Introduction
The development of an effective curriculum with comprehensible tasks, intensive learning units, and structured schedule is the primary objective of educators, allowing learners to reach excellent outcomes. In this regard, teachers have a variety of educational materials that assist teachers in designing the easy-to-follow curriculum considering their intercultural needs. Educators Donna Clementi and Laura Terrill have written a practical guide replete with advice and useful templates that help develop instruction units and engaging lessons based on the Standards for Learning Languages and technology integration. Thus, this book review aims at discussing the most appealing ideas delivered by the authors, the implications of these ideas, and controversial suggestions.
The Most Interesting Ideas
Clementi and Terrill provide several valuable ideas that will be useful to consider while designing learning modules. For example, they recommend educators add sensorial supports, including graphics, pictures, visuals, realia, into their lessons to make input more understandable. Besides, teachers should pay close attention to various presentational elements of speaking, such as exaggerated pronunciation, keyword emphasis, intonation, or purposeful pauses, and nonverbal communication, namely, gestures, facial expressions, or context clues. These techniques will considerably help liven lessons and make them more interactive and real.
The authors also emphasize the significance of the authentic text, that is, the text of the target language offered to learners. This text aims at providing language’s real-word context, cultural wealth, and patterns of correct language. Herewith, authors specify that the text should be interesting and diverse in ideas, relevant to the learners and the essential questions, intellectually challenging, and strongly supported by visuals.
Clementi and Terrill also ask educators to focus on the structure of learning units, indicating that students learn best what comes first and last in the lessons. In the opening ten minutes, it is reasonable to gain learners’ attention, present the learning goals of the lesson, and provide comprehensible input following the stated purposes.
Specifically, in this stage, educators can ask various questions and tell a particular story. In the core part of the session, students should cooperate with each other and instructors actively using language to gain confidence in the topic. In this respect, the authors note that learners primarily should be active participants, while teachers are only observers and assistants. The final part assumes evaluating performance via assignments or reflection and delivering feedback from teachers to determine gaps, misunderstandings, and other issues.
The Implications of the Ideas
The implications of the ideas presented by Clementi and Terrill are highly beneficial in teachers’ daily workflow and developing a curriculum that meets the learning needs of individuals of different ages and multicultural backgrounds. After reading the book, I have realized the importance of effective verbal and non-verbal communication that should be diverse, constructive, and directed at conveying the central themes of lessons.
I will pay particular attention to the application of various pictures to diversify learning modules and make them more close to real life. Besides, I have gained a clear understanding of how I should build my lessons in order to help students receive the most from the learning sections and maximize their performance. Finally, it is worth noting that I realize that I should endow the meaning to the lessons continuously to maintain student engagement and motivation to develop and broaden their knowledge.
Challenging Ideas
Despite the utility of many suggestions, the book also possesses some ideas that can be slightly debatable or cause some problems during lessons. For example, the author put considerable emphasis on the visual part of learning sessions, making it compulsory or critical in the learning context. Nevertheless, it should be indicated that such an approach may distract learners from the established objectives and essential questions, thereby undermining their active involvement. Indeed, pictures and graphics are useful in conveying the main ideas, but they simultaneously pose a risk to turn the lessons into entertainment. Therefore, visuals are not essential but a subsidiary aspect of learning modules.
In addition, Clementi and Terrill highlight the importance of stimulating and supporting students’ encouragement in the workflow. This idea makes sense, but I firmly hold to the belief that learners should be self-motivated and realize what they want, what they seek, and what they need. Otherwise, it will be a complicated task for teachers to encourage students to learn specific materials and reach performance objectives. The learners’ self-motivation and interest play a critical role in mastering a particular language. The responsibility of the educators is to make lessons informative, interactive, engaging, and practical.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the paper has discussed the most interesting ideas delivered by Clementi and Terrill, their implications, and some controversial suggestions. Specifically, the most appealing ideas include the application of pictures, graphics, and other visuals, the consideration of verbal and nonverbal communication, the significance of authentic text. Moreover, the authors draw educators’ attention to the structure of learning units, emphasizing the opening and conclusive part of the lessons. These ideas will help derive the most from the learning modules and stimulate students’ interest in acquiring the second language. However, using visuals and learners’ encouragement should be balanced and reasonable not to distract students from central tasks.