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Issues in English

This review was undertaken by Ros Lewis who teaches at Launceston College.

Product details
Review
A student’s Idea Map
Student Checklists

Product Details

Produced by Protea Textware, Australia.
Available in standalone or server install version
Price:
$160: single licence
$320: 5 users on 1 site
$480: 10 users on 1 site
$640: unlimited users on 1 site

An interactive CD-ROM for teaching English language skills in meaningful, Australian contexts; originally written for students of ESL, but very successful in English classes as well. Uses real actors, not cartoons

The program gives feedback & is self-correcting (with an optional "test" mode which does not self-correct).
Information (teaching) segments.
A print option (lockable).

Interest level: senior secondary — adult.

(EN614, EN615, EN616 and EN617) Criteria 2,3,7 and 8.

Review

Issues in English uses 32 videos showing everyday people talking about current issues & giving their opinions, with follow-up activities. They are arranged by:

• 4 Reading levels (Reading Ages Grade 2 to 12: The levels reflect sophistication of language as well as vocabulary — level 4 is much more sophisticated, as well as scoring Grade 12 on a readability survey.

• 8 topics: The Environment, Smoking, Growing Old, Gambling, Discrimination, Public Transport, Animal Rights, Euthanasia.

Notes to help teachers when planning lessons

Students need to be able to use a computer & mouse.
Computer should have a sound card and speakers or earphones. To work in pairs, they can use a double adapter for the earphones. In the future, I will encourage all students to buy their own headphones — I think they will become basic equipment.

Suggested extra resources

checklists, paper and pen.

Lesson Sequence 1: Basic skills

Aim: Students will practise and improve basic skills.

The students work through the program (preferably with a partner; some students may work with a tutor/mentor/aide). The teacher may designate some sections as compulsory. Students can tick these off on their checklist.

Students practise skills — listening, speaking, reading, comprehension, writing, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, giving an opinion.

Lesson sequence 2: Listening, research and reporting skills

Aims: Students will listen, choose main points and report back to group or class.

1. The teacher introduces the 8 topics briefly; students in each pair choose a topic.
2. Students (in pairs) listen to all 4 videos on their selected topic (i.e., at this stage they use 4 levels of difficulty and get 4 points of view. They hear the script even if they cannot read it.
3. Reporting back: Students report to class orally, summarising the opinions of the 4 speakers they listened to.

Extension

• Students practise "note-taking" — they write down the main points and summary, as directed in the Level 3 and 4 activities.
  
• Students develop a "mind map" which could be used as a basis for further activities.
  
• In doing a Negotiated Study, this is a useful resource for students who can’t get started on a topic, can’t read very well or can’t find anyone to interview.
  
• The class discusses the technique of using actors to portray real characters (docu-drama). Is it honest? How do we know what is real? Does it matter?
  
• Fact & opinion: What is the difference? Use videos and scripts as examples.
  
• Compare this resource with a newspaper or magazine.

Motivation & satisfaction for students come from:

• Immediate feedback within the program.
• Becoming aware that they have developed new skills
• Working with computers; working in pairs or groups.

A STUDENT’S IDEA MAP

Issues

The Environment

Level 1 Spoken text

Hi. My name’s Gary. I went to work this morning but I came home early. I had a terrible headache. The air pollution was very bad. The air smelt bad and my eyes were red and sore. I think the pollution comes from all the cars and trucks.

Copyright 1996, 1998 PROTEA TEXTWARE Pty L1d

Results of Microsoft Word check (use Tools > Spelling)

Issues

The Environment

Level 2 Spoken text

Hello. I'm Isobel. I've just put the rubbish bins out the front. The rubbish is collected tomorrow. Actually, we don't have much rubbish these days. We used to have lots of rubbish but now we recycle most of it.

The council collects the old newspapers at the beginning of the month and they pick up all the glass and cans at the end of the month. So that means we have much less rubbish in the bins.

I really like gardening, so I've always saved up all the fruit and vegie scraps and put them in the compost bin. It takes about two months to break down into compost then I put it on the garden. I've got the best vegetable garden you've ever seen!

Copyright 1996, 1998 PROTEA TEXTWARE Pty L1d

Results of Microsoft Word check (use Tools > Spelling)

Issues

The Environment

Level 3 Spoken text

I’m Jenny. I want to tell you about something we saw on the way home from the beach last weekend. We pulled off the main road for a picnic lunch and drove a fair way down a dirt track. Well, you wouldn’t have believed it. All the trees that they have planted. Some big company bought the land about five or six years ago. They must have spent a fortune in all the preparation and the planting. It’s great.

I know a lot of people get upset when you talk about cutting down trees, but the problem is we all use paper and the fibre has to come from somewhere. I don’t agree with them cutting down the really big, old trees but I think it’s alright if they plant the trees specially for paper and then they harvest them.

People forget that the timber industry keeps thousands of people in jobs. Some are employed to cut down the trees, others drive the trucks with the logs to the sawmills and then probably thousands more are employed in making timber products or in the export industry. Trees are great for the economy, there's no doubt about that!

Copyright 1996, 1998 PROTEA TEXTWARE Pty L1d

Results of Microsoft Word check (Choose Tools, then Spelling)

Issues

The Environment

Level 4 Spoken Text

My name's Will Tomadin and I'm the Marketing Manager for the recycling group of Australian Paper.

Throughout the world, recycling has been, in recent times, one of the most popular issues in the environment debate. But while recycling has been only a recent issue for most people, the paper industry, and in fact, Australian Paper, have been recycling for many years. In fact, Australian Paper began recycling more than a hundred years ago. Last year the industry recovered more than 1.4 million tonnes of waste paper, a figure that is rising every year. This represents about 43% of the total paper consumed by Australians and is a pretty good effort particularly when you consider the countries that are ahead of us, such as Japan at 53% and Holland at 55%, are smaller geographically and more densely populated. Australian Paper's nationwide recycling operation spends more than a 100 million dollars a year collecting waste paper.

In broad terms, we use two types of paper. Firstly, there are the brown and mixed papers, which includes newsprint, that are used to make packaging and industrial papers. Secondly, there are the high quality white papers which are mainly used in printing and writing papers but also have a use in packaging papers. Most of the paper and cardboard produced by Australian Paper each3 year contains some recycled product. For example, much of the paper packaging you see on your supermarket shelves is made from recycled paper. At home, if your walls are lined with plasterboard, the surface and backing of that board are made from recycled waste. At the office, many stationery products, such as photocopy and computer paper, notepads and envelopes, are made from 100% recycled fibre or contain a proportion of recycled fibre.

There are many advantages to the community in recycling. They include the use of resources which would otherwise be wasted and, in particular, the avoidance of waste disposal costs by companies and councils who would otherwise have to dispose of that material to landfill. If the 1.4 million tonnes that Australia recycled last year was to be disposed of in, at landfills, the additional cost, of over $150 million, would have to be borne by the community each year.

Australian Paper is at the forefront of recycling in this nation, not simply because to recycle is environmentally responsible, but it makes good business sense. By working together, and recognising that recycling is a shared community responsibility, a great deal can be achieved, both economically and environmentally.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Copyright 1996, 1998 PROTEA TEXTWARE Pty Ltd

Results of Microsoft Word check (To use it, click on Tools, then Spelling & read the results at the end of the corrections)

Issues in English

Student(s) _________________________________________

Issue __________________________ Level 1

% = Choose Learning (self-correcting) or % (test) mode

* = Get someone to check your answers

Issues in English

Student(s) _________________________________________

Issue __________________________ Level 2

% = Choose Learning (self-correcting) or % (test) mode

* = Get someone to check your answers

Issues in English

Student(s) _______________________

Issue __________________________ Level 3

% = Choose Learning (self-correcting) or % (test) mode
* = Get someone to check your answers

Issues in English

Student(s) _________________________________________

Issue __________________________ Level 4

% = Choose Learning (self-correcting) or % (test) mode
* = Get someone to check your answer