Refresher and Plateau learners

Refresh Now – it’s different, it’s individual and it’s flexible. And it’s ideal for learners who’ve found themselves ‘stuck’ at a particular level – the so-called plateau learners. And Refresh Now is just the thing for students who want to reactivate their rusty English.

You already know that Refresh Now is flexible thanks to its Focus on pages – use it for one-semester, two-semester or intensive courses – and this flexibility is particularly attractive for students who just want a short course to revitalize their English.

Motivation is the key to learning. And here’s how Refresh Now will keep your refresher and plateau students motivated:

• Authentic material - whether for reading texts or speaking activities, students need meaningful tasks and wide-ranging, up-to-date material.
• Personalized activities – students want to talk about themselves and things that matter to them.
• Practical exercises – there’s plenty of opportunity for students to practise grammar and vocabulary in relevant exercises to consolidate learning.
• Communicative activities – real-life situations that students will need outside the classroom.
• Review of basics – learners get the chance to review all basic grammar in a learner-friendly way, including speaking and conversation.

The authentic material, the personalization, the Reminder grammar, the valuable Language to use boxes and Helpful phrases, the How to do it and the separate Words and phrases pages as well as the clear and simple structure of the Refresh Now coursebooks all help to motivate plateau students to step up a level. As teachers we need to find material that gives them the extra motivating push to carry on their learning – and you’ll find that Refresh Now does exactly that.

And it is great, too, for those students who want to refresh their learning: Refresh Now will help them to rediscover their English effectively, with fun and success.

So both the plateau and the refresher students will be highly motivated to go on learning and improving their English after Refresh Now.

Refresh Now A2 is already available (and don’t forget the Refresh Now A2 Teaching Notes are also available) and you can look forward to Refresh Now B1 which will be out in February 2016. - Refreshingly different, refreshingly individual and refreshingly flexible!

Let’s refresh British English and American English (Level A2 upwards, 10+ mins)

As it’s Thanksgiving very soon, let’s look at some of the different words used in the USA and the UK.

• On the board write these American English words: 1 elevator, 2 sidewalk, 3 cell phone, 4 vacation, 5 French fries, 6 apartment, 7 first floor, 8 purse, 9 rest room, 10 candy.
• Ask students for the equivalent British English words.
• Encourage students to check in their dictionaries if necessary.
• Check answers together in class and then ask students if they know any other British/American English words.

(Key: BE - 1 lift, 2 pavement, 3 mobile phone, 4 holiday, 5 chips, 6 flat, 7 ground floor, 8 handbag, 9 toilet, 10 sweets)