reading and writing targets 3 by evans and dooley (2001) =a critical manalysis.doc

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Reading and Writing Targets 3 by Evans and Dooley (2001):

A Critical Analysis

Jamel Abdenacer ALIMI

e-mail: [email protected]

10March, 2006.PAPER PLAN

INTRODUCTION

1- PRELIMINARIES

1.1 ELT Syllabus and Course Design: Literature Review

1.2 RAWT3-related Contextual Considerations

1.3.1 The Learning/Teaching Context

1.3.2 The EEP Learners

1.3.2.1 Learner Factors

1.3.2.2 Learners' L2-related Needs

2- RAWT3: A DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW

2.1 General Observations

2.2 Aims and Objectives

2.3 Underlying Syllabus and Course Design Principles

3- RAWT3: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

3.1 Course Design Principles

3.2 Accountability and Congruence

4- RECOMMENDATIONS

5- CONCLUSION

END NOTES

6- REFERENCES

7- APPENDICES

mailto:[email protected]





Any syllabus will express— however indirectly—

certain assumptions about language, about the

psychological process of learning, and about the

pedagogic and social processes within a classroom

(Breen 1984: 49; quoted in Nunan1988a: 6)

INTRODUCTION

Oman's secondary schools for general education have undertaken, since lastSeptember 2005, the implementation of the first Elective English Programme (EEP)ever for Grade 12 classes. A global book 1, entitled Reading and Writing Targets 3 ( RAWT3) by Evans and Dooley (2001), along with a supplementary Writing TasksSheet (Appendix One) has been prescribed by the Ministry of Education authoritiesfor that purpose (Assessment Document Development Committee for English 2005).

The textbook just referred to, while intuitively praised for many a merit over the lastfew months, does still pose a dire need for systematic analyses and evaluations of itsvery content and ways of working, which, unfortunately, has not been fully satisfiedto date.

The present paper is in partial response to the gap in investigative research notedabove. Within its purview, it will be mainly concerned with providing a criticalanalysis of RAWT3, with chief regard to its underlying syllabus design assumptionsand to the degree of its congruence with the needs of the EEP student community atSohar Secondary School for General Education, where I currently work. To this two-fold end, the essay proposes to proceed according to the following steps:

A- Preliminaries: These will include, in turn, a brief review of the literature onsyllabus and course design for English language teaching, a description of myteaching context and of the EEP students here concerned.

B- A brief overview of the Coursebook.

C- A critical analysis of RAWT3's underlying principles and of its degree of suitability for the EEP students' needs.

D- A set of RAWT3-related recommendations.

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The remainder sections are to be structured according to the format outlined above. Inthe interest of time and space, further details are available in the End Notes andAppendices Sections to supply necessary clarifications and comments, as need arise.

1- PRELIMINARIES

As the heading should clearly indicate, the present Section will comprise a fewintroductory notes to serve as a basis for the Critical Analysis Section to come. These

particularly concern RAWT3, as a coursebook 2, in relation to its macro syllabus andcourse design background and, at a later stage, to the very micro instructional contextit is being implemented in.

1.1 ELT Syllabus and Course Design: Literature Review

Syllabus and course materials design falls within two broad strands closely connectedto either Type A or Type B syllabus design classification (White 1988: 45-6)3. Theformer (also termed synthetic4) type may be of a notional-functional, topic, content,

phonological, lexical, structural or skills units of design5. Conversely, the latter category is of an analytic6 or process orientation, and takes "task" as a unit of analysisand design. It concerns the Procedural, Process and the Task-Based LanguageTeaching syllabuses, which first appeared in the 1980s (Long and Crookes 1992). Incontradistinction to the sub-syllabuses pertaining, respectively, to Type A and Type Btaxonomy above, stand the Proportional syllabus (Johnson 1982: 135-44; Yalden1983: 120-37) and the Multidimentional syllabuses (Ullmann 1982; Batstone 1988:188-9).

As Reilly (1988) points out, it is practically rare that either of the syllabuses identifiedearlier occurs in absolute independence, or in entire distinction, from any other. Thus,more often than not, "For a given course, one type of syllabus usually dominates,while other types of content may be combined with it" (ibid). This depends, inter alia,on two intertwined factors: the target and learning needs7 (Klimová and Suchánková:2001:9) .

The current learner's centrality in the syllabus and course design equation alluded to just earlier would hardly pose, in principle, any serious matter of discord. This is

chiefly due to the impact of the Communicative Language Teaching (McDonoughand Shaw 2003: 15-39), work in English for Specific Purposes (Munby 1978;Hutchinson and Waters 1987), and the growing influence of Humanistic-Constructivist approaches to English Language Teaching (Arnold (ed.) 1999). Rather,what is practically at issue is, as will be discussed later, the variety of claims builtaround it by some coursebook designers and publishers— only to give out, at times,some skillfully marketed masses of rubbish (Brumfit 1979: 30; quoted in McGrath2003:12). This has necessitated the rise and growth of a plethora of textbook description, analysis, and evaluation frameworks in the field8. Two out of the key

parameters, which have won consensus amongst curriculum, syllabus and coursebook evaluators, directly concern the context analysis as well as the survey of learner

needs. Both of these are turned to in the next sub-section.

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1.2 RAWT3-related Contextual Considerations

In extension to the previous sub-section, which placed RAWT3 within the context of the recent developments in syllabus design and theory, the present part will nowsituate the textbook under discussion in closer relation to the Omani instructional

context and, much more narrowly, to the needs of the EEP student community atSohar Secondary School for General Education. The data provided below are onlyquick notes from a more detailed report available in Appendices Two and Three.

1.2.1 The Learning/Teaching Context

Sultanate of Oman's students are given up to twelve years of English languageinstruction at state-run schools. These are spread over a period of nine years in Grades1-9 at junior-senior, Basic Education schools and three years later in Grades 10-12 atsenior-high Schools for General Education. Senior-high students have five to six 45-minute English classes per week; those enrolled in the EEP have only three. Despite

genuine efforts to modernize the teaching of English, the syllabus is still prescribed bythe centralized Ministry of Education and implemented in one way or another by amajority of non-native teachers of variously national, academic and teaching

backgrounds, which negatively impacts on the status of English in the long run(Nunan et al 1987)9. Lessons revolve around the usual four skills in addition togrammar and vocabulary, and are almost totally delivered in a teacher-fronted way.Continuous as well as end-of-term evaluation and assessment are tightly textbook-

bound, which rather gives way to rote-learning, little, if ever, exposure to extramaterial, and to many instances of cheating during exams, as it must be mentioned,.

1.3.2 The EEP Learners

The overall negative depiction of the Omani instructional context above has to suffer yet other serious effects when considering the plight of the EEP learners hereinvolved. A glance through Appendix Three should be informative enough tomentally visualize their rather low proficiency learning variables. Some of thesenoticeably include:

• an overwhelmingly weak level at all language skills,• rather limited study skills, including access to dictionaries, computer

facilities, library books and other learning materials,

• a heavy dependence on rote-learning and cheating during examinations, and

• a tendency not to perceive English as a world language or a skill immediatelyrelated to their own needs and existence (Nunan et al 1987)

The implications of these as well as other similar characteristics available inAppendix Three are to be spelled out in Sections Three and Four below.

2- RAWT3: A DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW

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2.1 General Observations:

RAWT3 is the third of a three-level writing series designed for pre-intermediatestudents (Both the teaching context and the age group of the target students have not

been specified). It is made up of 18 units, each with a distinct 11-to-14-exercise

theme. As stated in the Teacher's Guide (TG)'s Introduction (Appendix Four), it ismeant to provide material for 40 to 45 teaching hours.

2.2 Aims and Objectives:

The overall aim of RAWT3, as stated in the Student's Book blurb (Appendix Six) andthe TG Introduction, is to provide "systematic" development of students' reading andwriting skills via

• carefully selecting a wide range of unit themes to appeal and motivatelearners at pre-intermediate level,

• starting each unit with a written input based on a "real-life communicativesituation to develop students' reading skills to serve as a model for their ownwritten work",

• following input texts with a set of vocabulary and grammar exercises to helpstudents produce successfully fluent and accurate pieces of writing,

• exposing learners to a miscellany of text genres,

• familiarizing students with a wide variety of reading skills,

• supplying writing tip boxes so as to help students with the structure of each piece of composition, and

• providing paragraph plans to give learners step-by-step guidance and support.

From its part, the four-heading "Contents" page (Appendix Seven) yields further indicative clues as to the realization of RAWT3's aims and objectives on a unit-wise

basis. As illustrated in the extract below, the unit entries invariably specify

UNITS page READINGSKILLS

WRITING SKILLS GRAMMAR

UNIT 15 p.64

Trouble Shared…

- reading for detailedunderstanding

- matching topics to paragraphs

- reconstructing a

text

- makingsuggestions

- a letter offeringadvice to a relative

-advice / suggestion — esp. conditionalstype 2

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• the types of reading sub-skills in focus,• the communicative purpose as well as the genre of the piece of writing, and

• the grammatical / structural item thought suitable for tackling the compositionexercise.

Surprisingly, this continuum misses out two key components: vocabulary and, at alesser degree, speaking; the latter being stressed in the TG Introduction as anindispensable in-class activity "before the exercise is assigned as written homework".

2.3 Underlying Syllabus and Course Design Principles

Considering the overview description above, it might be inferred that RAWT3's design

rests, most prominently, on the following views of language and language learning:View of Language:

• Language is a set of rules and patterns which need to be learned andinternalized step by step.

• Language is made up of discrete units— hence, the expediency to exposelearners to a variety of "accuracy" exercises.

• Language is used for purpose and, thus, varies according to the context / topic/ situation it may be used in.

View of Learning :

• Language is a linear and additive development.• Each of the items is to be learnt separately. Once mastered, a different one is

then moved onto.

• The learnt set of rules or patterns provides for effective, communicativewriting skills.

• Learners indiscriminatingly learn items at either the same or similar rate.

• Writing is a culmination of model reading, lexical and grammatical inputs.

• The teacher is à la fois a giver of knowledge about language and a monitor of opportunities to get the students to produce extended pieces of discourse.

As could be expected, these two sets of views are to exert a considerably powerfulinfluence at many a level. Their impact is notably manifest in the potential learningcontext RAWT3 happens to be implemented in, the methodology it embraces, the roles

it expects from the teacher and learners, the way it is actually designed and produced

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as a skills book, and, ultimately, the extent to which it meets the requirements of itstarget students. The next Section will give brief consideration to the two latter.

3- RAWT3: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The chief aim of the present section is to critically analyze the coursebook hereinconcerned in terms of its underpinning assumptions and of the extent to which itactually meets the needs and expectations of the EEP community described in Sub-section 1.3.2 earlier.

3.1 Course Design Premises

Based on the overview description Section above, the principles RAWT3 draws ontend to derive from an integrated, multilayered approach to language learning, withstress on the functional, syntactic and lexical aspects of English on the one hand, andon the learning strategies for fostering learners' reading and writing skills on the other.

The realization of this bi-focal objective is conceived attainable through a series of exercises which call on the inductive and deductive faculties in students.

The initial assumptions just identified have engendered several merits as to theultimate state of the Coursebook. Their subsequent positive impact is outstandinglytangible in the latter's

• selection of topics and themes which undeniably appeal to its teenagedaudience.

• Its inclusion of graphic and written inputs, along with study and writing tips,

so as to maximize motivation and performance in students.

• Its devising of lexical and syntactic exercises which prove of tremendousassistance and relevance as to carrying the ultimate writing assignments and

projects.

• Its pedagogically realistic stance in approaching the writing skill as acombination of process and product.

• Its genuine efforts to live to its claim as a reading-to-writing skills book fromone unit to another.

• Its success in exposing the targeted writing students to a variety of writinggenres

.

Irrespective of these advantages, RAWT3 does seem to suffer, at least, three major deficiencies. These are summed up in the following points:

a- General syllabus tradition: As preconceived by its co-authors, the skills book

under consideration pertains to Type A syllabus category. In so doing, it

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manifests conformity to the notoriously "traditional definition of a syllabus asan organized statement of content of things to be learnt" (White 1988: 91).

b- Methodology bias: RAWT3 shows ample evidence for tendency towardsintervention in the learning process as well as the pre-selection, specificationand presentation of content. Such a strand gives too much preference for a

product-oriented, end-means model of coursebook design— hence, itscondemnation by proponents of procedural, process, and learning- or learner-centred one ( Long and Crookes 1992; Prabhu 1987; Nunan 1988b: 20).

c- Approach to Units: It seems that the co-authors' use of such terms as"systematic development", "real-life communicative situation", and "task"(Appendix Four) is deliberately aimed at highlighting their adherence to atask-based model to English instruction. The practical materialization of thisallegiance tends to prove extremely questionable, though. For it displays butlittle correspondence, if at all, to the construct of "pedagogic tasks" which, inshort, necessitates a considerably high level of active learner involvement,

communicative interaction and cognitive processing while tackling the task assignment as a communication problem to solve (Nunan 2004: 1-4). Seenfrom this perspective, it very much fails to meet the above-mentionedcharacteristics and would, most expectedly, result in a quite limited range of "routes, media, modes of participation, [and] procedures", as has been the casewith other coursebooks with a similar trend (Candlin 1987, cited in Nunan1988a: 45-6).

3.2 Accountability and Congruence

As pointed at in the preceding sub-section, RAWR3 undeniably offers many positiveaspects. This is said, it should be stressed that the Coursebook, not least by the merefact of being a global textbook, imminently sparks off serious problems of suitabilitywith many an instructional context around the world. The one here considered willhappen to be yet another case in point. Indeed, a perusal of the data in Sub-section 1.3above would not fail to reveal the number of gaps between the expectations of thecoursebook and the realities it has to confront when implemented with students whose

profile is not dissimilar to that described in Sub-section 1.2.3. These, most pertinently,concern

• The high level of English language command that RAWR3 conspicuouslyimposes on the EEP students when dealing with either skill in target (SeeAppendix Eight for a sample).

• The option for reading inputs whose settings, events, and characters are, in allcases, non-Arab and culturally-specific— thus, further straining the contentschemata of the students in focus.

• The suggestion of writing topics that have little in common with the daily lifehere in Sohar.

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• The expectation that these writing topics may very well be carried out in four-to-five paragraph format by students who, in their majority, are just simplyincapable of producing an accurate, one-to-three-sentence written discourse.

Understandably enough, these and other similar points exert an urgent need for

adapting RAWR3 to the EEP community at Sohar Secondary School and, byextension, to their peers with identical profiles elsewhere in the Sultanate. A fewsuggestions in this regard are put forth in the next Section.

4- RECOMMENDATIONS

In light of the preceding Sections, it is felt crucial to realize that RAWR3, however well-designed, simply cannot be expected to be ideally suited to each and everylearning context. The discrepancies between its potentialities and the practicaldifficulties surrounding its implementation (Section 1.3) urgently require EEPteachers to consider the following set of recommendations:

• A critical stance towards the content, aims and procedures of any Units whichmight prove well beyond the intellectual, cultural or linguistic reach of thestudents, as is the case with Units 3, 6, 9, and 12.

• A more independent and creative attitude towards the prescribed textbook.This will greatly maximize the teachers' possibilities for inspiration and asense of partnership with RAWR3's co-authors (Cunningsworth 1984: 65).

• Adoption of language learning procedures and techniques inspired by agenuine drive for humanizing the imposed coursebook and the classroom

(Tomlinson 2003).

5- CONCLUSION

The present essay has attempted to provide a critical analysis of RAWT3 — acommercial coursebook recently authorized for use in an Omani teaching and learningcontext. The chief concern was to relate the textbook in question "as it is" to thespecific needs of the student community at Sohar Secondary School for GeneralEducation. Based on the tripartite data deriving from syllabus design theory, thedescription and analysis of RAWT3 and learners' needs, a set of recommendations for amending the Evans and Dooley series book for near future use in the Sultanate wasalso suggested.

Given its scope, the paper has limited itself to approaching RAWT3 according to thethree parameters mentioned above. In so doing, it missed out higher-order data whichcould only be derived from testing out the "Trojan Horse" Textbook against "whatmay actually happen in classrooms" (Littlejohn 1998: 191). This unfortunate lacunamay be adequately filled out, in its own right, in a separate paper based on an ActionResearch framework. Only then, could RAWT3, and, by extension, other similar

coursebooks, best reveal their real value as active, dynamic contributors to thelearning processes.

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END NOTES

1- According to Tomlinson (1998: x), a "global coursebook" is one " which is notwritten for learners from a particular culture or country but which is intended for use

by any class of learners in the specified level and age group anywhere in the world ".

2- This term, following Tomlinson's (1998) definition, should be understood here as"A textbook which provides the core materials for a course. It aims to provide asmuch as possible in one book and is designed so that it could serve as the only book which the learners necessarily use during a course. Such a book usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, function and the skills of reading, writing,listening and speaking (ix).

3- Type A and Type B Taxonomy:

Type A Type Ba- Syllabus orientation to

learning process

Interventionist; giving priority to

the pre-selection of linguistic or

other content or skill objectives

Non-interventionist; experiential;

"natural growth" approach to the

learning processb- Attitude towards the learner . external to the learner

. other-directed

. determined by authority

. internal to the learner

. inner directed or self- fulfilling

. negotiated between teachers and

learnersc- Teacher/student roles . teacher as a decision-maker

. teacher doing things to the learner

. learner and teacher as joint

decision-makers

. teacher doing things for or with the

learner d- Language content . content = what the subject is to

the expert

. content = a gift from the teacher or

knower

. content = what the subject is to the

learner

. content = what the learner brings

and wants

. content is subordinate to learning

processes and pedagogical

procedurese- syllabus objectives defined in advance described afterwards

(adapted from White 1988: 45-6)

4- "A synthetic language teaching strategy is one in which the different parts of language are taught separately and step-by-step so that acquisition is a process of

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gradual accumulation of the parts until the whole structure of the language has been built up" (Wilkins 1976)

5- See Robinson (1998) for a state of the art article which establishes second languagesyllabus design in light of recent SLA theory; Richards and Rodgers (2001) and

McDonough and Shaw (2003: 40-58) for further details and analysis.

6- According to Nunan (2004), an analytic syllabus is " A syllabus based on thenotion that learners can acquire language by holistic "chunks" of language and thenanalyzing the language into its component parts, rather than having the language

broken down for them. Topic and content-based syllabuses are analytic in nature(212).

7- As Klimová and Suchánková) 2001:9) explain " The former reflects what thelearner needs to do in the target situation, what communication purpose,communicative setting, or the means of communication is, what language skills,

functions, or structures the learner will need to acquire. The latter answers thequestion of what the learner needs to do in order to learn, what his/her learning

purpose, learning style, resources, or profile are".

8- See, for instance, the models proposed by McDonough and Shaw (2003), McGrath(2002), Tomlinson (ed.) (1998) and Cunningsworth (1984; 1995).

9- Almost two decades ago, Nunan et al (1987: 3) noted the problems presented bythe various backgrounds of the expatriate teaching workforce, especially insofar astheir teaching methodology was concerned. Their observation still holds true, in myview.

6- REFERENCES

Arnold, J. (ed.) (1999), Affect in Language Learning , Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Assessment Document Development Committee for English (2005), Student Assessment Document for English: Grades 10 to 12, Muscat: Sultanate of Oman'sMinistry of Education.

Batstone, R. (1988), "Teachers and course design: the case for a modular approach", ELTJournal 42, 3: 185-94.

Breen, M. (1984), "Process syllabuses for the language classroom". In C.J. Brumfit(ed.), General English Syllabus Design,Oxford: Pergamon.

Brumfit, C. (1979), "Seven last slogans", Modern English Teacher 7, 1: 30-1.

Brumfit, C.J. (ed.) (1984), General English Syllabus Design,Oxford: Pergamon.

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Nunan, D., D. Watton and M. Tyacke (1987), Philosophy and Guidelines for the

Omani English Language School Curriculum, Muscat: Sultanate of Oman's Ministryof Education.

Prabhu, N.S. (1987), Second Language Pedagogy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Reilly, T. (1988), "Approaches to foreign language syllabus design", ERIC Digest ED295460.

Richards, J.C. and T.S. Rodgers (2001), Approaches and Methods in Language

Teaching .2nd ed, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robinson, P. (1998), "State of the art: SLA theory and second language syllabusdesign", The English Teacher Online 22, 4. [28 January, 2006]http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/pub/tlt/98/apr/robinson/html.

Tomlinson, B. (1998), "Glossary of basic terms for materials development inlanguage teaching". In B. Tomlinson (ed.), Materials Development in Language

Teaching , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, viii-xiv.

Tomlinson, B. (ed.), Materials Development in Language Teaching , Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Tomlinson, B. (2003), "Humanizing the language class", Guidelines 25, 2: 4-9.

Ullmann, R. (1982), "A broadened curriculum framework for second languages", ELT

Journal 36, 4: 255-62.White, R.V. (1988), The ELT Curriculum: Design, Innovation And Management. Oxford: Blackwell.

Wilkins, D.A. (1976), Notional Syllabuses. Oxford : Oxford University Press

7- APPENDICES

APPENDIX ONE: RAWT3 Writing Tasks Sheet (an extract)

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http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/pub/tlt/98/apr/robinson/html





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APPENDIX TWO: The Omani Learning/Teaching Context

The data, provided below in a Prompts-Notes format, concern only two out of Cunningsworth (1995: 149)'s four-category, 27-item checklist for specifying aims andanalyzing the learning/ teaching situation.

The Sultanate of Oman is one of the Arabian Gulf states, with a population of approximately 2,331,000 people— about 75% of them are Omani nationals; 49%Females; 51% Males: around 40% illiterate as per the Year 2003 Census releases. It

presents the following features:

8- a- Status of English: First foreign language since 1970. Recently used as a mediuminstruction at Science, Medicine, Engineering and Agriculture faculties at SultanQaboos University. Widely used in banks, hospitals, hotels, private firms dealingsespecially in major cities and towns and where expatriates are predominant. Limiteduse as a communication channel amongst young nationals at and outside home.

b- Role of English in Oman: A resource for local development as well as a a meansof communication with non-Arab-speaking nations worldwide.

10- a- Main purposes for learning English: To raise the consciousness of pupils,including those aspiring to enter tertiary institutions, in relation to the following " four dimensions of a language learner: 1. As a communicating individual (the developmentof communicative competence)

2. As a learner (the development of strategies in learning how to learn

a language)3. As a social being (the development of social interaction)

4. As a person ( the development and affirmation of personality)".

( Nunan et al 1987:3)

b- Programme intensity: Compulsory tuition from Grades 1 through 12 at all

public, state-funded institutions.

c- Availability for learning English:

LEVEL CYCLE YEAR PERIOD/WEEK LENGTH OF PERIOD TIME/ WEEK

Basic Education 1 1-4 5 40 mins. 200 mins.

Basic Education 2 5-9 5 40 mins. 200mins.

Secondary Education 10 5 45 mins. 225 mins

Secondary Education 11-12 6 45 mins. 225 mins.

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English Elective Grades 11-12 3 45 mins. 138 mins

10- Materials and equipment resources available in the school : 36 classrooms; two physics labs; two chemistry labs; two computer labs; a library; an OHP; tape-

recorders; two photocopiers; English language book-boxes; English Arabicdictionaries.

11- Size of the classes: EEP classes: 25-30; others: 35-3912- Class homogeneity level : one single level per class/grade; mixed-ability students;strict sex segregation (except for a few schools scattered in remote, mountainousareas. Age ranging between 15 and 19.13- Predominant values of the educational system: emphasis on knowledge and onindividual preparation for a place in society.

Future use of language systems: both productively and receptively

APPENDIX THREE: Learner Factors and Needs at Sohar Secondary School for

General Education

The learners involved in the present coursebook description and analysis are about150 out of 1,130 in total. They are all males in their final, pre-university class. Theyall come from Sohar, the second largest city in the country. The majority of them areOmani nationals; the rest are Sudanese, Egyptians, and one Algerian newcomer from

Nottingham, England. They are taught by four Omani teachers, three Egyptians, threeTunisians and one Sudanese. They display a wide range of learner factors and of learner needs, as shown below:

Learner Factors (Based on a Summary of Learner Factors compiled by McGrath(2002: 19))

a- Age range: 18-19 b- L2 proficiency level: predominantly pre-intermediate; little homogeneity

within learner groups

c- First language: Arabicd- Socio-cultural background: Muslims; strong allegiance to Sunni, Abadhi, and

Shiite precepts

e- Occupation: fishing on week-ends(minority)

f- Reasons for studying English: part of the curriculum; future academic andvocational purposes for some

g- Attitude to learning English: English overwhelmingly seen as a subject like

any other— not as a skill; not learned as a second language or "perceived asfunctionally relevant to their existence" (Nunan et al 1987); fearful attitude to

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English (bête noire); respect towards, and cooperation with, teachers andSchool Staff

h- Previous language-learning of English: more or less 9 years

i- Language-learning aptitude: rather weak

j- General expectations of

• The coursebook: preparation for the end-of-term examinations

• The teacher: a facilitator; a spoon-feeder; a mediator; a translator

• Their own role: teacher-dependent

k- Specific wants: variedl- Preferred learning styles: analytic; indiscrete bits; rote learning (and cheating

whenever possible)

m- Sex distribution: single sex (many of them showing gay behaviour)

n- Interests : football; basketball; swimming; dancing …

Learners' L2-related Needs ( Based on McGrath, ibid)

a- Dialect: British English b- Language-skills: writingc- Contexts and situation of use: class and school magazines; web chatting; English

language assessment portfoliod- Sub-skills: joining sentences; building sentences out of dehydrated ones; writing

extended written discourse based on graphic cuese- Notions: miscellaneousf- Functions: miscellaneousg- Language-system emphasis: grammar and lexish- Language forms: elementary structures and vocabulary items

i- Future use of language systems: both productively and receptively j- Attention to writing mechanics: spelling and punctuation

APPENDIX FOUR : Teacher's Guide's Introduction

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APPENDIX FIVE: A schedule presenting the "explicit" nature of RAWT3 (Adapted from Littlejohn (1998: 197) in Tomlinson (ed.))

Title : Reading and Writing Targets Student's Book 3Author : Evans and DooleyPublisher: Express Publishing (2001)ISBN: 1-84325-267-8

A. BOOK AS A WHOLE

1. Type : supplementary; class use for pre-intermediate students2. Intended audience : Age range: not specifiedSchool: pre-intermediateLocation: worldwide

3. Extent :

a. Components: durable "Student's Book"; Teacher's Book; supplementary, consumable Writing Tasks Sheets (Appendix One)

b. Total estimated time: 40-45 hours (Teacher's Book)4. Design and layout

1 colour SBk, 79 pp (+ Appendix figuring 1 colour photofile section : 81-104pp); 1 black-and-white TBk 47 pp

5. Distribution

a. Materials Teacher Learnerscassette [ ] [ ]tape script [ ] [ ]answer key [√ ] [ ]guidance on use of class materials [√ ] [ ]

b. Accessindex/ word list [ ] [ ]detailed content list [√ ] [√ ]section objective

6. Route through material

specified [√ ]user-determined

7. Subdivision

18 units with 18 different themes ( Unit One is a detailed introduction devoted

writing strategies, with standardized exercises throughout.

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B. OVERVIEW OF AN EXTRACT (Unit Two: Everyday People)

1. Length: 1 theme out of 182. Exercise Sequence : 1 A rubric; 2 An article (reading); 3 Comprehension

questions; 4 Vocabulary exercise STUDY TIP 5 Vocabulary exercise; 6

Vocabulary exercise; 7 Grammar exercise; 8 Grammar exercise STUDY TIP9 Grammar exercise; 10 Grammar exercise; 11 Grammar exercise WRITINGTIP 12 An article (reading); 13 Writing topic; 14 Writing plan box.

APPENDIX SIX: RAWT3's Blurb

APPENDIX SEVEN: RAWT3's Contents Page

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APPENDIX EIGHT: A Copy of RAWT3's Unit Nine

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