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We like to think it’s different – and better – in several important ways.

Firstly, we’ve tried hard to take the idea of the communicative goals / can-do statements talked about in the Common European Framework seriously, and so the opening double-page of every unit at every level is designed to teach students how to have a particular kind of conversation. These range from practical everyday things like explaining what’s wrong with you and asking for directions to more social things like explaining / asking about where people are from and what it’s like there and discussing stories in the news. At higher levels, it means things like explaining how work’s going or describing sporting success and failure. We try to show students how vocabulary and grammar can combine within these different types of conversation and provide listenings as a kind of model for them to base their own efforts on. The way we approach writing in the series is similar: start by thinking about what kinds of real-world writing we want the students to be able to do at each level, show them the language they’ll need to do this, and provide some kind of model.

Secondly, we provide a lot of support for both teachers and students. In terms of grammar, there are short explanations and some examples in the front of the book, where they are needed, but then much longer explanations, more examples and further exercises at the back of the book. With vocabulary, we have the innovative Vocabulary Builder, which slots into the back of the book. It’s like a dictionary, but organised double page by double page, so students can use it easily in class while doing each spread of the book. It’s quicker and easier to use and provides not only definitions, but also examples of the most common collocations. There are also revision and recycling exercises at the end of each unit of the Vocabulary Builder as well as in the workbook. In addition, we’ve followed the lists of the three thousand most commonly used words prepared by Cobuild and Macmillan quite keenly to ensure we cover as many of these items as possible. This means students get the chance to learn lots and lots of the most useful lexis in the language.

Next, we take the reality of English being used more and more by non-native speakers seriously. Whilst the pronunciation sections of the book are based on British English / RP, we felt it was important that receptively students get exposed to a wide range of different accents, so from Elementary up, they will hear competent foreign speakers of English with lots of different accents – Spanish, French, Russian, german, Arabic, and so on – as well as lots of different native speakers – London, Scotland, Wales, Yorkshire, New Zealand, Canada, east coast US, west coast US, etc. They also hear several conversations between non-natives exclusively.

Fourthly, we take the development of oral fluency particularly seriously. Our feeling is that the main – though obviously not exclusive – reason most General English students are studying is to speak and be able to listen to English. To do this, of course they need vocabulary, grammar, listening practice, pronunciation work and so on, but they also need to learn how to develop their conversational skills and strategies. We have sections throughout the series called DEVELOPING CONVERSATIONS, which look at everything from ways to introduce negative comments to agreeing using synonyms, responding to suggestions to expressing shock and surprise.

Finally, I think the series is very balanced. We try to cover all aspects of what the Common European Framework tells us are the three main areas of importance for language learning – the business of everyday life, communicating ideas and feelings and deepening understanding of culture. We try to ensure a balance between social, professional and academic contexts and language as well a balance between grammar and vocabulary, listening and reading, and so on.

I should finish by saying that I hope the fact Andrew Walkley (my co-author) and myself are both still teaching – as well as working with teachers a lot – helps us retain a feel for what students want and need as well as for what teachers expect and require from a coursebook.

G.E.L: What is the Lexical Approach? How is the Lexical Approach applied in the Outcomes series?

Hugh Dellar:

That’s a very difficult question and I suspect one that would be answered differently by different people. For me, it isn’t and never has been an approach to language teaching. Rather, it’s an approach to language and to the way you perceive language to work. The traditional Chomsky idea was that language was essentially built around grammar, with words slotting into the gaps. Corpora-based research and revolutionary work by writers such as Michael Hoey suggests this is wrong and that really language is more driven by vocabulary and that the grammar attaches itself to words, rather than vice versa. The Lexical Approach was influential in that it broadened our understanding of how language works and made us more aware of things like collocation, fixed expressions, proto-typicality and so on. It’s that shift in perception that I hope books like OUTCOMES reflect, although I hesitate to call ourselves ‘Lexical Approach’ writers or anything like that. Whilst our content may be slightly different to other courses, our methodology really isn’t. Methodologically speaking, we’re very much rooted in Communicative Language Teaching, and even show some influences of earlier methods through our judicious use of translation and so on.

I suppose the way the influence of the Lexical Approach manifests itself in OUTCOMES is through the way we approach vocabulary as more than simply single words. We avoid synonyms, as we don’t feel they really help students much when it comes to using new vocabulary, and they create a false belief that one word is interchangeable with another. Rather, we look at collocations, common usage, contextual definitions, and so on. We also focus a fair bit on chunks and expressions. I think as a result of this, we hope that the language we feature in the book has a ‘real’ feel to it and is perhaps more connected to the kind of language students will be exposed to outside of the classroom than some of what has traditionally made it into EFL coursebooks.

I think in a way the answer to this question depends on a student’s level, and in general I’d say the better students get, the more important vocabulary / lexis becomes. Obviously, grammar is important and students need to study and practise using all of the most common structures of the language, often repeatedly. However, for most students, what’s really hard about grammar is neither the form nor the meaning – it’s the range of different ways in which the grammar might be used in the real world. For instance, even a very low-level student can understand we use the present continuous to talk about actions that started in the past and haven’t finished yet and that the form is the verb to be + -ing. Knowing this won’t help them say – or even understand – sentences like these:

I could give millions more examples, obviously. What’s clear, though, is that it’s vocabulary that makes grammar difficult, in a sense!

I think the other thing to bear in mind is the fact that the main tenses we need – the present simple and continuous, the present perfect simple, the past simple and continuous, going to, will, etc. are all learned very early on – before Intermediate level – and that after that, sure students may need to be corrected when they make mistakes with these things, but they don’t really need to have them ‘presented’ to them again. What they DO need, if they are ever to get beyond the Intermediate plateau, is exposure to large amounts of useful lexis. It’s the ability to use sophisticated lexis, far more than the ability to use obscure or unusual grammatical structures, that is the mark of a really fluent user. Look, for example, at this brief extract from an interview with former head of the UN, Kofi Annan, as he departed from his post:

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