Universidade Federal de Minas GeraisFaculdade de Letras

Course: Communicative ApproachProfessor: Deise Prima Dutra

Students: Aline Luiza and Relva Caroline

Textbook analysis

Title:American Inside Out

Authors: Sue Kay and

Vaughan Jones

Level: Intermediate

Unit: one

UNIT 1: Friends

• In this unit, as a whole, the four skills are involved: listening, writing, reading and speaking. The unit also integrated well the four skills.

• The genres that the students are exposed to are : interview (page 5), article (page 9) comics (page 10), biography (page 11), lyrics (page 12), e-mail and letter (page 13).

• In general, the activities in this unit are Task-based since there is more attention to meaning than to form and also there is a purpose in using the language. For instance, in page 5 activity 2, the students are supposed to interview someone who they do not know. While doing this task they need to used the target language in order to know better this person. This kind of activity we would use in real life.

• In the next analysis the focus will be on the reading comprehension and writing activities. (pages 9, 10 and 13, respectively.)

Reading comprehension activities(page 9 and 10)

• In this activity the students should use the both process (bottom-up and top-down), since they work simultaneously. In the process bottom-up the students should use their linguistic knowledge such as vocabulary. There are many words which is known by the students considering that this book is addressed to intermediate level. The students also should use the top-down process, that is, when use the background knowledge to try to infer what the text talk about. For instance, supposing that the students knows the word “Virgo” (line 22), but do not know what mean the word “neat” (line 22). They can use the bottom-up process to notice that this word (neat) is working as an adjective. Then, using the top-down (background knowledge) process, the students should make hypothesis about features that a person who have this sign have.

• The students should use scanning strategy since in the exercises 1and 2 (page 9) and 1 and 2 (page 10) they have to read the text in order to find out specific information.

• According to PAIVA (2005) there are some reading activities that can make class more interesting. We can see this kind of activity in the exercise 2 (page 9) which students should put the events in order.

• The material used in this activity is authentic and allows students to be in touch with real situation, bringing more meaning to what they are supposed to do.

• The purpose of this activity is try to identify the meaning of the expressions (ex: “We hit off right way”) by the context.

Writing activities (page 13)• The activities 2 and 5 have a clear purpose: the first students are supposed to write emails

about themselves; the second the students are supposed to white a letter to a pen-pal.

• The activities 1 and 2 works as a kind of warm-up, to make the students get in the mood of the text´s topic. They also help the students with the vocabulary and structures (informal or formal)

•  This activity integrated the speaking, reading and writing skills. The students are supposed to discuss in the activity 1, since there are two questions. Then , they have to read the e-mails , which is an example to do next step. Finally, the next step is writing an e-mail, based on what they already discussed and read.

• Authentic material is used and learning from real life texts can bring more meaning to what students do, motivating them.

•  The activities are task-based, because they can easily happen in real life (is completely normal writing an e-mail about yourself).

•   The activities treats writing as a process, since the students have in mind the reader and a clear purpose to write. There are also a previews discussion .However, the activities do not stimulate revising and re-writing.

•  The book proposes correction, asking the students read a letter in number 4 and correct spelling and capital letters.