Up¾at 3 Teacher's Book podrecznik nauczyciela plus odpowiedzi ,testy,klucz answer key Page 011

M mOuUCTkON Weleame

Welcome to Upbeat 3 This is the third of a four-level course for teenage students of English. Upbeat takes students from beginner or false beginner level to intermediate !evel. Depending on their level, students can start the course with Upbeat 1 or Upbeat 2.

We chose the name Upbeat for the course because we believe that language learning can and should be a positive and rewarding experience for both students and teachers. Our aim when writing Upbeat was to create a course which would stimulate, educate and encourage teenage students of all abilities while at the same time providing extensive support and help for the teacher. We hope that we have achieved our aim, and that you and your students will enjoy using Upbeat.

Ingrid Freebaim Jonathan Bygrave JudyCopage Rod Fricker

Components

Upbeat 3 has the following components:

•    a Students’ Book plus CD-ROM

•    a Language Builder which contains both a Workbook and a Grammar Booster plus Audio CD

•    this Teacher’s Book plus CD-ROM

•    Motivator with photocopiabie actk/ities

•    Class audio COs

•    a Test Master CD-ROM

•    lnteractive Whiteboard software Active teach

•    DVDs

Background to the course

The students

Today’s teenagers, just like previous generations, are a varied and fascinating group of individuals. They are changing physicalÅ‚y, sometimes at astonishing speed, and are often preoccupied with their appearance. They are coping with new and strange emotions and at the same time they are leaming to think in a morÄ™ abstract way which allows them to discuss issues and ideas. Through this whirlwind of change, teenagers are trying to establish their identity and leam who they are.

Unlike previous generations, today's teenagers are surrounded by technology, which they can generally use with ease and efficiency. They (ive in a worid where sounds, images, words and ideas come at them in a constant stream from many different sources. They usually think nothing of surfing the net. texting, listening to musie and watching TV at the same time.

New technology also gives teenagers inereased contact with their peer group - often the most influential group of people in a teenager’s life. The need to appear ‘cod' and be accepted by this group can often be the strongest

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Another pressure on today’s students is the mcreasing need for qualifications which demonstrate their skills in foretgn languages, especiaily English. Given all of the influences above, teenage students of English need teaching materials which reflect their worid and broaden their skills to facilitate their goal of gaining qualifications.

As well as aiming for competence in the English language, classroom materials should heip students explore and establish their own moraÅ‚ and ethical values. What is right and wrong can be a challenging area for teenagers and it is important that they have the chance to hear the opinions of others as well as make their own opinion heard.

The teaching situation

The Gymnasium exam

Starting from 2009 all Gymnasium students must take a written school-leaving exam in a foreign language.

Even though the exam cannot be 'passed’ or 'failed', the result may be very important, as the number of points might be taken into consideration by upper secondary schools in the futurÄ™. Upbeat is a course specially designed to give students a thorough grounding in the skills and topics specified in the exam description. From the first unit of level 1, Upbeat teaches your students the necessary language and gives them many opportunities to deal with exam task types in the safe environment of the classroom, so that they feel confident once they have to face the rea! examination.

You will find a lot of examination materiaÅ‚ in the Exam link lessons in the Students’ Book and Language Builder. The teaching notes for lessons A. B and C also include 'Exam idea’ boxes, which give you some ideas for providing your students with morÄ™ exam practice.

Motivation

Many students will have had several years of contact with learning English before they start this course. These experiences may not always have been successful or enjoyable. Consequentfy, students may bring to the classroom preconceived ideas about whether leaming English is fun or not, and whether they are ‘good’ at languages or not. !f their experience of leaming English has not been positk/e, their level of interest and motk/ation may be Iow. On the other hand, their previous experience of leaming English may have been a positive one, in which case their level of motivation when they join the dass may be qurte high. In either case, it is essential that their new English course contains topics which are interesting to them, and exercises which are intellectually challenging and which have ‘real-world’ value in their eyes. The topics and tasks in Upbeat have all been selected to interest, challenge and motk/ate students.

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