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highly motivating activities throughout the Student’sBook, and also a bank of photocopiable activities inthe Teacher’s GuideLanguage in Action pages at the end of every unitthat provide immediately useful conversationspracticing different functions, including short videoclips or audio tracksplenty of games and game-like activities, andalso a collection of 20 easy games and a bank ofphotocopiable games (one for each unit) at theback of the Teacher’s GuideGrammarGrammar is an important element in AmericanJetstream and is approached in the following way: It is introduced gradually – each of the three mainlessons in a unit usually has a grammar point,involving a step-by-step approach and practice sothat it’s easily absorbed. It is reviewed in the Review units after every twounits. The grammar for a lesson is introduced in context.The grammar form is highlighted and students aregiven activities where they deduce the form andmeaning. Activities are realistic and meaningful. A clear and straightforward Grammar Referencesection at the end of the Student’s Book explainseach lesson’s grammar. The we don’t say . / we say . section at the end ofeach Language in Action page rounds off a unit byhighlighting common grammatical mistakes in thelanguage learned in the unit. The Irregular Verbs section provides an invaluablereference for students.VocabularyIt is increasingly acknowledged that vocabulary is justas important as or perhaps even more importantthan grammar when learning a language. AmericanJetstream has a high vocabulary input so that studentscan understand, speak, read, and write with ease.Stimulating and carefully selected images withmotivating activities ensure that students absorb thevocabulary easily and get plenty of practice.Most of the three main lessons in American Jetstreamhave a vocabulary component. In addition: Vocabulary PLUS pages (one at the end of eachunit) provide an opportunity for vocabularyenrichment. Focus on sections within the Vocabulary PLUS pageshighlight and practice high-frequency words andphrases and their different uses and meanings. Preposition Park sections in the Review units focuson prepositions, often within an interesting text. Similar or different activities ( ) get studentscomparing new words with words that are thesame or different in their own language.Useful expressions sections are usually within theVocabulary PLUS pages; they highlight and practicecommon expressions used in different situations.ReadingThe main reading focus in American Jetstream is usuallyin Lesson 2, but there are often other, shorter readingtexts elsewhere. There is a variety of high-interesttext types – real-life stories, articles, quizzes, blogs, etc.When possible at this level, texts are based on realpeople, places, and events. The activities develop the students’ ability to scana text for its general meaning and guess meaningfrom context. Texts, whether in the form of human interestarticles or fiction stories, are absorbing andmemorable and a key way of learning andpracticing language. Four two-page stories at the back of AmericanJetstream are an extra resource that providepractice in extensive reading, where students canread for meaning and pleasure without necessarilystudying the text in detail. See page 202 for moreideas on how to use these stories.Another section that provides very short, high-interesttexts for additional reading comprehension relevant tothe topic is the Did you know? feature. The Cross Culturesection in the Review units provides additional readingmaterial. It offers interesting and practical informationabout aspects of different cultural norms and practices,which should lead to stimulating discussions.WritingRegular Writing sections in the Student’s Book provideguided writing practice through a variety of activities thatoften involve pair or group work in preparation for theactual writing activity. Beyond these sections, there is amore comprehensive writing section at the end of theWorkbook, which includes a full page of guided writingactivities for each unit. In this writing developmentsection, students cover the following areas: a personal profile a biography a résumé a blog post a vacation review instructions advice a presentation a complaint a magazine article a book review a summary11 tinU 99Introduction

Regular features in the Writing section include tipson useful language, including linking words and otheraccuracy features, such as word order, punctuation,time expressions, paragraphing, etc. The Writing sectionalso introduces the concept of format and tone, whichmany lower-level books don’t cover until later. TheCheck it sections allow students to review and improvetheir work.ListeningThe main listening focus in American Jetstream is inLesson 3 of each unit, but there are often shorterlistening activities elsewhere within the units. TheLanguage in Action pages with audio only (Units 2, 4,6, 8, 10, and 12) provide further listening practice inthe form of functional conversations. To train studentsin useful and relevant listening skills, the listening textsreflect a variety of real-life situations, including: conversations interviews talks reports radio showsThe transcripts of the listening texts can be foundat the back of the Student’s Book for students’reference and are also reproduced in the relevantactivity notes in the Teacher’s Guide. The Language inAction pages with video also contain the audio-onlyversions of the video (Units 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11) andcan be approached as listening exercises if the visualcomponent is not available.SpeakingFor many learners of English, speaking is the mostimportant language skill. For this reason, there arefrequent speaking activities at all stages of a lesson inAmerican Jetstream: At Pre-intermediate level, activities are carefullycontrolled so that students can express themselvesfreely without the fear of making a lot of mistakes. The photos, cartoons, listening, and reading texts allprovide stimulating platforms for speaking activities. You first! at the start of some lessons uses a shortquestion to get students engaged with the lessontopic immediately. The main Speaking section of each lesson generallyhas more involved activities than those that comeearlier in the lesson. Everybody up! sections encourage students to standup and move around the class, interacting witheach other to find out information. The Did you know? sections in the main units, andthe Cross Culture sections in the Review units alsoprovide platforms for stimulating discussions.10Unit 1110 Introduction The photocopiable activities in the Teacher’s Guideand the Information gap activities at the back ofthe Student’s Book provide further communicativepractice.De-stress!Apart from providing tiny practical texts to read,these sections appear in some of the Language inAction pages and on page 211 of the Teacher’s Guideto help students unwind from time to time. Why?Because, quite simply, we don’t learn well when we arestressed. We learn best when we are relaxed, and thisis particularly important when you are producing newlanguage. If a De-stress exercise is a piece of advice,talk about it with students. If it’s a physical exercise,get (or help) students to read it and then follow theinstructions. Do it with them in the classroom if youcan. Then you can repeat it again and again wheneverit’s useful.PronunciationShort pronunciation activities throughout the Student’sBook provide clear practice of some common areas,including: specific sounds word stress sentence stress simple intonationIn addition, students are encouraged to listen to andrepeat the main vocabulary groups throughout thebook. The Pronunciation section on page 156 ofthe Student’s Book includes a phonemic chart forstudents’ reference and fun practice of all the majorvowel sounds in American English. Students should beencouraged to listen to these sounds repeatedly andto search online dictionaries for further pronunciationpractice.StoriesThere are stories about real and fictional peoplethroughout the course, but at the back of the Student’sBook (SB pages 126–133) you will also find fourslightly longer, completely new stories. These stories area way of providing an opportunity for students to readmore extensively and gain a sense of satisfaction fromdoing so.For this reason, they deliberately contain language thatis slightly above students’ level (linking in with StephenKrashen’s idea that we learn most from language thatstretches us a little, but not too much). Students shouldfind the stories challenging, but engaging, and whilethey may need to check some of the vocabulary, theyshould be able to follow the storylines without a lot ofextra assistance.

There are no activities accompanying the stories onthe Student’s Book page itself in order to leave youcompletely free as to how you approach the stories.However, if you’d like to apply some techniques, pleaserefer to page 202.Online TrainingResources and interactive activities for individualstudent access. Includes: exam practice pronunciation all exercises from the Cyber Homework inself-study mode.Consolidation and reviewConsolidation of recently acquired language and regularreview are crucial to learning. After every two unitsthere is a Review unit that goes over the key languagein these units. Each Review unit contextualizes thelanguage through reading and sometimes listeningtexts. There are also grammar exercises and writingand speaking activities. The Workbook providesfurther practice and testing of the language in a unit.In addition, after every two units in the Workbook,there is a Review quiz, which tests students using ageneral knowledge quiz. This is followed by a Check yourprogress test.Cloud BookAn interactive version of the Student’s Book &Workbook, where students can access all audioand video content at one click or touch. Students cancomplete the activities, check their results, and addtheir own notes.Cyber HomeworkInteractive activities assigned to students by theirteacher within an online virtual classroom. Full resultsand feedback are automatically given as soon as thedeadline fixed by the teacher has been reached.Online resources(available on e-zone)ProjectsOpen-ended activities on both cultural and globalthemes where students can embed other resources,such as web links and share them with the teacher andtheir class.HELBLING Placement TestDesigned to give students and teachers of Englisha quick way of assessing the approximate level of astudent’s knowledge of English grammar and usage.How to integrate LMS (a Learning Management System) into your teachingInitial assessmentAssessmentHELBLING Placement TestExam PracticeTestbuilder1Planning 2Scope & SequenceTeacher’s Guide 64Virtual Class and Self-study practice 5Lesson enrichment ProjectsOnline TrainingCyber HomeworkStudent downloads 3Class routineStudent’s Book &WorkbookResourcesVideosInteractive Book for WhiteboardsTeacher downloads11 tinU 1111Introduction

Unit overviewYou first!You will find a You first! box at the beginning of most lessons where a larger image appears. This feature has a triplepurpose. First, it aims to engage students and get them saying something immediately. Second, it allows students touse what they already know and boost their confidence. And third, it gives you, the teacher, an idea of what andhow much they already know so that you can target your teaching much more effectively. And don’t worry. If yourstudents don’t respond to the question, that tells you something, too. The topic is completely new to them, and youhave even more to teach and explore with them!ListeningThis symbol tells youthat there is recordedmaterial that goes withthe activity. This caneither be a full listeningtext, where there isno text on the page,or, as here, it mightbe listening to checkanswers or to hear thecorrect pronunciationof words or thecorrect stress onwords or sentences.Full transcripts areavailable at the back ofthe Student’s Book.12Unit 1112 Introduction

Grammar boxesGrammar boxes appear in each unit to highlight theappropriate grammar points. These often includetables, short exercises, and page references to furtherexplanation in the back of the book. Each maingrammar point from the grammar boxes throughoutthe book is further explained in this section.11 tinU 1331Introduction

Similaror different?This symbol oftenoccurs wherenew vocabulary isintroduced, and itsuggests that you askstudents which wordsare the same as orsimilar to words intheir own languageand which are verydifferent. This featureof Accelerated (orHolistic) Learning(see page 22) aimsto draw students’attention to the factthat they alreadyknow some words. Itcan also give them abasis for wordbuilding(e.g., the fact thatwords ending in -ionin English may alsoend in -ion in theirlanguage). Suddenlythey know ten words,not just one, withoutmuch extra effort.P PronunciationThere are regular pronunciation activitiesthroughout the Student’s Book.At Pre-intermediate level, these focus mostlyon simple, but often-heard sounds, andword and sentence stress. There is a smallintroduction to intonation, but it is not a keyfeature of this level. All the pronunciationactivities are recorded so that students canhear the correct sounds or stress.14Unit 1114 Introduction

Memory gamesThis symbol representsyour brain! Memory isa crucial componentin learning anything,and it’s like a muscle:the more you exerciseit, the stronger itwill be. These simplegames ask students toremember a varietyof things: vocabularyitems, facts from anarticle, and so on. Butyou can play a lotmore games than theones suggested here(see page 205). Andremember that themore you get studentsto exercise theirmemory in English,the more it will servethem in other aspectsof their life as well.Everybody up!This is a Find someone who activity, a chance for students to movearound the classroom and use specific language in a controlled wayto get information from other students. This kind of short, intensivepractice can be very lively and also rewarding if students succeedin completing the activity using the language resources available tothem. It also allows them to interact with lots of different people.The act of physically getting up and moving around is also mentallyrefreshing; being physically active helps us learn. Students maynaturally find that they engage in longer conversations than theactivity requires. If time allows, this is good and enjoyable practice forthem. However, it’s a good idea to set a time limit for this activity.11 tinU 1551Introduction

Information gapThere is usually an Information gap activity in everysecond unit, marked by shaded boxes for Student Aand Student B. In these activities, students need to getinformation from each other in order to complete atask. All the material students need to do the tasks is inthe back of the Student’s Book on pages 118 – 123.16Unit 1116 Introduction

ThinkThis is used to signal a creative or critical-thinking exercise. Studentsare asked to work something out for themselves, give an opinion, oruse their creativity, rather than find an answer directly on the page.Encouraging students to think creatively means they increase theirengagement with the material. With these sections – as indeed withmany others – it’s a good idea to give students a chance to lookat the material and think about (or even write down) their ideasindividually before they start talking to each other. Some studentsare quick thinkers and talkers, while others need more time, but itdoesn’t mean that they have less to offer.11 tinU 1771Introduction

Vocabulary PLUSThis page, which comes after the third lesson in every unit, provides an opportunity for vocabulary enrichmentand consolidation. It’s a flexible section and can be used in several ways. It can be done as a complete lesson.Alternatively, the unit-by-unit notes indicate points where a vocabulary set can be usefully explored in a lesson,or an exercise can be used as a filler if there is extra time during class, or if stronger students have finished anactivity and need to work ahead.UsefulExpressionsUseful expressionssections are locatedin some of theVocabulary PLUS pages;they highlight andpractice commonexpressions used indifferent situations.They often encouragestudents to practicenew words andphrases in specificenvironments.Focus onThese short sections appear on many of the Vocabulary PLUS pages. They are dedicated practice ofa word or phrases that have come up in the unit and involve exercises that take them a step further,showing students how they can be used in different ways. In Pre-intermediate, there are Focus onsections for can, have, play, do and go, get, good, verbs to use with clothes, go, look, and left, etc.18Unit 1118 Introduction

GuessAsking students to“guess” answers beforereading or listening toinformation not onlygets them to interact,but it also frees themup from having toknow the “right” answer,which can sometimesinhibit their response.In addition, it preparesthem for the text, givingthem a valid reasonfor reading or listeningto something andchecking if they wereright. For this reason,it’s very important notto correct studentswho are guessing. Justsay things like: Hmmor That’s interesting orPossibly, etc. so they keeptalking. Then let the textprovide the answers.Language in ActionThis section provides practice in the everyday functional language thatstudents need when getting around using English and interacting withpeople, such as making requests, asking for directions, buying a ticket, andso on. Students are presented with a variety of situations and given thevocabulary and opportunity for practice both in written and spoken form.6 VideoAmerican Jetstreampresents all new videowith correspondingexercises that exploit thelanguage in the oddnumbered units.Thevideos feature the samecharacters in a variety ofsituations that facilitate theuse of the language fromthe unit.They provideextra contextualization forthe functional language.By seeing the samecharacters, we beginto learn about theirpersonalities and howthey react to a range ofcircumstances. (See alsoUsing the video on page201).We don’t say / we say This section appears in the Language in Action pages and focuses on common errors that students are likely tomake. The ones selected are made by learners from a variety of language backgrounds, but you can, of course, bringin your own examples from the particular language group you are working with. By drawing students’ attention tothe examples, and making it clear that these are common errors, the hope is that they will feel relieved that they arenot the only ones and they can see how to avoid making that particular mistake.11 tinU 1991Introduction

Review unitsSix Review unitsprovide practice ofkey language from thepreceding two units,using a reading text asthe main presentation.Beyond the readingand correspondingactivities, they containtwo additionalsections: PrepositionPark and CrossCulture.Did you know?These are very short,interesting pieces ofinformation relatedto the theme ofthe lesson. They canusually be done at anypoint in the lesson.The individual unitnotes within thisguide suggest ways ofexploiting this section,but if students wantto know more, theycan be encouraged tosearch online.20Unit 1120 Introduction

Cross CultureEach of the Reviewunits finishes witha Cross Culturesection. This is oftenan opportunity toreflect on how peopledo things differently(or not!) in differentparts of the world andhow we can begin tobe sensitive to thesedifferences and actaccordingly. There isusually a short readingtext with an activityor questions, oftenleading to a discussionand a comparisonwith the students’ ownculture.Preposition ParkThis section appears in eachReview unit and provides ashort text either practicingsome of the prepositions fromthe previous units, enablingstudents to recycle them in anew way, or presenting new anduseful prepositions.Explore OnlineThis is an opportunity for students to go beyond the page and findout more about some aspect of the topic and encourages projectwork. Students are asked to do research online, make notes, andreport back. They can work either alone or in pairs, depending onyour classroom setup. You can approach it by letting students takethe lead and do their own research, or you can work together as awhole class and have students suggest possible websites or searchwords.11 tinU 2112Introduction

A final wordThe features new to American Jetstream, which occurthroughout the units, are informed by some of thekey principles of Holistic Learning (sometimes calledAccelerated Learning*):1. We learn with our body as well as our mind: they areconnected. Hence the value we attach to bringingmore physical activities into the classroom andpaying attention to our students’ physical well-being.2. Different learners prefer different kinds of input. Somepeople learn more with their eyes, some more withtheir ears, and some more with their bodies andmovement. We aim to provide a variety of activitiesto reflect these preferences.6. People are different. Some people are moreout-going and naturally social, while others aremore introspective and reflective. The formerreadily enjoy interacting with others while thelatter often prefer to work on their own. The latterusually welcome time to think on their own, too,before being asked to participate in an activity. Asteachers, we need to try to accommodate thesedifferences and bring out the best in our students.3. What we learn with emotion, we tend to rememberbest. We hope to engage students’ emotionsthrough the u

Living off the grid? The cost of living Verb -ing form Reading: Living off the grid P Silent letters Talking about living off the grid and reducing living costs LESSON 2 Kept in small places Farming Present simple passive Past simple passive Reading: The Animal as an Object Talking about fa