segment 11: TV Technology (101-110)
Culture Watch: Segment 11: Computers and the Consumers:
User-Friendly or User-Surly? (p.101-110)
Interchange 2: Sequence 7: Great Inventions Interviews
Sequence 9: A Short History of Transportation
Back to the Future, For All Mankind (The Apollo Moon Landing,
Modern Times, Short Circuit
37
The Workplace:
overwork, skills
(pp. 64-69)
Grammar:
Gerunds, short
responses, clauses with
because (pp.65, 68)
“Outward Bound” (pp.40-50)


Reading Skills:
scanning, recognizing word families, words and context, checking
your comprehension, focus on testing
Vocabulary:
afford, boom, chain, executive, franchise, global, manage,
marketing, mature, mental, modern, multinational, outlets,
projected, prosperous, special, transform, untapped
or “Executive Takes Chance on Pizza, Transforms
Vocabulary:
Spain” (pp.130-137)
artistic, bad-tempered,
Reading Skills:
conventional, creative,
disorganized, efficient,  words and context, scanning for numbers, selecting the main idea,
understanding metaphors, compound adjectives
enterprising, forgetful,
generous, hardworking,
Vocabulary:
investigative, impatient,  bark, cavorts, CEO, chant, ear-numbing, factories,
level-headed, moody,
global brands, knee-deep, low-end, net profits, rallying, revenues,
punctual, realistic,
sliced, storming, testing ground, V.P.
reliable, social, strict
or “The Most Dangerous Jobs in the U.S” (pp.169, 170)
(pp.67, 69)
 Reading Skills: focus on testing
Videos: Business Watch: Segment 9: On the Road Again
(motorcycles) (p.81-90); Segment 10: Flexibility of Companies to
Family Care Needs (p.91-100)
Culture Watch: Segment 9: PG & E Trains Women for
Construction and Men's Jobs (p.81-90)
Interchange 1: Unit 2: Career Change; Unit 4: Job Titles
Interchange 2: Sequence 10: Mistaken Identity;
Sequence 14: Mrs. Gardener’s Promotion
Modern Times, Nine to Five, Steel Magnolias, The Secret of My
Success, Working Gir,
38
“My Country” (pp.16-28)
Geography:
remarkable places Reading Skills:
 words from context and structure, finding the main idea,
nature
comprehension, analyzing prefixes and suffixes, focus on testing
foreign cultures
(pp.72-77)
Vocabulary:
Grammar:
Passives with,
without by (pp.73, 75)
Vocabulary:
architect, currency,
farmed, grown,
landmark,
manufactured, raised,
volcano
(pp.72, 75)

attitudes, contrasts, endless, environs, displays, glorious, harmful,
humidity, lawmen, makeup, melting pot, moderation, newcomer,
observant, outgoing, removed, settlement, symbol, style,
uprisings, vastness
“Guggenheim Museum, USA” (pp.174-183)


Reading Skills:
vocabulary of shapes, guessing adjectives and adverbs, inferences
about people, scanning, focus on testing
Vocabulary:
boldly, cone, circle, compulsory, contemporary, continually,
conventional, cube, cylinder, definitive, energetic, fatigue,
individualistic, obstinacy, pioneer, polygon, proper, pyramid,
rectangle, remarkably, square, smirk, spiral, startling, stunningly,
triangle, weariness
Videos: Culture Watch: Segment 12: What's Become of
Hollywood? (p.111-120)
Business Watch: Segment 4: Disney's Strategy (p.31-40)
Interchange 1: Unit 18: Around the World Game Show
(travel videos) It's a Great Place (Vancouver)
39
Biography:
heroes and
heroines
inspirational
stories
(pp. 78-83)
Grammar:
Past continuous and
simple past, present
perfect continuous
(pp.79, 81)
Vocabulary:
coincidentally,
fortunately, luckily,
miraculously, sadly,
strangely, suddenly,
surprisingly,
unexpectedly,
unfortunately
(pp.72, 75, 76)
“Beckham: An Autobiography” (pp.32-39)


Reading Skills:
idiomatic expressions and specialized terms from context, using a
graphic organizer, sequencing events
Vocabulary:
bracing myself, chested, clue, cross, feel at home, get the drift,
kick-off, knock, our night, twist in the pit of my stomach,
whisked, zone
or “Confucius, 551 B.C.E – 479 B.C.E.” (pp.154-160)


Reading Skills:
skimming, words and structure clues, identifying key terms, word
families, words and definitions, facts for support, ratings
Vocabulary:
background, benevolent, childhood, commoners, Confucian,
cornerstones, defender, dynasty, easily, enduring, eradicate,
etiquette, governmental, holocaust, influential, innovator,
modernized, notions, outlook, primarily, philosophical, political,
prestige, principality, reared, resigned, seized, strive, tyranny
or “Courage Begins With One Voice” (pp.160-168)


Reading Skills:
previewing organization, expressive synonyms, noun suffixes
Vocabulary:
assistance, civil, depressed, energy, founded, medical, monitors,
promotion, role, violation
Videos: CNN: Unit 12: Family Trees (p.97-107)
Culture Watch: Segment 4: Maya Angelou, Inaugural Poetess
(p.31-40); Segment 5: Paul Simon (p.41-50);
Segment 8: Hillary Rodham Clinton (p.71-80)
Bend It Like Beckham, Modern Times, Prince of Tides,
St. Elmo's Fire, Stand and Deliver, Stand By Me
Fig. 7 IE II Core Text, Readings and Videos
40
XV.(d) LEVEL III: THEMES AND MATERIALS
At the IE III level, the themes include: relationships, cross-cultural values, the
environment, and the media. The only student text for this course is Mosaic 1. It is
the source for the thematic readings. The readings from Mosaic 1 which correspond
to the IE III themes are noted in the chart below. Classroom activities, such as
group presentations and student-led discussions, should be introduced at the outset
of the course. Homework should be assigned on the readings and it should be
checked in the following class. You may wish to use the Mosaic 1 video as there are
video-extension activities in the text. The video clips are very challenging however
and will need replaying several times, even at the IE III level.
The video materials for IE III are from Focus on the Environment, the CINEX series
of captioned videos, and videos of feature films. Focus on the Environment is more
challenging than the CNN Master Course: Video-Based English, Culture Watch, or
the Business Watch series, which are reserved for IE Level I and II.
III THEMES
(Interchange 2)
Relationships:
personality
psychology
marriage
(pp.39-41)
(pp.106-111)
Grammar:
Requests with modals,
gerunds (pp.39, 40)
Reported speech,
requests, direct and
reported speech
(pp.107, 109, 110)
Vocabulary:
deliberately, irritate,
manner, measure,
resentment, resolve
(pp.41)
III READINGS AND VIDEOS
(Mosaic 1: 4 selections for reading skills and vocabulary)
“70 Brides for 7 Foreigners” (pp.66-74)


Reading Skills:
scanning, general and specific statements, selecting the main idea,
recalling antonyms
Vocabulary:
advantageous, cottage, couple, exporter, fictitious, guarantee,
intolerant, invalid, legal, medical, obtain, registers, requirements,
trickle
Videos: Interchange 2: Sequence 16: A Wonderful Evening
California Suite, City Lights, City of Joy, Father of the Bride,
Glass Menagerie, Kramer vs Kramer, Roxanne
41
“Ethnocentrism” (pp.197-206)
Cross-Cultural
Reading Skills:
Values:
 skimming for the main idea, scanning, using prefixes, finding
cultural values
support for main ideas, focus on testing
behavior, customs
(pp.50-55)
Vocabulary:
(pp.92-97)
 aspect, barbarian, bias, crude, ethnocentrism, hue, ignorant,
inconceivable, inhuman, irrational, liberal, objectively, openGrammar:
minded, outcome, outlook, repugnant, repulsive, shade, subarctic,
Relative clauses of
subgroup, unnatural, world view
time, adverbial clauses
or “Music Makes the World Go Round” (pp.183-192)
of time (pp.51, 54)
Modals and adverbs,
Reading Skills:
permission, obligation,  verbs in context, inferences, comparisons, words and definitions,
and prohibition
synonyms
(pp.93, 95)
Vocabulary:
 academy, acoustic, ambition, circuitous, create, critical acclaim,
Vocabulary:
dabbled, debut, demonstrate, discrimination, experiment, funds,
anniversary, fireworks,
grappling, guerrillas, high profile, iconic, income, indigenous,
flowers, parade,
issues, launch, murdered, pan-American, rapping, shooting, show
presents, wedding
business, shuttling, small-scale, smuggled, sources
(p.50) annoyed, bored,
confused, disgusted,
embarrassed,
Videos: Interchange 2: Sequence 2: What Do You Do, Miss?
exhausted, frustrated,
Sequence 15: How Embarassing
impatient, irritated,
A Great Wall, A Rabbit-proof Fence, Bend It Like Beckham,
nervous (p.92)
City of Joy, Father of the Bride, Karate Kid, Back to School,
Mr. Baseball, My Stepmother is an Alien, Iron and Silk, The Piano
42
Environment:
pollution
endangered
species
recycling
(pp.36-39)
Grammar:
Will for responding to
requests, requests with
modals, requests with
modals, gerunds
(pp.37, 39)
Vocabulary:
clean up, hang up, pick
up, put away, take out,
throw out, turn off
(p.38)
The Media:
types, issues
the internet
amazing stories
(pp.86-91)
Grammar:
Participles as
adjectives, relative
clauses (pp.87, 89)
Vocabulary:
absurd, bizarre,
disgusting, dreadful,
dumb, fabulous,
fantastic, horrible,
marvelous, odd,
outstanding,
ridiculous, silly,
terrible, unusual, weird
(p. 87)
“Here Come the Tourists” (pp.90-99)


Reading Skills:
skimming for point of view, words from contexts, distinguishing
between facts and opinions, the main idea, scanning, using
prefixes, scanning for vocabulary, focusing on words, using venn
diagrams, reading charts
Vocabulary:
acquiring, annoy, begging, benefit, bargain, communities,
compensation, distinguish, ecotourism, found, hence, indigenous,
locals, physical, stinginess, subculture, taboos, travelers, up-front
Videos: Focus on the Environment: Segment 1:
Little Done to Stop Animal and Plant Extinction (p.1-12);
Segment 7: Earth Summit Snag (p.73-84);
Segment 9: Recycling and Trash Problems (p.97-108)
The China Syndrome, The Emerald Forest, Gorillas in the Mist,
Never Cry Wolf, X-Files: Darkness Falls
“Leapfrogging the Technology Gap” (pp.113-126)


Reading Skills:
identifying patterns of organization, outlining details, analyzing
the thesis, understanding compound words and adjectives,
creating a study outline, using a computer on tests
Vocabulary:
benefits, craftsmen, data, download, economy, global, grass roots,
handmade, marketplace, medical, network, telecenters,
transmission, upload, vehicle, via, widespread
Videos: Broadcast News, Cannes Bronze Commercials,
China Syndrome, Commercials from Around the World,
Ghost Busters, World's Wackiest Commercials
UK Commercials 1990, 1991,
Fig. 8 IE III Core Text, Readings and Videos
43
XV.(e) SELF STUDY
One of the new features of the 3rd edition of Interchange 2 is that at the end of the
book there are 16 additional listening activities with a self-study audio CD. They
could be introduced with the teacher doing one in class, and the students checking
their answers with each other before they confirm their answers by referring to the
transcripts. Depending on the themes at the level of your IE Core class, you could
assign several of these listening activities as homework.