Contents 

1. Introduction 

2. Organisation of the coursebook

i) Grammar 

ii) Communication 

iii) Reading 

iv) Topics 

3. Conclusion 

4.References 


1.Introduction

The present analysis has two distinct aims. The first of these is to produce a principled evaluation of the effectiveness of Blueprint Intermediate in achieving its stated objectives. As the learners with whom we use the course, and the situation in which we use it, fall within the range for which its authors intend it, we do not propose an analysis of the characteristics of the learners or of the setting (McDonough & Shaw 1993 : 7-10). These restrictions allow a more detailed examination of the materials themselves, and their suitability for the learning purpose for which they were designed. For the same reason we have excluded from our examination certain superficial aspects of the materials, such as layout and graphics (Sheldon 1988 : 243-244).

Finally, it should be noted that, although the course consists of several components, we shall be concentrating on the student's book in an attempt to achieve a depth of analysis that greater breadth would not permit.

The second aim is to analyse in particular the changes made in the 1995 edition of the book in comparison with the 1989 edition. Swales (1980 : 13) notes that 'In a situation where "latest is best" it is likely to be in the publisher's or writer's better interests to provide a brand-new product rather than attempt a major revision, however well informed by classroom experience, of an existing course.' Blueprint certainly has undergone a major revision, with many radical changes throughout the book. The question we set out to examine, after six years of using the original version, is whether the changes correspond to the lessons we have gained from that experience.

2. Organisation of the coursebook

Blueprint Intermediate Student's Book is composed of fifty lessons in five blocks of ten. Each block of ten lessons contains Grammar, Communication, Reading and Topic lessons, and is followed by revision and fluency work. Each of the lesson types will be examined in the respective section of the present analysis. The short lessons, which in our situation correspond to a teaching period of ninety minutes, help to give learners a clear linguistic focus while reinforcing the sense that they are making progress. The alternation of the various types of lesson also stimulates students' motivation by adding to the variety. As Sinclair & Ellis (1992 : 218) note, learners are exposed to different approaches to language learning, and different types of activities, and in this way a wide variety of learning preferences is accommodated. 

Variety is thus not just a matter of motivating content, but also allows us greater flexibility in the methodological choices regarding the exploitation of the materials. Allwright (1987 : 9) comments that, in considering what learning processes should be fostered we might ask '"What activities, or what learning tasks, will best activate the chosen processes, for what elements of content?" A less deterministic version of this question might be "What activities or learning tasks will offer a wide choice of learning processes to the learner, in relation to a wide variety of content options?"' While Blueprint does not offer the learner substantial choices in terms of selecting alternative activities, or selecting routes through the material, it is to its credit that the variety of approaches in the various unit types allows us scope to vary our methodological implementation accordingly.

The publisher's slogan for Blueprint is 'For accuracy, fluency and learner independence', which makes for an interesting juxtaposition in the light of Brumfit's (1984 : 52) contention that 'The distinction between accuracy and fluency is essentially a methodological distinction, rather than one in psychology or linguistics'. Blueprint thus stands for the principle that learner independence, like accuracy and fluency, depends on a variety of activity types that will combine skill getting with skill using. In analysing the specific lesson types we see this concern expressed through the linking of activities within each lesson to achieve an appropriate balance between each macroskill, and to facilitate integration of the skills (cf. Hutchinson & Waters 1987: 100).

As the Teacher's Book (p.4) points out with reference to the particular needs of the Intermediate student, 'The course must be seen  to offer a definite sense of progression, not only in terms of new structures and functions, but also in the equally important areas of vocabulary and skills development'. Learner independence is thus promoted through the development of linguistic skills as  well as study skills, and the relationship between skill getting and skill using is illuminated by the statement (ibid.) that 'the outcome of learning should be communicative'. There is an implicit recognition here that competence is a prerequisite for performance, that in order to communicate we must first acquire the resources with which to do so.

Each block of ten lessons is unified by a character around whom the lessons are based. In the original edition each set of ten lessons was preceded by an introductory page consisting of photographs of the character in various situations, and questions designed to foster students' interest in the character and promote top-down processing of subsequent activities through stimulating prediction. One of the regrettable changes in the new edition is that these pages have been removed. The choice of characters offers an interesting variety, although they are all rather older than our students, who, at fourteen or fifteen, are 
at the bottom of the age range for which the book is intended. 

Looking at the overall composition of the book apart from the actual lessons, we note several changes. While the table of contents covers four pages instead of five, the new layout is much clearer, with each of the four macroskills given a separate column, and it is much more likely that students would use it. A major innovation in the new book is the 'rapid review', eight pages of exercises intended to revise the grammar which students beginning the course should already know. While this may be useful, it is not an inspiring way to begin a new course, and it might have been better to leave it to the discretion of the teacher to provide such material in situations where it was considered necessary.

This addition to the book must also be seen in terms of its cost, as the publishers seem to have been determined to keep the overall length of the book the same, at 128 pages. Thus the inclusion of the rapid review has necessitated the removal of several other items. One of the main positive points which Sheldon (1992 : 214) commended for the promotion of learner independence was the provision of reference materials. The old edition, in addition to the vocabulary list, which has been retained, included a grammar index and a communication index, which have been sacrificed. The other item which has been suppressed is the self-check key.

Given the emphasis on learner independence, it is ironic that the 'self-check' sections after each block of ten lessons have had the  'self' removed. The new edition of the Teacher's Book (p.37) suggests that teachers may photocopy the key to enable students to correct each other's work, but if they meant that seriously they might at least have laid out the key on a single page. This change of policy constitutes a step back from the avowed aim of learner independence, but it can only be assumed that it was the result of feedback from teachers unhappy with being deprived of the source of their power. The actual exercises are unchanged except for a few minor additions. On balance, then, the changes to the overall layout are more negative than positive, but we will continue now  by looking at each of the lesson types in turn, analysing the salient features of the materials with particular regard to the changes in the new edition.

i) Grammar

In each block of ten lessons, four concentrate on grammar, the first and third introducing or revising major grammatical structures, while the second and fourth introduce more minor points. This twofold approach is particularly well suited to the learners this course is designed for, allowing a sufficiently steep grading of structural items to ensure that real progress is made, while providing opportunities to focus on details which might otherwise be passed over.

The grammar lessons are unashamedly structural in their orientation : a typical unit heading might be 'Unit 36 Grammar : past modal verbs - should have / ought to have'. This lesson is also typical in presenting the grammar point through a very short dialogue from which the meaning of the structures can be deduced. This is followed by a 'focus' box explaining the use of the structures and then practice exercises, written and oral, concerning situations contrived by the authors without giving the students much scope for personal involvement.

A more stimulating, and more integrated, approach is that of 'Unit 4 Grammar : "not allowed to" and "not supposed to". The first activity is comment on a photograph which sets the scene for a listening dialogue, the text of which is also printed in the book. At this stage there is no focus on the grammar points, but it is intended that the target structures will arise naturally in the students' responses to the comprehension questions. As with all the dialogues, there is a paused version for the students to repeat, and at this stage the target structures are illustrated in a 'focus' box. After a simple explanation of when each of the structures is used, students are directed to look back to the reading text in unit one to find examples of them. While this task has no communicative outcome, it is an effective way of ensuring a sense of unity between lessons, and promoting revision without repetition. The subsequent practice exercises are not very imaginative, leaving little room for the students' cognitive or affective involvement.

The final activity of unit 4 is a listening activity where students are asked to note down where the announcement is taking place and what two things are not allowed. The kinds of listening comprehension activity throughout the book are varied so as to promote rather than just check understanding. As Brown & Yule (1983 : 57) point out, 'The aim of a listening comprehension exercise should be to arrive successfully at a reasonable interpretation, and not process every word, and not try to work out all that is involved in the literal meaning of the utterance, since that is, in principle, an impossible task.' So in this exercise students are required to extract the essential information, and the emphasis is on the illocutionary force rather than the form of words. Unfortunately, students are given no opportunity to activate any schema to aid top-down processing through the establishment of a context. As Richards (1990 : 59) comments, 'The kinds of exercises and listening activities used in teaching listening comprehension should reflect the different processes and purposes involved in the listening : bottom-up, top-down, interactional and transactional.' But even if our aim is to develop bottom-up comprehension, it is difficult to imagine an authentic purpose in listening to a completely decontextualised announcement.

Most of the grammar lessons include listening activities, and most of them are more successful than the above example. The task in unit 9 also aims to reinforce the structures being presented, but is incorporated into a series of activities. Before the listening we have a discussion topic that students are likely to have knowledge of and be interested in, and which is therefore likely to develop into a real conversation rather than a cursory 'pre-listening activity'. Then, the listening activity itself has a genuine communicative outcome because not only does it provide an interesting contribution to the discussion but it also leads into the writing activity.

As we have chosen examples from the grammar lessons on which to base our discussion of listening, it seems appropriate here to examine also the speaking activities in these lessons. In most grammar lessons, the first practice activity is written and the second one oral. At its worst, this may be a discrete sentence grammar exercise as in unit 19, and while there are many instances of more imaginative activities, attempting a communicative activity within the framework of a grammar lesson leads to instructions such as : 'Tell your partner about changes in your life concerning daily routine, family occasions, education and work using "used to"'. 

Such an activity would seem to be based on a view similar to that expressed by Widdowson (1990 : 164) : 'To try to replicate the conditions of natural communicative use of language in classrooms is mistaken for two basic reasons. First, to do so is to deny the whole purpose of pedagogy, which is to contrive economical and more effective means for language learning than is  provided by natural exposure and experience. Second, natural language use typically deflects attention from language itself and presupposes a knowledge of the language system as a basic resource which learners have, by definition, not yet acquired.'

So while we would prefer more communicative tasks, the fact remains that a focus on form is sometimes necessary, and it is natural that even oral activities within a grammar lesson should be concerned with usage as well as use. Support for a compromise can be found in Candlin & Breen's (1979 : 183) point that 'Materials can be seen as the means to the target rather than necessarily embodying the target itself. Perhaps materials should serve the process of teaching and learning rather than the 
product of teaching and learning?' 

It must be assumed that the authors are satisfied with their grammar lessons, since, although they number twenty out of the total of fifty units in the book, only one has been changed, unit 26, with the addition of two extra exercises which extend the range of tenses covered in the passive voice. So if the grammar units are models of usage, it is to the communication units that we must turn to find language in use.

ii) Communication


The third and eighth lessons in each block are labelled 'communication' and are designed to provide practice in social and communicative functions. Together with these, we shall examine the 'fluency' units which come at the end of each block. Having examined in the previous section the grammar units concentrating on 'should have / ought to have' and '"not allowed to" and "not supposed to"', we may conveniently point out the difference in approach in the communication lessons by examining Unit 28 Communication : Obligation and prohibition.

The lesson begins with a short dialogue presenting various exponents of the function 'obligation', followed by a 'focus' box which shows four exponents for obligation and three for prohibition. The examples are essentially similar in both editions, although the picture of a church wedding was presumably considered too outdated. Students then comment, using whatever structures they choose, on the related topics of customs, etiquette and manners. The 'About Britain' passage extends the theme, while providing insight into the target speech community.  Finally, the talking point gives students the chance to express their own ideas, and prepares for the writing activity where the target linguistic items are once again expected to arise.

Blueprint generally avoids the monotony of repeating the same exercise types in one lesson after another, but there is a standard format to which most of the communication units adhere. The lessons begin with a picture to set the scene, followed by a dialogue with comprehension questions to check understanding of -10- he communicative focus. This contrasts with the approach in the grammar units, which systematically avoid constructing dialogues in order not to create misleading impression of discourse. Although the dialogues are scripted, in contrast to the listening comprehension activities, they nonetheless preserve features of genuine conversation (cf. McCarthy & Carter 1994 : 194-198). This is exemplified by Unit 43 Communication : Closing Strategies. While the dialogues and accompanying pictures have been changed in the new edition, presumably to be closer to its target age group, the exercise examining the pre-closing and closing is the same. The listening activity has been improved, so that instead of replicating the focus of the introductory exercise it adds a new perspective. Students match the conversations they hear to the corresponding pictures, thus developing their awareness of linguistic variation between different situations according to factors such as the status and role of the participants. A note in the Teacher's Book points out the link between the writing activity and a similar activity in unit 22, providing an opportunity for revision of informal letter writing and applying the new language to that. 

Also noteworthy for its treatment of conversation is Unit 23 Communication : Making Complaints. The new picture makes it clearer that the woman is complaining, and the 'Before you read' section has been extended to allow for students' own experience of making complaints, enhancing their involvement in the topic. The dialogues have also been extended and so there are questions not only on what the customers ask the waiter to do, but also the waiter's excuse and how the restaurant offers to make amends. 

Furthermore, the Teacher's Book advises teachers to point out hat each complaint begins with an apology and to draw attention to the rising intonation at the end of each request, thus anticipating the potential problems of cross-cultural pragmatic failure.

Lesson 48 Communication : Expressing regrets is not so successful. The changes that have been made in the new edition are superficial, whereas the opportunity has not been taken to improve the practice exercises. The first exercise is completely unrealistic, and the Teacher's Book prompts : 'Explain that in reality it is unnecessary to add the "but..." part of the sentence. Students do so here so that they understand when a wish refers to the present or the past.' This is a clumsy compromise which could have been avoided by a more communicative approach to the task, and is unworthy of the highly satisfactory standard of most of the communication lessons.


The Fluency sections in the old edition provided an important opportunity for learners to use and consolidate the language from the previous ten lessons. Most of the activities within each Fluency section were linked, providing integrated skills practice, and the Teacher's Book gave references showing which lessons in the foregoing block of ten each activity related o, with each activity typically combining linguistic elements from two or three separate lessons. Although the tasks were pre-communicative rather than genuinely communicative, the old version was in many respects preferable. Willis & Willis (forthcoming : 3) note that 'The important thing is, that while doing the tasks, learners are meaning what they say, and focusing on meaning. They are using language to exchange meanings for a real purpose. They are free to use whatever language forms they want.' However, in the information gap activities in the new edition, students are no more meaning what they say than they were in the role plays in the old one. To take the first Use your English section for example, although the first two tasks aim to be communicative, with each student's information printed on a different page, the third has students writing sentences individually, and the fourth obliges them to use a specific target structure. 


The difference in approach between the two editions is best exemplified by a comparison of the old 'Fluency 2' with the new 'Use your English 11-20'. The initial activity is retained, but whereas in the old edition it is used as the basis for a whole series of related activities, in the new edition it is used as material for an exercise on practising conditional structure. The other integrated skills activities, designed to use the language and skills acquired through the previous ten lessons are sacrificed to make space for an information gap activity. Where attempts have been made to improve these sections, the results are less good than the original activities, and in particular where new activity types have been introduced their design is sadly unimaginative, leading us to concur with McCarthy & Carter (1994 : 183): 'Therefore, if "gaps" or "problems" are the core feature of tasks which motivate their completion, then we need to build in much more than just information or "opinion" gaps... gaps in rapport, problems of sensitivity, convergence towards acquaintance or friendship, gaps in self-image, problems of face, all of these will assume as much importance as gaps in places on a map, or gaps in agreeing where to spend a Saturday night, the stock-in-trade of many present classroom tasks.' The introduction of this new type of activity is in principle a positive innovation but its treatment in Blueprint is so unimaginative that we prefer the original activities.

iii) Reading

While there are reading texts in units of all types, the units which focus specifically on developing reading skills are the fifth and the tenth in each block. These typically begin with a pre-reading activity based on pictures and students' background knowledge. Legutke & Thomas (1991 : 16) note that 'The comprehension of texts, and in particular the interpretation of literary texts is a complex process of negotiating and creating meaning, which, under classroom conditions, depends on a collective effort to relate the (aesthetically) encoded reactions of the writer / author / poet to the world around him to the world view, experience and knowledge of the reader.' This negotiation and creation of meaning can certainly be supported through the exploitation of the 'Before you read' exercises that accompany all the reading texts, although these are almost invariably printed after the text.

There is a wide variety of text types, and the bias towards literary texts has been reduced in the new edition, but there is little variety in terms of length. Most importantly, the texts and exercises are designed to develop reading skills rather than simply to introduce vocabulary or grammar. The Teacher's Book (old edition, Unit 20) specifically notes that 'The purpose of this reading text is to introduce students to a short piece of imaginative writing and to show that an understanding of language goes beyond grammar and vocabulary. The exercises attempt to give the students an appreciation of style and develop a feel for the language.' Although this particular unit has been replaced, these aims are pursued in particular with reference to the literary texts, as in Unit 10, where exercises designed to elicit personal responses are intermingled with exercises on elements of style, thus helping students to develop a more subtle appreciation of the text.

Cooper (1984 : 125) notes that 'They should follow a variety of learning procedures which would be intrinsically interesting and of relevance to all their studies and not simply to the English lesson. In particular, as well as building their vocabulary, they should learn to use texts to hypothesize, predict and infer meaning.' These skills are developed in Blueprint in a variety of ways. In unit 15 of the new edition, all the questions in the first comprehension exercise are about the reasons for the attitudes and actions expressed in the text, while in unit 35 students are asked 'Which of the following sentences best sums up the point of the article ?' 

In this way, students are also involved in what Nuttal (1982 : 32) calls 'the process of interpreting the text as a whole using clues including cohesion and rhetorical structure'. We have often noticed with students at this level that they still have a tendency to respond to text at the sentence level, and Blueprint devises various exercise types to overcome this practice, such as constructing a dialogue using information from the text (old unit 15) or retelling the story (new unit 15).

Widdowson (1978 : 72) points out that 'The recognition that interpreting is both an assimilating and a discriminating process, that propositions vary in prominence and function as the reader proceeds, is of direct relevance to the pedagogic practice of asking so called "comprehension questions"'. What Widdowson (op. cit. : 100 ) calls 'use inference' questions play a particularly important role at this level in leading students to an understanding of text, and the reading comprehension exercises in Blueprint score highly in this respect.

Apart from the content of the comprehension questions, it is important to note also the form that they take. Widdowson (op. cit.: 95-98) argues that truth assessment questions are the type with the greatest psychological reality, but they have the disadvantage of formulating the response on behalf of the student, whereas Blueprint, with its preference for wh- questions ensures the students' cognitive engagement. It should also be noted that Blueprint uses a variety of other means of checking comprehension such as matching texts with photographs (old unit 15),reordering paragraphs (old and new unit 25), and summarising the texts (new unit 25). In sum, the choice and variety of the texts is commendable, and their exploitation is effective in developing and not just checking understanding.

iv) Topics


While the first half of each block of ten lessons is given unity by its focus on the character presented at the beginning, the seventh unit in each block introduces a topic to link the second half. The first criterion by which we must judge the topics is whether they are in fact topical, and interesting enough to motivate the learners. The themes are generally well suited to the age, level and maturity of the students that we use the course with. While the treatment of the topics could sometimes be more imaginative, the kind of improvement that we would suggest is exemplified by the changes made in unit 17. Although the topic, sport, is broadly the same, the new text is much more sharply focused. Not only is the old text lacking in clarity, but where it does refer to specific events, these were in 1980 and 1984, and so were already dated when the original edition was first published, while the new text is based around events in 1994.

The 'Before you read' section in the new edition is more personalised and the last question prepares not only for the theme but also for the emphasis in the text. The 'Read and answer' section offers greater support by giving students a chart to complete, while the 'Read and think' section, which in the old edition was aimed at using the text as a basis for discussion, in the new edition encourages students to think about the text itself. Overall, in contrast to our remarks on the changes to the 'Fluency' sections, the changes to the topic lessons ensure that they achieve their aim of being topical and motivating.

3.Conclusion


Blueprint Intermediate succeeds in providing our adolescent students with materials that integrate different kinds of linguistic focus. This integration ensures that we overcome the dichotomy of grammar lessons promoting accuracy while communication lessons promote fluency, and allows a more sensitive approach to combining skill getting with skill using. Despite the defects that we have noted, the materials are generally highly effective in motivating learners to develop heir linguistic competence, and make an important contribution to the development of their independence and responsibility for learning. In our experience of using the course, the cognitive demands it makes are challenging but not overwhelming, and the topics are appropriate to the developing maturity of our students. Finally, it enables learners to consolidate and refine their language skills, providing the basis from which to begin preparation for the Cambridge First Certificate.

We have not yet had the opportunity of working with the new edition, but we are confident that it does represent an improvement. The sharpening of the topics and reading texts and the addition of new activity types are more important than some of the negative changes, such as those made to the 'Fluency' sections. There is an increasing trend for publishers to tout new editions of ageing best-sellers in an attempt to extend their lifespan, and often the novelty is purely cosmetic. In Blueprint Intermediate the authors have achieved a principled renewal of their product which makes us confident of its continued success.

References 


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Allwright, R. L. (1987). "What Do We Want Teaching Materials For?" ELT Journal 36/1 October 1987

Brown, G, & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching The Spoken Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brumfit, C. J. (1984). Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Candlin, C. N. & Breen, M. P. (1979) "Evaluating and Designing Language Teaching Materials." Lancaster Practical Papers in E. L. Education 2: 172-216.

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Hutchinson, T.& Waters, A. (1987).English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Legutke, M. & Thomas, H. (1991).Process and Experience in the Language Classroom. Harlow: Longman. 

McMarthy, M & Carter, R.(1994).Language as Discourse. Harlow: Longman.

McDonough, J.& Shaw, C. (1993). Materials and Methods in ELT. Oxford: Blackwell.

Nuttal, C. (1982). Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. London: Heinemann. 

Richards, J. C. (1990). The Language Teaching Matrix. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sheldon,  L. E. (1988). "Evaluating ELT Textbooks and Materials." ELT Journal 42/4 October 1988.

Sinclair, B.& Ellis, G.(1992). "Survey : Learner Training in EFL Course Books." ELT Journal 46/2 April 1992.

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Willis, J.& Willis D. (Eds.) (Forthcoming). Language Teaching Alternatives : Papers on Methodological Innovation in ELT. 
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