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Boost! Grammar (Boost! Longman Integrated Skills Series)
As the Pearson Longman author for the new Boost! series of textbooks for advancing pre-teen and teenage learners, I experienced the wonderful opportunity to put what I know about classroom learning onto paper. More importantly, I got a chance to promote what I think are the most effective ways to develop real English skills as a combination of theory and classroom experience. Below you can get an initial glimpse into how I went about making the Boost! Grammar component, and what I hope it sets out to achieve as a learning tool.
- Jason D. Renshaw
For complete information about the entire Boost! series, please visit the official Pearson Longman site
Boost! Grammar - General Approach and Priorities
The Boost! Integrated Skills Series encompasses 4 levels and 5 separate strands (reading, writing, listening, speaking and grammar), totalling 20 textbooks. It was designed specifically for younger English language learners who have already progressed through a basic primary/elementary series and need a more advanced approach to learning through skills.
The Boost! Grammar strand fits the mould of the other strands in the series in terms of basic layout and overall approach. Each book presents 12 units, with six overall themes broken into a general/real-world style application unit and a more academic-oriented unit, with the two units then followed up with a review quiz. For the grammar strand, there is a deliberate emphasis on matching up grammatical skill areas with particular types of units (i.e., when a grammar item or area is seen as more important for general communication it is matched up with a general/real-world thematic unit, whereas the grammar items that focus more on formal accuracy are matched with academic units). Huge emphases for the grammar books are to ensure that they utilize the power of discovery activities and regularly integrate grammar application into a variety of reading, listening, speaking and writing tasks.
The following list sums up the overall lesson elements, approach and sequence used in all Boost! Grammar units:
E/A Engage & Activate - Immediately getting the learners involved with a theme/topic and the grammar in use
Engage & Activate - Immediately getting the learners involved with a theme/topic and the grammar in useD/A Discover & Activate - Targeted prompts/tasks to help learners discover grammatical forms and functions
Discover & Activate - Targeted prompts/tasks to help learners discover grammatical forms and functionsSD/R Skill Definition & Reference - An explanation of the grammar, with tables, examples and any special notes
CP Controlled Practice - Grammar questions presented in a controlled and familiar fashion
Controlled Practice - Grammar questions presented in a controlled and familiar fashionIP Integrated Practice Activities - Working particularly with speaking, listening and writing
Integrated Practice Activities - Working particularly with speaking, listening and writingC/SIContent & Skill Integration - Integrating different macro-skills (listening, speaking, etc) alongside content
Content & Skill Integration - Integrating different macro-skills (listening, speaking, etc) alongside contentFurther Practice - Each Boost Grammar student book includes a workbook with extra practice activities. The workbook sections are referenced on different pages of the student book, allowing them to be implemented and drawn on following that section of the student book, or alternatively used following completion of the whole student book unit.
Below you can see samples of the first and twelfth (final) unit (along with one of the follow up review quiz resources) from Boost Grammar Level 1, with some general notes alongside each page to explain what is happening in particular parts of the lesson sequence. If you'd like to view a better quality image for each page, just click on it and a larger version will open in a new browser. There's also a simpler and jazzier tour of units 1 and 2 from this level on the main Boost! site - located here.
Boost! Grammar Level 1/Unit 1: 1st page
The first page of any unit in the Boost! grammar series always involves engaging/activating and discovery/activation.
In this example, the unit has a 'real-world' focus of some sort, designed to reflect general situational English usage (in this case, children discussing an interesting sci-fi novel). The engaging is therefore done through the use of a contextualized listening-based dialogue between two people. Gaps are located in the dialogue script for students to fill in missing words as they listen, which in turn guarantees instant initial activation of language skills. Generally speaking, these filled gaps become a source of the grammar noticing to follow, and presenting the dialogue in written form also gives the students an opportunity to try and guess what is missing using general comprehension and/or discourse skills.
Below the reading/listening activity are prompts designed to get the students thinking about specific aspects of the input. This part may draw students' attention to specific sections, or encourage them to establish patterns, functional meanings, or generalizations (or a combination of all of these). Right here at the beginning of the unit, students are being encouraged to see grammar in context and think about how and why it works the way it does.
Boost! Grammar Level 1/Unit 1: 2nd page
The second page of any unit in the Boost! grammar series always presents the grammar as a simply-defined skill - along with any illustrating tables or notes - and then introduces targeted and controlled practice.
The tables are generally designed to help 'sort' and exemplify the grammar aspect without being too exhaustive or complicated - the key/general aspects are given emphasis. These tables are also provided at the back of the book as an appendix where all 12 units' grammar rules are presented together for easy reference.
The grammar is then applied in a controlled practice format, in this case through sentence-based gap fills with multiple choice options, similar to the format most young learners and teens would be used to seeing in their regular English tests at school. The idea here is to practice the grammar in a non-intimidating fashion using a format already familiar to the learners. The following page will present practice activities that are less controlled and more openly "productive" in nature.
Boost! Grammar Level 1/Unit 1: 3rd page
The third page of any unit in the Boost! grammar series always seeks to present more investigative and productive practice activities, usually requiring some integration of skills and almost always requiring writing and speaking practice. These activities are more open than the first practice presented on page 2 (above) and designed to encourage the learners to both think and experiment more with the grammar presented in the unit.
In the example presented here for Level 1/Unit 1, there is a transcript of an email (continuing the unit's overall theme) that features a variety of errors. Students need to locate and correct them. They can then listen to the correct version of the transcript and check/self-correct their editing of the text.
Below the reading/editing/listening practice activity are a series of illustrations (again, continuing to develop the unit's theme/topic) for the students to try and describe or talk about. These call on open productive application of the unit's grammar, but are intrinsically linked to real meaning, and how and when exactly to use this grammar is a matter of the student's own judgement and awareness.
Boost! Grammar Level 1/Unit 1: 4th page
The final page in any unit in the Boost! grammar series presents integration of both multiple skills (for example reading, listening, speaking and/or writing) and multiple content inputs. The integration pages are a feature of the entire Boost series, irrespective of specific skill strand, and are designed to bring skills to a broader, more "whole language" approach to language learning.
The example presented here features a reading passage, with review of the unit's grammar aspect/skill, followed by a listening passage on the same topic (again featuring extra practice with the grammar presented in the unit). In this case, the two inputs represent follow on chapters from the sci-fi novel theme forming the backbone of the unit. Students are asked to see this progression in the narrative, then continue it themselves through speaking (potentially preceded by some basic composition).
Other integration pages in the strand call on different kinds of analysis and productive application, including comparing and contrasting.
Boost! Grammar Level 1/Unit 12: 1st page
The first page of any unit in the Boost! grammar series always involves engaging/activating and discovery/activation.
Whereas the 'odd' units (1, 3, 5, 7 etc.) in a Boost! Grammar book focus on topics that are real-world or general/situational, the 'even' units (2, 4, 6, 8 etc.) have more of an academic and content-based focus to them. The pairing of real-world/general and academic/content-based units is done within broad thematic groupings across the entire Boost! series, with the general purpose of presenting English language learning tasks within formats that are genuine and meet to broader needs of young and teenage EFL and ESL learners.
The unit presented here is of the academic/content-based kind. Instead of a listening-based interactive dialogue, we have a reading passage (which is more academic in nature than conversational dialogues) and some reading comprehension questions.
Other than that, there are similar prompts below the passage to (again) encourage the learners to see grammar in context and think about how and why it works the way it does.
Boost! Grammar Level 1/Unit 12: 2nd page
As illustrated and explained above for Unit 1, the second page of the unit always presents the grammar skill with a simple overview/description, and illustrating tables and notes.
The controlled practice format is again used, but in this case it is through a broader reading passage featuring gap fills with more open choice options, but again similar to the format most young learners and teens would be used to seeing in their regular English tests at school. The idea here is to practice the grammar in a non-intimidating fashion using a format already familiar to the learners. The following page will present practice activities that are less controlled and more openly "productive" in nature.
Boost! Grammar Level 1/Unit 12: 3rd page
The third page of any unit in the Boost! grammar series always seeks to present more investigative and productive practice activities, usually requiring some integration of skills and almost always requiring writing and speaking practice.
In the example presented here for Level 1/Unit 12, sentences are presented with a variety ot errors in them. The students can (again) listen and self-correct, but the teacher also has the option of asking the students to correct the sentences through a pure speaking format.
Below this practice is an open-style writing topic, facilitating and encouraging use of the unit's target grammar. Whereas the general/situational units work with open-style speaking or interaction as the second task, academic/content-based units like this one actively promote more in terms of composition and writing skills. In addition to providing a nice interface with the reading passage styles used in the noticing and controlled practice stages, writing is generally more of an academic skill and finds a natural place in these particular units.
Boost! Grammar Level 1/Unit 1: 4th page
The final page in any unit in the Boost! grammar series presents integration of both multiple skills (for example reading, listening, speaking and/or writing) and multiple content inputs.
The example presented here features a reading passage, with review of the unit's grammar aspect/skill, followed by a listening passage related but somewhat different to the initial input in reading.
In the example presented here, there are two opinions about a topic that contrast with each other. After applying the unit's grammar skill to complete each passage, the students are then asked to compare and contrast the opinions presented.
Other integration pages in the strand call on different kinds of analysis and application, including additional production, or interaction with other classmates followed by presentation and reporting of important information related to the unit topic.
Boost! Grammar Level 1/Review 4: 2nd page
The second page of the review unit always features a reading passage with gaps to be completed, often requiring adjustments to make the words fit the passage both meaningfully and accurately in terms of grammar.
The final part of the review will feature a more productive and open task, inviting students to apply all or many of the grammar skills they have been working with in the book up until that point.
Overall, each review unit therefore features an ongoing recycling of language structures, but also represents the same controlled - open sequence of activities utilized in given units. Featuring more productive-style tasks towards the end of the review also ensures students are going beyond simple/passive analytic text-based skills and being tested to see how well they can use grammar in genuine communication and production.
Boost! Grammar Level 1/Review 4: 1st page
Each Boost! book features 12 units, divided into 6 themes (2 units each - one general/situational, the other academic/ content-based), which in turn are supported with an overall review quiz.
The first page of every review quiz features 6 multiple choice questions reviewing only the grammar presented in the previous two units.
These are then followed by a more challenging set of 4 questions with each featuring two gaps to be filled, but an additional challenge here is presented in that the grammar featured can come from all previously completed units. In this example (Review 4), all the grammar skills from units 1-8 are being reviewed and checked.
Similarly, in Review 6, the first six questions on this page will review units 11 and 12 (the previous two units), followed by 4 more challenging questions featuring grammar from all of units 1-12 in the book. This ensures students get a regular and constant recycling of the grammar skills presented across the textbook up to the point where any given review unit is applied.
