Job Discussion Forums

[Paul Barufaldi]

Yes, Sheeba, I agree with you in a way about New Interchange. That's why that magic element, the teacher, is so important. Hopefully, they're not just plowing through it robotically:)

On the other hand, I've developed a lot of material over the years, and it makes you realize a few things. One is that you need to limit the scope and give specific examples, something the students can latch onto with getting all overloaded and confused. Essentially, we have to lie to our students, in a sense, by giving them an excercise of limitted scope that gives them something to focus in on, as well as a shot at putting the sentences together correctly on their own. Otherwise, we're just in English Corner world.

New Interchange also provides an organized system that integrates oral conversation, grammar, pronunciation, and writing -and workbook excersises to assign as homework to reinforce the lesson. Also, it's well suited to the novice teacher -and requires very little prep time! So, when someone puts together something more functional than New Interchange, maybe the schools will start using it.

[Super Frank]

Sorry PB, just sounded so American to me. Being a jolly old Englishman I would be horrified if my students came out with that.

Anyway, "going to go":

I'm going to the supermarket, then I'm going to go to the barbers, then I'm going to go to the chemists, then I'm going home.

[prof]

The internchange/connections/whatever is next series is a perfect business class example of:

marketing and distribution OVER quality.

[fitzgud]

I have had the misfortune of using Interchange as a base for oral English classes; I am located in a very rural area, one hour from the main city. The vast majority of my students have never been there, they are from the farms and the outlying villages.

My initial thought on seeing the Interchange series of books was that they were by far too American lifestyle orientated, they offer nothing that the young people can relate to, therefore rather than a help, they rapidly became an hindrance. I took the decision to cast them aside. Now I plan lessons with a much more basic and where possible Chinese theme about which they may have some knowledge. This has proved to be a great success as the level of contribution by the students has grown also their confidence level. Also in the realization that it is highly unlikely that any will utter one word of English after school, I try to make our time together as enjoyable as I possible can for all of us.

New interchange may work in the more developed areas but certainly not for me in the wilderness (beer 2 RMB 5 RMB for 3, yes the more you drink the more you save) In fact I am quite sure the books were brought out into the country areas as part of extraordinary rendition. For in my opinion they are torture for the average, or below average Chinese young person.

[kev7161]

[wailing_imam]

New Interchange is the worst textbook series on earth. Immediately burn all copies. It doesn't flow properly and is generally all over the place. The most appropriate series for mainlanders is Headway. It suits their learning style perfectly.

You say you are on the yellow book of interchange. Well, that is the beginner series so;
DO NOT bring up Will vs Going to at this level. This contrast should only be introduced to intermediate students of English. Teaching of the future tenses should generally be done in this order; going to , pres. cont, will

[rogerejones]

I've used the Interchange Series (red volume) for the past 6 months or so for my ESL classes in Los Angeles. I agree that it is "all over the place" - the lessons are very short, and do not follow each other logically. It's very choppy, and I have only used it in small doses. I would consider almost anything to be an improvement. I do write a couple of the book's grammar points on the board at the beginning of my conversation classes, and then guide the students in using the structures in their speaking activities. Other than that, I don't have much use for the book's stilted dialogues.

Roger

[kev7161]

But there's more you can do with the dialogue. For example, cover the dialogue and ask the students to say what they think is happening in the picture that accompanies it. It's a good warm-up. Of course, students can perform it in front of the class or use the basic idea of the dialogue and create their own to do. Also, you can assign 2 or 3 students ahead of time to "mime" the actions and see if the rest of the class can guess what is happening. Don't forget, "What happens next?" where groups of two or three can write additional dialogue based on what has happened in the book, then share it with the rest of the class. You can take the dialogue and have "What If?" questions. (I don't remember the dialogues exactly, but you could say something like, "What if the waiter spilled hot coffee on your date's lap?" if the dialogue was taking place in a restaurant.)

These exercises could be used in any book that has dialogues, by the way.

As for the length of the lessons, I think the chapters are broken down so you can do perhaps two pages of activities in your average 45 to 60 minute class. Of course the idea is to get your students to speak and learn pronunciation, so the more you can get to answer open ended questions as well as reading aloud and doing dialogues, the better. If the kids are "exhausted" from speaking so much English, you can use the last ten minutes or so to get them started on their workbook exercises (in case they have questions, now would be a good time for them to ask) or, if not enough time, use the last 3 or 4 minutes to give directions on their WB homework and, voila!, class is over! Hooray!

And I want to say this again for those that are down on New Interchange or any textbook series. First of all, thank your lucky stars that you have some sort of text because some schools don't provide them for an "Oral English" class. Second, if you do have the text, as the teacher, you can decide how closely you follow it. If you want to use the basic theme of the chapter, then branch out on your own with conversations, games, and activities, then by all means do so. Or, if you want to follow the book, then go ahead and do that. It depends on how much you want to put into your class. I wonder if those that use New Interchange (or any other series) receives the teacher's text, the listening tapes, the CDRom/DVD, and the other tools to help them with the depth needed to make their course successful and perhaps more interesting? The teacher's text (and the website too) has a bunch more ideas that you can use besides only teaching the clunky grammar.

[rogerejones]

Good suggestions, Kevin. Thanks.

[Hendahu]

It could be worst. I am from the southeast United States. In many cases instead of hearing, I am going to ...you will hear I am fixing to...i.e I am fixin' to go to church, I am fixin' to go shopping, I'm fixin' to go marry my sister. That is the amazing thing about language, the diversity. No different that the dialogue difference heres in China.

[sultansofping]

[kev7161]

Okay, my last post defending New Interchange because I know that it is not the BEST series out there (what is the best?), but I know there are worse out there as well. The point I'm trying to make with my posts is that this series does have a wealth of good English tools to use: from speaking, pronunciation, inflection, to reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing, grammar, etc. If a teacher is "stuck" with this series, they can certainly work beyond it and only use it as a general guide. Don't like the dialogues? Fine, create some on your own using the theme of the unit - - or have students create their own. Don't like "American" grammar or spelling of certain words? Fine, find the equivalent from your native country and teach that along side what's in the book.

Obviously, if you get to choose which series you want to use and you don't like NI, then you won't have to choose it, but sometimes we have to work with the tools we're given. I'm just advising to find a way to work with it that's going to make you happy and your students are going to find (somewhat) interesting. This is true for any series.

Personally, I find the posts that essentially say: "I don't like the book, it's worthless." to be a waste of time. Instead, why can't a teacher tell us how they worked around the problems? If you didn't use the book, what did you do instead to fill the time? How did you adapt to the book or have the book adapt to your teaching style? What did your school or English department say when you pointed out the flaws and made suggestions for another series? I'll repeat: I know that NI is not the be-all, end-all series that we all desire, but I think it has more good than bad.