The chart itself reinforces the series goal of increasing the graphic literacy of students at all levels. It requires learners to seek, analyze, and organize information about their own progress and record their observations in an organized fashion. By evaluating how difficult or easy different sections of the unit were for them, individuals identify problem areas they might want to review. This process will ideally lead teachers to incorporate individual needs into future lessons and students to take charge of their own learning. Contemporary English works hard to facilitate the development of cross-cultural communication and understanding.
Readings are often in the form of advice column letters, opinion pieces, or mini-debates.
The topics presented in both sections are sufficiently varied to allow for differences in learner background, interest, and taste. Upon reviewing the student books and teacher's manuals in this series, one immediately notices the careful organization of each volume and of the series as a whole. Student books follow the same format both unit by unit and book by book. Each unit follows a similar sequence, and the same titles introduce each unit section. Some units do not have every section, but the order followed is nonetheless similar.