Evolve

In Evolve, every unit contains a whole lesson dedicated to speaking, 'Time to speak', allowing students to speak for sustained periods of time. These lessons focus on a challenge or a task with a cognitive challenge beyond language learning, which involves working together to achieve. These activities include decision-making, negotiating, problem-solving and creating. 
 

Time to speak lessons provide students with a “safe speaking environment” (teachers will be given tips on how to cultivate this “safe environment” in the TE) in which to practice English and demonstrate to students their progress as they will see they’re able to speak for sustained periods of time.

There are a number of ways in which Evolve can be used to create highly personalized, relevant and motivating learning experiences. Just one example is the real-student generated content.

The student contributors appear throughout each book in short videos in which they answer discussion questions, such as “Where did you last go on vacation?” “What kinds of things do you spend most money on …” etc. 

This feature serves as an ideas prompt – i.e. to give students ideas to answer the discussion question. They may agree/disagree with this response, react to it, feel spoken to, which should make them feel that the content is relevant to them.

Students are shown more attainable speaking models with these features as the students in their book are the same level as they are. This gives students confidence that they can achieve something similar, so they’re more likely to engage in the conversation themselves. These help motivate students who see someone like themselves achieving the tasks in the book, even though they have an accent, or make mistakes.   

The videos are accessed through QR codes in the book.

An Integrated teacher development program has been built into the Teacher’s Edition teaching notes, acknowledging that teachers are keen to develop and try new ideas but need to fit this into busy lives and teaching schedules.
 

This way teachers can do their professional development on the job. The teachers notes are practical, step-by-step activities that teachers can try out with the Evolve materials as part of their normal teaching. There’s also reflection and follow up activities to understand theory behind practice.

In addition, there are opportunities for reflection on the technique they have used, and follow-up reading material to consolidate the theory behind the technique. 

Corpus-informed content to help learners avoid common mistakes. "Accuracy check" highlights common learner errors, whilst "Register check" highlights potential problem areas such as differences between written and spoken English.

A focus on real-world communication. "Insider English" highlights the informal language and colloquial expressions frequently used in everyday situations, and pronunciation activities address aspects of pronunciation that most affect communication. 

We asked over 2,000 students from all over the world what topics they would like to discuss in English and in what situations they would like to be able to speak more confidently. The ideas are included throughout the Student’s Book and the students appear in short videos responding to discussion questions.