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Tips for Using the Fifth Edition

Pretests

The Pretest allows teachers to assess their students’ knowledge of the topics covered in the chapter.
Teachers can provide the answers after students take the test, but it works best if explanations for
the answers are not given until each section is completed. Another option is to have students take a
second look at their test answers after they have completed the chapter. Working in groups, they can
give explanations for the correct answers as a way to review key points.

Warm-ups
The Warm-up exercises are a brief pre-teaching tool for the charts. They highlight the key point(s)
that will be introduced in the chart that follows. Before beginning the task, teachers will want to
familiarize themselves with the material in the chart. Then, with the teacher’s guidance, students
can discover many or all of the new patterns while completing the Warm-up activity. After
students finish the exercise, teachers may find that no further explanation is necessary, and the
charts* can then serve as a useful reference.

Jump-start your English
The optional Jump-start lessons often begin with a listening task. Teachers can play the audio a
few times, and students can follow along in their books the first time and then with books closed.
Depending on how advanced the class is, the teacher may want to have students role-play the
conversations.

The listening is followed by varied types of interactive practice that lead up to a short presentation,
usually by pairs of students. It’s important that students not read from their papers. They can look
at their paper before they speak, but when they speak, they should look at their partner.

Listening
The Listening exercises have been designed to help students understand American English as it is
actually spoken. They include reductions and other phenomena that are part of the natural, relaxed
speech of everyday English. Because the pace of speech in the audio may be faster than what
students are used to, they may need to hear sentences two or three times as they complete a task.

These exercises do not encourage active practice of pronunciation (unless they are linked to a
specific pronunciation task). Receptive skills precede productive ones, and it is essential that
students gain familiarity with the speech patterns before they begin using them in their own speech.
Students are encouraged to listen to conversations the first time without looking at their text.
Teachers can explain any vocabulary that has not already been clarified. During the second listening,
students complete the assigned task. Teachers will want to pause the audio appropriately. Depending
on the level of the class, pauses may be needed after every sentence or even within a sentence.

It is inevitable that sound representations in the text will at times differ from the instructor’s speech,
whether due to register or regional variation. A general guideline is that if the instructor expects
students will hear a variation, or if students themselves raise questions, alternate representations can
be presented.

A listening script is included in the back of the Student Book.

* Note: The charts were designed so that the example sentences on the left are for students, and the explanations
on the right help teachers present the grammar points. Students are not expected to understand the language in
the explanations.

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BEG 5e FM v10.indd 13 4/15/21 12:49 PM