Passport to English is a foundation course for people who want to speak basic conversational American English. Its goal is communication according to situation, purpose and the roles of the people involved — not passing an examination.
Throughout, the learner is given natural and useful language and taught to use English for the situations of everyday life: work, social life and leisure.
How Grammar Is Handled
This is the course's defining decision, and it is a sound one. There is no explanation of grammatical points. The authors take the view that grammar explanation places a heavy burden on the learner and tends to put him off the language altogether — which anyone who has watched an adult give up on a language will recognize.
Instead the grammar is carefully graded across the course and presented communicatively, through a variety of short conversations that show the learner how each structure is actually used. He absorbs the pattern by meeting it in use, which is how a first language is acquired.
Unit Structure
Each unit opens with the vocabulary and expressions it will use, given out of context first; some units open instead with the grammar points to be covered. Each book contains twenty units with two review units to consolidate what came before.
The Full Course
Five books. The first four carry twenty units each. The fifth is different — a collection of true short stories and a few jokes in straightforward English, to entertain the learner and introduce him to written English once he can handle it.
Please note: this listing is for Book 2 only, not the complete set.
The publisher recommends using these books alongside the Language Master device for maximum benefit.
Who It Is For
Adult learners of English, particularly speakers of Arabic and Urdu. New arrivals needing practical English for work and daily life. Families teaching at home. Also useful in reverse — as a model of how a language course can be structured for learners who have been defeated by grammar-first teaching.
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