Face2Face Intermediate B1

Face2Face intermediate (B1), 2nd edition is a general English course for learners to COMMUNICATE QUICKLY and EFFECTIVELY. It adopts a COMMUNICATIVE approach to make LEARNING and TEACHING easier. This edition syllabus integrates the learning of NEW LANGUAGE SKILLS and places equal emphasis on vocabulary and grammar. The course uses a guided DISCOVERY approach to learning, first allowing students to check what they know, then helping them to work out the rules for themselves through carefully structured examples and concept questions. There is a strong focus on listening and speaking throughout the course Student’s Textbook as well as Workbook.

This course core textbooks stretch over 12 CHAPTERS and are meant to get covered across ONE ACADEMIC TERM of roughly 13 through 15 weeks. The Student’s Textbook provides approximately 80 HOURS of core teaching material, which can be extended to 120 HOURS with the inclusion of the photocopiable materials and extra ideas in the Teacher’s Book.

This Face2Face English course is fully compatible with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and gives students regular opportunities to evaluate their progress. This Intermediate course completes the B1 level and paves the way to B2.

It is an integrated hands-on English language course, with a balanced focus on core skills as clearly showcased down below.

  1. Grammar: Since learning English often follows a scaffolding process, in other words, it builds-up on previously learned knowledge, B1 English language learners will be called upon to delve deeper into English grammar, exploring complex sentence structures, verb tenses, and more nuanced aspects of punctuation.
  2. Vocabulary: Learners will, by the same way, expand their vocabulary, focusing on words and phrases that are essential for everyday conversations, academic texts, and professional settings at B1 level.
  3. Listening: They will be exposed to a variety of audio and video materials, including news broadcasts, and dialogues to improve their listening comprehension.
  4. Speaking: Work will be on improving fluency and pronunciation, with a focus on being able to express opinions, present arguments, and interact in English-speaking environments.
  5. Reading: Additionally, they will read a range of texts, from news articles to short stories, to enhance your reading comprehension skills and expand your vocabulary.
  6. Writing: They will also learn how to write different types of texts, such as formal letters, essays, and reports, with a focus on coherence, cohesion, and accuracy.

Thus, this course is tuned to be interactive and engaging, with plenty of exercises and activities to help learners practice what they’ve learned particularly in speaking and writing being more productive – not passive like the other skills.

Listening

A typical listening practice activity in most coursebooks checks students’ understanding of gist, and then asks questions about specific details.

Activities in these sections help students listen more effectively by:

§  focusing on the stress system in English.

§  examining features of connected speech, such as linking, weak forms and elision.

§  preparing them for typical features of informal spoken English.

§  focusing on different native speakers’ accents.

§  highlighting how intonation conveys moods and feelings.

§  encouraging students to make the link between the written and the spoken word by asking them to work with the Audio and Video Scripts while they listen.

Speaking

 All the lessons in Intermediate Student’s Book and the Class Activities Photocopiables provide students with numerous speaking opportunities. Many of these activities focus on accuracy, while the fluency activities help students gain confidence and try out what they have learned. For fluency activities, to be truly ‘fluent’, however, students often need time to formulate their ideas before they speak.

Reading and Writing

In the Intermediate Student’s Book, reading texts from a wide variety of genres are used both to present new language and to provide reading practice. Reading subskills, such as skimming and scanning, are extensively practiced and there are also controlled writing activities to consolidate the language input of the lesson.

Grammar

Grammar is a central strand in the face2face 2nd edition Intermediate syllabus and new grammar structures are always introduced in context in a listening or a reading text. It is believed that students are more likely to understand and remember a new language if they have actively tried to work out the rules for themselves, rather than just being given them.

Course Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, learners should be able to:

  1. identify B1-level words, phrases, sentences and structures, in reading, listening being more passive skills and in speaking and writing, being more productive ones.
  2. correct B1-level words, phrases, sentences and structures both in speaking and writing.
  3. use fluently and flawlessly any B1-level words, phrases, sentences and structures both in speaking and writing.