This book is a vocabulary development book for English language learners who are at high-beginner to low-intermediate fluency level with a vocabulary of at least 300 words. There are eleven units, in color. Shopping is designed to be used as workbook. It is recommended that each student have a copy of the book and that you proceed through the text from Unit One to Unit Eleven. The lessons build on one another, reinforcing vocabulary and exploring cultural contexts for discussion.
Pronunciation practice is part of the work throughout, as recurring characters are introduced lesson by lesson. Their names are based on the sixteen phonemic vowels of English along with a few troublesome consonants. Learners will naturally practice their American English pronunciation as they read about, listen to, and talk about the characters.
Each lesson also suggests an out-of-class activity. These stimulate discussion and build confidence along with vocabulary. An audio CD read dramatically by native speakers is available. It adds an effective listening component to each lesson. The CD can be downloaded and stored on a computer for ease of use.
So that individual units can be used on an occasional basis to meet student needs and interests, permission to photocopy is given in the book.
Each of the eleven units has ten activities. Fifteen to twenty key words are featured in each unit, resulting in a total of 213 words. They are indexed in the appendix and also listed in the table of contents, which can serve as a checklist tracking the learners’ progress. Some of the key words will not be new for each learner; however, discussing the key words is an important cooperative activity that gets each unit underway.
Beyond the key words, additional new vocabulary will be encountered within the activities. Consequently, for the learner, the complete list of new words in the semantic field of shopping, a basic human activity, will increase their vocabulary significantly.
