LC No16 text both.ai - Clarity English language teaching online

Focus on 3 new programs - see over page
Loud and Clear
October 2004
No.16
Welcome!
I
t's good to see some new
programs being published.
Overleaf we review the much
awaited Volume 2 of Issues in
English, as well as the new
network version of the English
Grammar in Use CD-Rom.
Here at Clarity we have been
busy putting Study Skills
Success online, and we are
having great fun working on our
forthcoming reading program,
Read On! See right for a
preview (and to test your
knowledge of lightning!).
Meanwhile, a quick reminder
that if you would like to provide
online grammar activities for
your students, you can try out
Tense Buster Online by clicking
into www.TenseBuster.com
Welcome back!
Welcome back
Denis! Following
a three-year
sabbatical,
Denis Carvalho
has returned to
Clarity to work
with institutions in Hong Kong
and Macau. If that's where you
are, and you would like Denis
to visit you to show you the
latest programs, just give him a
call on 27911787. Or send an
email to denis@clarity.com.hk
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5.
A
Read On!
True or false?
Lightning hits more than half a million
people every year.
The centre of a lightning strike is
hotter than the sun.
About 50% of people struck by
lightning die.
When there is lightning, it is safer to
stand on one foot.
Planes are never hit by lightning.
nd did you know that in 1998 a football
match in the Democratic Republic of
Congo was ended when all eleven players
on the visiting team were killed by lightning?
The home team was unscathed. (Or was it
witchcraft as many of those present
claimed?)
The first principle of Clarity's forthcoming
reading program, Read On!, is to excite the
reader's interest in the text. Reading
anything other than instructions in the
classroom is often contrived, setting up a
barrier to generating the real enthusiasm for
reading that will push students forward, and
crucially, encourage them to read outside the
classroom.
One approach is to structure tasks in a way
that creates a real reason for reading. The
true/false lightning questions above tickle the
students' interest, and they genuinely want to
find out whether they were right or wrong,
and to find out more about the subject. So a
kind of authentic purpose has been created.
What are the other principles we have
followed in creating Read On!? It is critical
that a reading program should be just that: a
reading program. It should not be made to fit
into a grammar syllabus, or be used as a
way of teaching vocabulary. The focus must
be first and foremost on helping students
improve their reading subskills, on giving
them lots of practice within the course, and
on encouraging them to read outside.
The program therefore covers prediction,
identifying your reason for reading,
skimming, scanning, dictionary strategies,
guessing or ignoring unknown words,
developing the reading habit, and so on.
Read On! is organised around a wide variety
of text types including articles, quizzes,
letters, recipes, stories, interviews,
newsletters and advertisements. Where
appropriate, students can also listen to the
texts. Interestingly, the units often end up by
linking students into authentic sites on the
Internet with graded tasks. For example, a
letter from an Inuit girl describing her lifestyle
links to an authentic site set up by an Inuit
high school.
Oh, and by the way, the centre of a lightning
strike is three times hotter than the sun, and
most planes are struck by lightning two or
three times a year. Is that worrying? Visit
www.ClarityEnglish.com to find out!
Another strategy is to simulate the way in
which the texts will be used in real life. So for
a scanning exercise, we chose recipes.
Students pretend they are in the kitchen and
as they are cooking they need to know as
quickly as possible whether they have
reached the stage where they add the salt,
or whether they should chop the onions or
slice them. The purpose for reading in this
case is not authentic (unless you can
actually cook the food in class); the
motivation is generated because the task is
fun.
Read On! will be published early in 2005.
For a preview, visit www.ClarityEnglish.com
Answers: 1. T 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. F
www.clarity.com.hk
Choose Clarity for effective, enjoyable, easy-to-use ELT software

From Clarity's Technical
Support Manager, Philip Tam
This tip is to
help you
communicate
t echnical
b r eak downs
quickly and
efficiently to technical support
personnel. Most technical
problems produce error
messages which help
technicians diagnose the
fault. When you see an error
message on the screen
follow this procedure:
CONTACTS
IT TIP
1 Press Alt Print Screen.
2 Open Paint, the Windows
graphics package, (Start,
Programs, Accessories,
Paint).
3 Paste the image into Paint by
pressing Ctrl V.
4 Save the file by pressing
Ctrl S.
5 Finally, email the file to the
technical support desk.
This is useful not just for error
messages, but anything that
you see on the screen that
doesn't look right.
Author Plus User Group
We have had several requests
from Author Plus users to be
put in touch with other people
working on the program. If you
would like to discuss Author
Plus issues with fellow authors,
and would like to post
questions, suggestions and
ideas, please visit the new
Author Plus Users' Page at
www.authorplus.com/authors
UK Office
PO Box 625, Godalming,
Tel: 0845 130 5627
Fax: 0845 130 5647
Email: melissa.pink@clarity.com.hk
Hong Kong Office
PO Box 163, Sai Kung, Hong Kong
Tel: (+852) 2791 1787
Fax: (+852) 2791 6484
Email: info@clarity.com.hk
www.clarity.com.hk
1. Issues in English 2
3 new programs
At last! Fans of Issues in
English have had to wait
eight years for the
publication of the
second volume, and I'm
happy to say it's been
worth the wait. Like the first program, Issues 2
is organised around eight real-world issues:
Education, Fame, Immigration, Languages,
Media, Sport, Technology and Wilderness.
Plenty to get your teeth into, and none of the
more contentious topics, such as gambling and
euthanasia, that made the first volume
unusable in certain cultural contexts.
Each topic includes activities at four levels,
based around video dialogues. The range of
language level is illustrated in the Immigration
videos. At level 1, Ali tells Shen in simple (but
not stilted) English how he came to Australia.
Shen reciprocates with the story of his parents'
arrival in the country. Meanwhile, at level 4 we
watch an authentic interview of the President
of Portugal discussing the immigration
challenges facing the EU.
The tasks that follow are well judged for the
language level. Each level of each topic has
listening, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation
and writing tasks, and because of the nature of
the topics it would be very easy for the teacher
to integrate speaking activities. The exercises
are interactive with a good variety of
reinforcement messages from the program.
Personally, I would have liked to see more
explanatory feedback on incorrect answers in
a program which is otherwise so useful for self
access work. This is a quibble, however.
Issues in English 2 has a colourful and
attractive interface, is easy and intuitive to use,
and provides a wealth of interesting and
provocative material. It should prove a huge
success.
www.clarity.com.hk/program/issues2.htm
2. English Grammar in Use
network software
The CD-Rom for the
new third edition of
English Grammar in
Use (the Blue Murphy)
comes in stand-alone
or network editions.
The standalone CD can be purchased with the
book or as a discrete item; the network CD is
available as a 30-computer licence for
institutions.
The focus of the program is a huge bank of
practice activities to support the explanations
and exercises in the book. So, for example, the
topic of -ing and the infinitive has no fewer
than 33 practice exercises beginning with a
What can I practise here? section. Learners
work through the exercises, which are a
mixture of gapfill, multiple choice, drag and
drop, proof reading, and dropdown multiple
choice where questions are embedded in a
text. When they complete an exercise and
choose marking, a play button appears beside
each answer and they can listen to the
sentence being read out. The record function
enabling students to repeat these sentences
and listen to themselves is extremely popular
with students. Another nice feature is the
glossary from the Cambridge Learner's
Dictionary which is installed with the program.
Ctrl click on any word for a definition.
At any time students can select units and set
themselves a test with questions randomly
drawn from a test bank. Scores for the tests,
and the practice exercises, are saved for the
student. The network version saves them
centrally for teachers to access.
Any drawbacks? The programs works better in
conjunction with the book than it does
independently because the feedback for each
question refers learners to the relevant unit in
English Grammar in Use.
The program is very slick and professional: it
looks good, works smoothly and is an excellent
resource for controlled grammar practice at an
intermediate level. But don't take my word for
it. Have a look for yourself at
www.clarity.com.hk/program/egu.htm
3. Study Skills Success Online
Clarity is steadily
migrating its programs to
the Web, and along with
Author Plus and Tense
Buster, STUDY SKILLS
Success is now
available online. First a bit of background.
STUDY SKILLS Success is for students who
either need to brush up their academic study
skills and/or are preparing for IELTS. The
program covers listening to lectures, seminar
skills, understanding visuals, vocab attack
strategies, writing an academic essay,
research on the Web… and a lot more.
The big plus of this new web-based version is
that you can make the course available to
learners away from the centre. With academic
study skills this is particularly useful as
overseas students can start preparing
themselves for their courses in the months
before they leave their home countries.
Meanwhile, instructors can use the Results
Manager, which is also online, to see how they
are performing.
View a demo at www.ClarityEnglish.com
Choose Clarity for effective, enjoyable, easy-to-use ELT software