I n t r o d u c ti o n

What do High-intermediate students need?

High-intermediate students rightly feel that they are now fairly high-level learners of English and are ready to push on to become very proficient users of the language. To achieve this they need motivating material and challenging tasks. They need to set clear course goals from day one in terms of both language knowledge and of fluency and accuracy in speaking. Finally, they need classes to be as fun and dynamic as they were at lower levels: there is no reason why higher-level teaching should become dry and overly serious. Students still want to enjoy their English classes role plays, language games, challenges, quizzes, and songs are still as valuable pedagogically as they were in previous levels and can often be exploited even better at this level.  to further develop their ability to build new words by adding affixes.  practice in pronouncing new lexis correctly and confidently. reference material that aids memorization. At this level, expanding students vocabulary is the most visible and motivating measure of their progress. Every lesson has a clear lexical aim. Many lessons are linked to the Vocabulary Banks that help present and practice highfrequency, topic-based vocabulary in class and provide a clear reference bank designed to aid memorization. The stress in multisyllable words is clearly marked, and phonetic script is provided where necessary. Students can practice using the vocabulary from all the Vocabulary Banks in context with the MultiROM and the American English File Student Website. There is also a photocopiable activity to review the vocabulary from each File.

Grammar, Vocabulary, and Pronunciation

At any level, the basic tools students need to speak English with confidence are Grammar, Vocabulary, and Pronunciation (G, V, P). In American English File 4 all three elements are given equal importance. Each lesson has clearly stated grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation aims. This keeps lessons focused and gives students concrete learning objectives and a sense of progress.

Pronunciation
High-intermediate students need  fine-tuning of pronunciation of difficult sounds.  to be able to use appropriate rhythm and intonation.  to continue to develop their instinct for spellingpronunciation rules and patterns.  to be able to use phonetic symbols in their dictionary to check pronunciation. The objective is to make students totally intelligible to other speakers of English (native and non-native). However, its also important to make clear that perfection is not the aim. Most non-native speakers will always retain an accent. Every lesson has a pronunciation focus that often prepares students for a speaking activity. American English File has a unique system of sound pictures, which give clear example words to help students to identify and produce the sounds. The pronunciation focus is linked to the Sound Bank, a reference section where students can see and practice common soundspelling patterns. Throughout the book, there is also a regular focus on word and sentence stress, where students are encouraged to copy the rhythm of English. This will help students to pronounce new language with greater confidence.

Grammar
High-intermediate students need  to review their knowledge of main grammatical structures. to learn more sophisticated grammatical structures.  opportunities to use their instinct. student-friendly reference material. When extending students knowledge of grammar, it is important to build on what they already know. Many Grammar presentations begin with Check what you know, short exercises that review intermediate grammar points and are cross referenced to the Workbook, where students who are having problems can find rules and further practice. New grammar signals the presentation of a grammar point not previously covered in American English File. The Grammar Banks give students a single, easy-to-access grammar reference section, with clear rules and example sentences. There are two practice exercises. Mini grammar (one per File) focuses on smaller grammar points, e.g., so and such, would rather and had better. There is a photocopiable activity to give more practice of each point. The oral grammar practice exercise in the Student Book (immediately after students have been to the Grammar Bank) and the photocopiable Communicative speaking activities in the Teachers Book encourage students to use grammatical structures in controlled and freer contexts. The photocopiable Grammar activities in the Teachers Book can be used for practice in class or for self-study.

Speaking
High-intermediate students need  up-to-date, stimulating topics to get them talking and exchanging opinions. the key words and phrases necessary to discuss a topic.  practice in more extended speaking, e.g., role plays, debates.  to improve accuracy as well as developing their fluency. Every lesson gives students many opportunities to speak and put into practice the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation that has been worked on earlier in the lesson. Every speaking activity has a GET IT RIGHT box, which identifies an accuracy focus for that particular activity.

Vocabulary
High-intermediate students need  systematic expansion of their vocabulary in topic-based lexical areas.  opportunities to put new vocabulary into practice. 8

Photocopiable Communicative activities can be found in the Teachers Book. These include pairwork activities, mingling activities, and speaking games.

Colloquial English
High-intermediate students need to get used to listening to authentic colloquial speech. to be able to deal with different speeds and accents. exposure to high-frequency colloquial phrases and idioms. Most listening material in the AC lessons is controlled and graded in terms of language and level of difficulty. However, in these seven Colloquial English lessons, students listen to completely unscripted and authentic English. The lessons first consist of an interview with a person who is an expert in his / her field (one of the File topics). In the second part of the lesson, students hear street interviews where people answer questions related to the lesson topic. There is also a focus on Common phrases where students listen again and complete high-frequency expressions used in spoken English. The Colloquial English lessons are also on the American English File 4 Video, which teachers can use instead of the Class Audio CD for these lessons. Using the Video will make the lessons more enjoyable and will help students to understand faster speech with the help of paralinguistic features. On the MultiROM, students have the opportunity to watch and listen to more street interviews.

Listening
High-intermediate students need motivating, integrated listening material. achievable tasks but with an increasing level of challenge. exposure to longer listenings and a wide variety of accents.  exposure to authentic and colloquial spoken language. For most students, listening is still the hardest skill and it is vital that listening material is both interesting and provides the right level of challenge. American English File 4 has motivating listening texts and tasks that are challenging, but always achievable, and that expose students to a wide variety of accents and speeds of speech. The Colloquial English lessons give students practice in listening to unscripted authentic speech when speakers are formally interviewed or approached on the street. There are also seven songs that we hope students will find enjoyable and motivating. For copyright reasons, most of these are cover versions.

Reading
High-intermediate students need engaging topics and stimulating texts. exposure to a wide variety of authentic text types. challenging tasks that help them read better. Many students need to read in English for their work or academic studies or will want to read about their personal interests on English websites. Reading also plays an important role in helping to extend students vocabulary and to consolidate grammar. The key to encouraging students to read outside of class is to give them motivating material and tasks in class that help them develop their reading skills. Reading texts have been taken from a variety of real sources (newspapers, magazines, the Internet) and chosen for their intrinsic interest, which we hope will stimulate students to want to read them and will help spark classroom discussion. The Review & Check sections include a more challenging text that helps students measure their progress.

Review
High-intermediate students need regular review. motivating reference and practice material. a sense of progress. The higher the level, the harder it is to see your progress. High-intermediate students need to feel that they are increasing their knowledge, improving their skills, and using English more fluently and effectively. At the end of each File there is a Review & Check section. What do you remember? reviews the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation of each File. What can you do? provides a series of skills-based challenges and helps students to measure their progress in terms of competence. These pages are designed to be used flexibly according to the needs of your students. The photocopiable Grammar, Communicative, and Vocabulary activities in the Teachers Book also provide many opportunities for recycling.

Writing
High-intermediate students need clear models.  practice in planning, organizing, writing, and checking. an awareness of register, structure, and fixed phrases. a focus on micro writing skills e.g., paragraphing. The ever-growing amount of e-mail communication and Internet-based writing (e.g., blogs, etc.) continues to raise the importance of writing skills. Students at this level may also be thinking about taking standardized tests where writing quickly and accurately is a vital skill. There is one Writing lesson per File, where students study a model before doing a guided writing task themselves. These writing tasks focus on both electronic and traditional text types and provide consolidation of grammar and lexis taught in the File. There is also always a focus on a micro skill in each Writing lesson, for example, writing headings, paragraphing, and using connecting expressions.

Study Link
The Study Link feature in American English File 4 is designed to help you and your students use the course more effectively. It shows what resources are available, where they can be found, and when to use them. The Student Book has these Study Link references:  from the Colloquial English lessons MultiROM.  from the Grammar Bank MultiROM and Website.  from the Vocabulary Bank MultiROM and Website. from the Sound Bank MultiROM and Website. These references lead students to extra activities and exercises that link with what they have just studied. The Workbook has these Study Link references: the Student Book Grammar and Vocabulary Banks. the MultiROM. the Student Website. The Teachers Book has Study Link references to remind you where there is extra material available to your students. 9

Student Book organization

The Student Book has seven Files. Each File is organized like this:

A, B, and C lessons Three four-page lessons that form the core material of the book. Each lesson presents and practices Grammar and Vocabulary and has a Pronunciation focus. There is a balance of reading and listening activities, and lots of opportunities for spoken practice. These lessons have clear references to the Grammar Bank, Vocabulary Bank, and Sound Bank at the back of the book.

Colloquial English One-page lessons where students develop their ability to listen to authentic English and learn common collocations, idioms, and colloquial vocabulary. The lessons link with the American English File 4 Video. Writing One-page lessons that focus on different text types and writing micro skills like punctuation and spelling. Review & Check A two-page section the left- and right-hand pages have different functions. The What do you remember? page reviews the Grammar, Vocabulary, and Pronunciation of each File. The What can you do? page provides Reading, Listening, and Speaking Can you? challenges to show students what they can achieve.

The back of the book

In the back of the Student Book youll find these three Banks of material:
Grammar Bank (pages 132145) Two pages for each File, divided into AC to reflect the three main lessons. The left-hand page has the grammar rules and the right-hand page has two practice exercises for each lesson. Students are referred to the Grammar Bank when they do the grammar in each main A, B, and C lesson.

Vocabulary Bank (pages 146156) An active vocabulary resource to help students learn, practice, and review key words. Students are referred to the Vocabulary Bank from the main lessons.

Youll also find:

Sound Bank (pages 158160) A threepage section with the American English File sounds chart and typical spellings for all sounds. Students are referred to the Sound Bank from the main lessons.

Communication activities (pages 116120) Information gap activities and roleplays. Audioscripts (pages 121131) Scripts of key listenings. Phrasal verbs in context (page 157)

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More for students

Workbook Each AC lesson in the Student Book has a three-page section in the Workbook. This provides all the practice and review students need. Each section ends with: More Words to Learn, which reminds students of new vocabulary from the lesson that is not in the Vocabulary Bank. Listening, which gives students extra listening practice based on the theme of the lesson. The material is on the audio CD portion of the MultiROM. Each Colloquial English lesson has a one-page section in the Workbook with practice of the Common phrases and a reading activity. MultiROM The MultiROM has two functions: Its a CD-ROM, containing review of Grammar, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Colloquial English (with extracts from the Video), Dictation activities and Test Practice. Its an audio CD for students to use in a CD player or computer. It has the audio material for the Workbook listening activities. Student Website

More for teachers

Teachers Book The Teachers Book has detailed lesson plans for all the lessons. These include: an optional books-closed lead-in for every lesson. Extra idea suggestions for optional extra activities. Extra challenge suggestions for ways of exploiting the Student Book material in a more challenging way if you have a stronger class. Extra support suggestions for ways of adapting activities or exercises to make them more accessible for weaker students. All lesson plans include answer keys and complete audioscripts. Extra activities are color-coded in orange so you can see where you are at a glance when youre planning and teaching your classes. Youll also find over 65 pages of photocopiable materials in the Teachers Book: Photocopiable Grammar activities see pages 157179 There is a photocopiable Grammar activity for each A, B, and C lesson. Photocopiable Mini grammar activities see pages 181187 There is a photocopiable Mini grammar activity for each File. Photocopiable Communicative activities see pages 195218 There is a photocopiable Communicative activity for each A, B, and C lesson. Photocopiable Vocabulary activities see pages 221228 There is a photocopiable Vocabulary activity for each File. Photocopiable Song activities see pages 231237 Photocopiable Irregular verbs list see page 238 All the photocopiable material is accompanied by clear instructions and answer keys. The Teachers Book also includes the answer key for the Workbook (see pages 239247). Video The Video episodes link with the colloquial English lessons in the Student Book. There is an episode in each File and each episode is divided into two parts: the first is an extended interview with a person who has firsthand experience of one of the topics from the file, e.g., a flight attendant talking about air travel in File 2; the second part contains shorter interviews with members of the public answering some general questions about the topic. All the interviews are unscripted and provide an opportunity for students to practice listening to English spoken at a natural speed and to learn some high-frequency vocabulary. Each episode can be used with the tasks in the Student Book Colloquial English lessons as an alternative to the Class CD. The American English File 4 package also includes: Class Audio CDs These four CDs contain all the listening materials for the Student Book. Test Generator This CD-ROM includes over a thousand questions organized both in ready-to-print tests (in PDF format) and in question banks, where they can be selected and edited into tests customized to your students needs. The CD-ROM also includes the audio for the listening sections of the tests. Teacher Website www.oup.com/elt/teacher/americanenglishfile This gives you extra teaching resources, syllabus information, etc.

www.oup.com/elt/americanenglishfile/4
Extra learning resources, including grammar activities vocabulary puzzles pronunciation games Colloquial English activities Mini grammar activities interactive games

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