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Introduction

This is the outline of introductory English material to cover in The Last Language Textbook described at thelastlanguagetextbook.org. Because this is a reference document, only members of the project group can make changes. All pages about actual teaching materials are publicly editable and have talk pages for public discussion.

Goals

Our goal is to bring completely new students to A2 fluency in English on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). A1 and A2 fluency are described by Wikipedia as follows:

To learn more about what students are expected to learn at these levels take a look at these two example tests: the Cambridge KET and Englishtag A1.

Organization

To help coordinate lesson building effort we are breaking down the requirements for each of these proficiency levels into three stages meant to be studied in order. These coverage maps will be expanded over the coming weeks. Click on the “Coverage map” link next to each stage for more details on what each stage covers. Those links all have talk pages for discussing changes and expansions of the particular teaching goals of each stage.

A1 Stages

Stage 1: Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. (Coverage map)

Stage 2: Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. (Coverage map)

Stage 3: Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. (Coverage map)

A2 Stages

Stage 1: Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). (Coverage map)

Stage 2: Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. (Coverage map)

Stage 3: Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.(Coverage map)

How to Build a Lesson

The Wikiotics tools help you build four types of lessons:

Picture choice

Podcast

Phrase choice

Storybook

Each of these is built using the same three steps:

Step 1

First, create a new lesson. You can use these links, or the similar ones at the bottom of each learning stage’s coverage map page.

• New Picture Choice lesson
• New Podcast lesson
• New Multiple Choice text lesson
• New storybook lesson

Step 2

Then, add some material to your lesson. When you click on an empty cell you can choose whether it should be text, audio, or picture. Select the option that matches the other items in that column and you can begin adding content to the empty cell.

For text boxes simply type into the box

For audio you can either record directly through the browser by hitting the record button or you can upload existing audio files by clicking the upload button.

For pictures, when you select “new picture” for an empty cell it immediately puts you into a search window. There you can search flickr for any freely licensed image to use in your lesson.

As you edit, your lesson should expand to give you more space, adding new rows at the bottom of the lesson as you use the existing ones.

Step 3

Saving.

Save your lesson early and often.

Click on the “Save” item in the editor sidebar, give the page a title in the “Page title” box, and hit “save” at the bottom.