Stand Out 4: Standards-Based English

This is part of an adult series that focuses on teaching competencies through performance. Corresponding audio tapes, grammar workbooks, a lesson planning guide (with an audio CD and a CD with worksheets) for teachers, and tests are available. It would be most effectively used as part of a class, or at least a tutoring program, in which there is teacher support for the student. I think this would be better used in a class because the book has many opportunities for group work, in which the students can practice their newly-learned English. There are no grammar explanations, which can be unwieldy for a beginning language learner. Target grammar, vocabulary, functions, communication strategies, phonemes, and even mathematical components are listed for the teacher, though. The chapters are about relevant adult topics: general talking with others, shopping, food, housing, community, health, jobs, and future education. Each chapter has a self-assessment log for the students! The language learners in the book are pictured as members of society rather than tourists and are physically varied, having diversified facial expressions, races, weights, and capabilities. This book helps take the uncertainty out of lesson planning for the teacher while encouraging active learning from the students. It is based on the US national CASAS test, which is required for public adult ed. programs to get federal funding. This book is being used for this reason more and more in adult ed. programs, but also because it is an effective book. If you are a teacher who is going to use this, I would recommend the supplementary Lesson Planner, which comes with an audio CD for the listening components of the student book and suggests supplementary activities for students. However, I would strongly recommend against the grammar workbooks, which are very, very confusing! The most useful teaching situations don't always easily lend themselves to target language components, but Jenkins and Sabbagh have made teaching grammar through context easy for the teacher. I used this book, and my students effectively learned life skills such as writing checks, looking for apartments on the Internet, and following cooking recipes.