Title: Lado English Series Level 1
First published: March 10, 1989
Description: Preface
The new edition of the *Lado English Series* is a complete six-level course in English. Each level is carefully graded and consists of a Student Book, Workbook, Teacher's Edition, and Audio Program. The main objective of the series is to help students understand, speak, read, and write English and to use these four skills for meaningful communication and interaction.
The new *Lado English Series* takes a balanced approach to teaching and learning. It offers a wide variety of techniques and activities - including conversations and discussions, study frames and contextualized grammar exercises, listening and interaction    activities, reading and role plays - to help students learn English. The more controlled, structured exercises focus attention on learning the grammatical rules of English, while the freer, open-ended activities offer ways of improving language skills through more creative, spontaneous interaction.
    This new edition retains the careful grading, simple presentation, and transparent organization that are classic trademarks of the *Lado English Series*. At the same time, several new features make this edition more modern and easy to use. The revised Student Book format features a larger type size, bigger pages, updated and extended content, and new art. For greater convenience, the Listening sections have been moved from the Workbooks to the Student Books. Cassette symbols appear throughout the Student Books to identify recorded material.
    The exercises in the six Workbooks correspond to and complement the material covered in the Student Books. They offer additional exercises to help students master the material in each unit and focus on vocabulary, reading and writing. In this new edition, controlled composition appears in all six Workbooks. In addition, review units with pre and post-inventory Tests are now included at the end of each Workbook.
    The Teacher's Editions have been revised and reformatted. The new horizontal page format features clear, concise instructions. For easy reference, these instructions appear in single columns on each page of the Teacher's Edition and face a nearly full-size reproduction of the corresponding page from the Student Book. The answers to all the exercises are given together with the reproduced page. New vocabulary presented in the unit is listed at the beginning of each section. This is followed by a concise explanation of how to teach the section. Suggestions for games are also given, so that students have the opportunity to use English in less formal situations. Answers to all Workbooks exercises can be found in an answer key at the back of the Teacher's Edition.
    An Audio Program for each level consists of five cassettes corresponding to each Student book. The program gives students the opportunity to listen to native speech, and can be used outside of class to provide extra speaking and listening practice.
    By offering a combination of grammatical and functional activities, Student Book 1 helps students achieve accuracy and build affective communication skills. The Conversation and Interaction sections allow students to use English more naturally and functionally before they focus on particular language structures in the Study and Practice sections that follow. Thus, students work with both the function (use) and the grammatical form (structure) of English.
    Student Book 1 has ten units. These units are divided into sections with clear headings that indicate the purpose of the sections: Conversation, Interaction, Study, Practice, Listen, Speak, Read, Think, and Pronounce. Following are guidelines for presenting the material in each unit.
    Each unit opens with a **Conversation** that introduces the new material in a communicative setting. Pictures help to set the context. Intonation lines show the rise and fall of the voice. They represent the four intonation levels of English: low, mid, high and extra high. A dot on the intonation line indicates the principal stress in each sentence.
    Describe the situation while students look at the pictures.
    Explain any new or unfamiliar vocabulary or structures.
    Read the conversation while students follow along in their books.
    Assign each role to a part of the class. Read the conversation and have the students repeat the lines that correspond to their roles.
    Assign each role to an individual student. Read the conversation and have the students repeat the lines that correspond to their roles.
    Divide the class into pairs or small groups and have the students practice the conversation.
    Ask a group to present the conversation in front of the class.
    In the **Interaction** section, students adapt the opening conversation to new situations by modifying significant parts of the dialogue with the help of cues. Some Interaction sections contain an additional application step (see Teacher's Edition), in which students create more personal exchanges that give information about themselves.
    Read the cues; then read the sentences. Have students repeat the sentences after you.
    Read the cues. Have two students read the sentences.
    Read the cues (or have a student read them). Have two students make the sentences.
    You may want to practice the Interaction using a group or individual approach. For the group approach, divide the class into two groups and have one group ask the questions for the other group to answer. For the individual approach, call on an individual student to form the question and direct it to another student for the answer.
    The **Study** sections present gramamtical structures in a clear, graphic way, Study frames have been redone in the new edition, with boxes, connecting lines, and illustrations updated to make the grammatical relationships clearer.
    Read the examples while students follow along in their books.
    Explain the structure(s), using the example sentences and illustrations.
    Give further examples of the structure to ensure student comprehension.
    A **Practice** section follows each Study frame. This section contains exercises which allow students to use the target grammar in meaningful contexts. Many exercises include and additional application step (see Teacher's edition), in which students personalize the structures by giving information about themselves.
    Explain any new or unfamiliar vocabulary.
    Present the example to the class. Check for comprehension.
    Have students do the exercises
    The **Listen** section contains any of three types of exercises, all of which require students to listen to sentences, dialogues , and paragraphs and then indicate the correct choices or fill the blanks. The exercises can be used for listening and practice or for listening comprehension tests. All exercises are included on the audio cassettes available for each level or the series.
    If you are useng the exercises for listening practice, read (or play) each item twice and let the students respond.
    If you are using them for tests, read or play the items only once.
    After students have completed each exercise, write the correct responses on the board so that they can check their work.
     In the **Speak** section, students use newly learned vocabulary and grammar in a variety of more creative situations. Students focus on reading and performing dialogues, not on memorizing them. Students also modify the dialogues by using cues in the text to express information about themselves.
    Explain any new or unfamiliar vocabulary
    Read the conversation in part A while students follow along
    Have two students perform the conversation
    With books open, ask two students to perform the conversation in part B using the cues. Repeat this step with other students
    For another variation, have two students perform the conversation with their books closed. Repeat this step with other students.
    The **Read** section contains short passages composed of material presented in the unit. Questions follow each reading to check comprehension and stimulate discussion. Reading becomes increasingly emphasized as a language skills as students work through the series.
    Explain any new or unfamiliar vocabulary
    Have students read the text silently, using the illustration to help them understand the content.
    Ask students to work in pairs and ask and answer the questions. If students do not agree on an answer, have them return to the reading passage to resolve their disagreement.
    The **Think** section gives students another opportunity to use English in a less-controlled, more communicative way. The pictures in this section encourage students to use new structures and vocabulary more freely and creatively.
    Ask students to look at and think about the illustrations. Help them with vocabulary if necessary.
    Have students talk about the illustrations, preferably in pairs or small groups.
    Emcourage students to relate their own experiences to the situation(s) if appropriate.
    The **Pronounce** section focuses on particular elements of pronunciation that may cause problems in understanding and speaking English. Throughout the series, the Pronounce sections progressively treat all the phonemes of English; they also deal with consonant clusters and other aspectos of pronunciation unique to English spelling, stress, and intonation. In many cases, facial diagrams are included to illustrate the articulation of particular sounds.
    Point out the key word and picture with the featured sound, facial diagram (if there is one), familiar words, and sentences containing the sound.
    Pronounce the words (or play the appropriate cassette) and have the students practice saying them.
    You may want to have students practice pronouncing minimal pairs - two words in which all sounds but one are identical (for example, *sheep* and *ship*.)
    To provide practice in pronouncing featured sounds in a larger contexts, ask the students first to read aloud each of the sentences individually; then have them say the whole group of sentences.
    This new edition offers a complete and balanced program for teaching and learning the structures and functions of English. Hopefully, the new features and design will make the series even more appealing, convenient, and affective promoting learning and communication.
    Robert Lado
    Washington, D. C.
Subjects: English language, textbooks for foreign speakers