Category: Adult Coursebooks

Title:  Navigate B1+ Intermediate

Author(s):

Publisher:  Oxford University Press

Reviewed by: Alex Warren

Published date: 2014 - Review date: Feb 2014

Overall Rating     4      

Criterion

Originality    4     

With Headway and English File firmly ensconced in the ELT market, it could be deemed as somewhat of a risk for OUP to bring out another adult coursebook. After all, it would in effect be going up against its existing and very successful contemporaries. However, whereas those titles are mainly aimed at the younger end of the adult spectrum (16-20), Navigate looks to exploit the gap at the higher end of the spectrum – thus making it a truer adult course.

This in essence, therefore, is where Navigate looks to stand out and be different and this is best represented by the topics, visuals and subsequently the reading and listening content of the course. In this respect it looks to cover areas which are most important and relevant to them. This is why as well as more common topics such as stories and entertainment (Intermediate Units 2 + 5), we get more adult themes addressed in Trends (Intermediate Unit 1), Life Skills (Intermediate Unit 3), Changes & Challenges (Pre-Intermediate Unit 4), Ambitions (Intermediate Unit 7), World (Pre-Intermediate Unit 11), Work (Pre-Intermediate Unit 12) and Influence (Intermediate Unit 12), among others. In terms of reading content, these cover a variety of text types and topics, but wherever possible they try to be interesting, informative and enjoyable. So we have plenty of web stories, articles and blogs, infographics, reviews and reports. Similarly the listenings range from dialogues, conversations and interviews to news stories, reviews, documentaries and reports. These combine a mix of top down and bottom up type activities (more on that shortly), as well as providing context for both grammar and vocabulary. This it does in a successful manner, appealing to more adult learners without becoming too academic or business focussed.

It is with these receptive skills and their development where Navigate specifically looks to differentiate itself from other courses. While there are comprehension-based reading and listening tasks, the skills development lessons (lesson 3 of each unit) focus on raising awareness of decoding skills with regards to helping understand texts and listenings. These range from listening for key words, understanding paraphrasing, critical thinking, recognising linkers in conversation to understanding connected speech and references. In other words it’s advocating a bottom up approach – understand the parts and understand the text/audio. Two essays in the Teacher’s Book (Reading tomorrow’s text better, Catherine Walter and Training Better Listeners, John Field) shed more light on this approach and are well worth reading for teachers to get a better understanding of how to incorporate it into class. It may not be an approach that students necessarily are used to, but there are benefits in developing their receptive skills in this way, rather than just testing them and for that it is a worthwhile strand to the course.

In terms of vocabulary there is a real emphasis and focus on it throughout Navigate, with topic-related vocabulary backed up by development work in areas such as word families, collocations and prefixes and suffixes. Specifically the vocabulary syllabus was designed alongside the Oxford 3000 (itself informed by the British National Corpus), ensuring that the vocabulary being introduced is the vocabulary that students really need to know – in others words the most frequent and relevant words in the English language. In practice there is vocabulary input in lessons one and two of every unit, always presented in context, as well as lesson 3 – vocabulary and skills development. This vocabulary is then well supported with recycling and communicative activities in the Teacher’s Book, thus ensuring that the words become part of students’ active, rather than just passive, vocabulary.

Another feature, while not unique (Speakout has done it most recently), are the Vox Pop videos which come at the end of the first or second lesson of each unit. However, while the concept and content is good, you can’t help but feel that more could have been done with them. Each one comes with a worksheet (found in the Teacher’s Book), but it is only half a page and three activities. Given the effort in producing the videos, it seems odd that they aren’t exploited more for language and pronunciation, especially considering that they are unscripted and contain lots of natural language. Of course, they can always act as a springboard for the students to go and make their own Vox Pops, but that’s not really the point.

Overall then, while  no ELT book could ever claim to be completely original, with its structure, the content and the syllabus all being familiar, Navigate does take a sufficiently different angle to successfully differentiate itself from its competitors.

Practicality      4

From a teaching perspective Navigate is as easy a course to pick up and teach as there is. There are 12 units and each one is broken down into five distinct lessons linked through a universal topic and a review. As with other courses the first two lessons are what could be deemed as the real meat of the unit, with grammar the main focus, though it is always presented through reading and listening contexts. The grammar syllabus is as you would expect for the level, with clear CEFR links made throughout. Interestingly the sub-headings on the pages to signpost the different stages of the lesson always come in pairs, so it is never just grammar – it’s grammar and reading, or grammar and listening – thus pressing home the idea of contextualising language and integrating skills and systems at all times. The grammar itself is more often than not introduced through noticing tasks, encouraging critical thinking and analysis skills in the process. An inductive approach to grammar is clearly the way to go and as such ensures the course remains as student focussed as possible. This is a theme that is evident throughout the lessons with plenty of opportunities for student output and discussion, from warmers at the start to freer and personalised tasks at the end. There is also sufficient controlled practice in between and the Grammar Reference section at the back of the book is particularly good – it’s clearly well laid out (each point has its own page) and with between two or three additional controlled practice activities. Add the additional activities in the Teacher’s Book to that and there’s no doubt that students are given plenty of opportunity to get to grips with the grammar.

As already discussed above, lesson three is a vocabulary and skills development lesson, while lesson four is speaking and writing focussed. These especially work really well, following a genre approach and where possible looking to reflect students’ real world experiences and needs – in this case social life, study and work situations – and are often web based.  So we have lessons focussing on the characteristics of writing on social media (Intermediate Unit 1), web posts (Pre-Intermediate Unit 1), social emails (Pre-Intermediate Units 3 and 4), professional emails (Intermediate Unit 6), application letters (Intermediate Unit 7), taking part in online discussions (Intermediate Unit 9), presentations (Pre-Intermediate Unit 11) and essay writing (Intermediate Unit 12). Of course some of these are the staple writing types in any pre-intermediate intermediate level, but that is to be expected. What makes the lessons work so well is that they’re not just writing lessons, but integrated skills lessons, which means that students remain engaged throughout.

The final lesson of each unit is video based and it links to the overall theme of the unit. These are a mix of documentaries and interviews and comprise of pre-watching discussions, gist and specific information listening activities and follow up tasks – the usual fare in that respect. The videos, while generally not up to the standard seen in Life or Outcomes, are generally both interesting and of a good quality, thus engaging students and making it a worthwhile component of the course. Films range from Social Media Marketing (Intermediate Unit 1), London’s Changing Skyline (Pre-Intermediate Unit 2), Film Studies (Intermediate Unit 5), Career Change (Pre-Intermediate Unit 8), Moving Abroad to Work ((Intermediate Unit 7), The Selfie (Intermediate Unit 9) and the European Union (Pre-Intermediate Unit 11). Clearly there is plenty of variety in this respect and this can only be a good thing.

Each unit ends with a review and they’re different from the usual fare in that they don’t just focus on grammar and vocabulary, but also contain speaking, listening and pronunciation tasks. For more practice, recycling and revision, there’s always the Workbook, which mirrors the main coursebook. It’s also here that students are encouraged to review their own learning and complete a CEFR linked self-assessment, to go along with more the formal course assessment. This is an important feature as self-assessment is such an important part of monitoring student progress, it’s just a shame that it isn’t included in the review page in the main coursebook. There is also the option of having the Oxford Online Skills Program as part of the package, which though not specific to Navigate, supplements and compliments the course. Practice, therefore, is never far away.

However, the first thing that any teacher really wants to know is what kind of support there is in terms of bonus photocopiable materials in the Teacher’s Book. As with other OUP titles, it doesn’t disappoint in this respect. Each unit comes with one grammar, vocabulary and communicative activity, all of which focus on active production of the target language in the form or pair, group and class work. Communication is king. This means that there is plenty of revision of language in a memorable, enjoyable and active context. The only complaint is that while there are two grammar points covered in each unit, there is only one grammar activity which generally (though not always) links to the first grammar point only. Otherwise the Teacher’s Book has everything you would expect – ideas for extra activities, extension tasks and challenges, extra support, dictionary skills ideas as well as study tips for students and tasks to develop critical thinking. One thing to note is that it is all very clearly laid out – sometimes teacher’s books can be overloaded with information and poorly laid out, but Navigate is very clean and sharp in this respect making it easy to follow.

It also comes with a Teacher’s Support and Resource Disc, which contains audio and video scripts, unit wordlists in PDF format, all the photocopiables and all the tests. The unit tests, in particular, are very comprehensive, with listening, vocabulary, grammar, reading and functional/situational tasks, while the progress tests (every third unit) are very much skills focussed. Coming in Word format they’re easily editable but also of a good standard (which is not always the case), meaning that teachers can be confident in using them to assess their students. Pleasingly there’s also a Student Study Record form for students, allowing for self-reflection and self-assessment at the end of each unit.

Overall it’s safe to say that Navigate is a very teachable course from a teachers’ point of view. It’s clearly laid-out and signposted, has clear aims and is well-structured, thus making the job of the teacher that much easier. Similarly, from a student’s perspective while it is easy to follow with tangible goals, it is also possible for them to actively use the language and skills they are learning and see the progress they are making.

Presentation  3.5

While not as visually striking as some courses in terms of the use of engaging photography, Navigate goes for what you might call a more understated look. While there are plenty of pictures (mainly photos with the odd cartoon) throughout, they don’t dominate whole pages. Rather they are used to add focus to the lessons and to help create context. The thing that really stands out is how clearly everything is presented – it is a very clean design overall with the stages of the lessons easy to follow, due in part to clear signposting. Good use is also made of shaded boxes for language focus which helps highlight the key information. From this point of view the pages never seem to be overcrowded (including the Grammar Reference at the back) which is pleasing, especially for students.

What outstanding strengths/ weaknesses do you feel this title possesses?

Strengths

• Relevant, content-rich and adult-focussed material
• Skills and systems are always well-integrated with appropriate approaches used
• Bottom up as well as top down approach to reading and listening skills
• End of unit tests are comprehensive and challenging
• Lots of practice and good extra materials in the Teacher’s Book

Weaknesses

• Vox pop videos are good but could have been exploited further
• Lack of a vocabulary bank

On which courses do you envisage being able to use this material?

Navigate is very much a through and through General English course and as such should be used on courses where that is the focus, albeit one where the students are adult (20+) rather than young adult.

Other comments

Having used Navigate across a variety of courses over the last year, I have to say that my colleagues and I have very much enjoyed using it and as new courses go it had everything we wanted. Universally we found it very teachable – there was no head-scratching about how to use or exploit it and in many ways it taught itself. By the same token the students responded well to the content of the course, more often than not giving positive feedback it. As such, I would wholeheartedly recommend Navigate as a course. 

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