Tag Archives: books

Articles

Publishing a Status Report

 

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At the start of the century, we could only speculate about how technology would shape our lives in the coming years. Would people throw out their books in favor of digital content? We couldn’t really tell.

Today, things are becoming clearer. We know that people across all age groups are still reading print books, but they’re also incorporating technology into their lives in seamless ways. Not everything is done digitally, but everyone has their own way of improving their lives through tech.

Online content has helped satisfy our curiosity. We can now follow our passions with a plethora of platforms, including books but not limited to them. We have TV, social media, music platforms, online education, etc. To an extent, we’re witnessing a sort of democratization of content. It’s our interests, desires and goals that drive the content available in the 21st century, not just the whims of the creator. In many cases, products escape the full control of their creators, acquiring a life and following of their own. Even children are having an input in content creation. Parents are increasingly talking with their kids and including them in decision making when choosing what books to buy and shows to watch, so content providers have an incentive to respond to their demands.

Books themselves are witnessing some changes too. Graphic novels and comic books are as popular as ever, and many publishers are putting out illustrated adaptations of classics. Audio is also becoming popular. New formats like podcasts are gaining in popularity, and so are modern radio dramas and audiobooks.

In short, we’re living in an incredible time. Never before has there been such a wide choice of content and communication between content providers and consumers. Should this always be the case from now on, we’re sure that there are bright times ahead, too.

Source: “The Future of Publishing Is…”, Kristen McLean, London Show Daily, P.3

Adults, Articles

Copyright Under Attack

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With an increasing number of universities trying to go around copyright laws by copying textbooks, many in the publishing industry feel that their profits are under attack. William Bowes, the general counsel and company secretary at Cambridge University Press, is certain that the rights of publishers to charge for educational content are currently threatened by governments across the world. He believes that attempts by countries like the US, Canada and India to expand educational exemptions set a dangerous precedent for the future.

“I understand the emotional anger about locking up the information, but I don’t understand why, on a public policy and legal level, the content industry should be singled out in this way”, he claims in an interview with Publishing Perspective. Though there have been many legal cases brought by publishers and copyright collectives against universities that copy textbooks, governments appear inclined to protect Fair Use models rather than defend the rights of publishers to earn money from their content.

If this tendency continues, Bowes is pessimistic about the future. “If you’re an education and academic publisher and your only revenue comes from licensing and selling work in an education context, then you won’t be able to monetize your work at all”, he claims.

Yet he understands why the world has come to the current situation. Most governments see education as a vital tool for making sure that their citizens are successful in the future. Very often, copyright ends up getting in the way of the things schools and universities want to do, so governments agree to increase the size of the public domain so that such institutions get the content they want for free.

Naturally, Bowe’s view isn’t the only one out there. Some, like Emily Hudson, senior lecturer in law at Australia’s University of Queensland and lecturer at King’s College London, thinks that the opposite is true. “My perception,” she says, “is that for many years, there has been a strengthening of rights for authors and publishers. For instance, there have been statements from the European Court of Justice that exceptions should be interpreted strictly, as well as things like term extension and the expansion of rights to cover digital content and online use.”

And our video about how bad it is to steal:

Source: “Balancing Copyright and Access in Education”, Mark Piesing, Publishing Perspective, Spring 2017, p.24

#backtoschool, Books, Primary Learners

Grammar Goals – Go for Gold!

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Welcome to Grammar Goals

Grammar Goals is a new six-level grammar series for children aged 6-12 years. It presents and practises grammar in lively and meaningful age-appropriate contexts that reflect pupils’ real lives and interests. Linked to the Cambridge and Trinity external exam syllabuses, Grammar Goals offers regular exam-style practice tasks in the Pupil’s Books.

The visually appealing nature of the course ensures that grammar is presented in a child-friendly format that keeps pupils actively involved in learning the language form, function and meaning. The careful staging of the units provides three levels of challenge and success – bronze, silver and gold – helping students reflect on their progress and aim for higher goals.

Key features:

  • Clearly contextualised language makes grammar pratice meaningful.
  • Interactive grammar boxes break down form and clarify use.
  • Carefully graded activities build confidence and accuracy.
  • Cross-curricular topics link grammar to everyday life and teach pupils about the world around them.
  • Activities develop young learner competences, such as thinking and interpersonal skills.  –
  • A separate writing syllabus teaches key skills and strategies.
  • Exam-style activities practise task types from the Cambridge English: Young Learners English tests.
  • Step-by-step lesson notes with extra, mixed-ability and extension activities provide extra teacher support.

GRAMMAR GOALS

Authors:

Nicole Taylor and Michael Watts and Julie Tice and Dave Tucker and Angela Llanasand Libby Williams

Source :  www.macmillanyounglearners.com

Adults, Books

Speakout

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Speakout – The real world in your classroom!

The award-winning course that invites you and your students to discover English as it is really spoken. Speakout builds up all the skills and knowledge students need to express themselves confidently in a real English-speaking environment.
Lessons cover all four skill areas as well as grammar and vocabulary. Each unit ends with a DVD lesson based around an extract from a BBC programme which provides a springboard for meaningful speaking and writing tasks.

Models of authentic English are also provided through ‘on the street’ interviews filmed by the BBC. MyEnglishLab is a flexible online tool that enriches learning, informs teaching and enhances your Speakout course ,Enriched Learning MyEnglishLab has a wide range of activities that are instantly graded and correlated to your Speakout course,Informed Teaching MyEnglishLab for Speakout gives teachers instant access to a range of invaluable diagnostic tools ,Flexible Solutions You can assign tasks to the whole class, groups of students, or individual students to help them reach their goals more effectively.

ActiveBook is the Students’ book in digital format with integrated audio and video from the course and includes: Easy navigation of the Students’ Book pages with zoom facility ,Video and audio available at the touch of a button Video Podcasts with accompanying worksheets,BBC programme clips that can be played in a DVD player or computer.

Authors : Frances Eales, JJ Wilson, Antonia Clare, Steve Oakes.

Read More : http://product.pearsonelt.com/speakout1e/#speakout

Source : www.pearsonelt.com

Adults, Books

Open Mind

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Open Mind opens doors

Open Mind allows teachers and students to enjoy the best combination of digital and print material. This flexible new course combines language development with the crucial skills students need to be effective and adaptable for work and study.
Open Mind is a ground-breaking adult course that provides learners with the professional, academic and personal skills they need. Not only are language skills developed in the course, but also the important 21st-century skills that students need in order to have a better awareness of self and society, to handle the demands of their study and learning and to deal with challenges in their work and career.

The course offers a flexible combination of materials to ensure that students are learning from a variety of sources: content-rich reading texts, speaking and writing workshops, high-quality video, self-study Online Workbooks, and projectable Student’s Books. The series now comes with new Digital Student’s Books, optimised for tablets, for a smart and versatile learning environment.

Authors

Mickey Rogers and Joanne Taylore-Knowles and Steve Taylore-Knowles and Ingrid Wisniewska and Dorothy Zemach

Read More : www.macmillanopenmind.com/about

Source : www.macmillanenglish.com

Books, Writing

Umberto Eco in 9 Quotes: Remembering His Greater Truths

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Umberto Eco’s death at the age of eighty-four in 2016 also marked the passing of a philosopher, one who spent decades teaching and exploring the fields of semiotics and critical theory.

The Name of the Rose

by Umberto Eco

1. Travels in Hyperreality, 1973
“The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.”

2. The Name of the Rose, 1980
“Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn’t ask ourselves what it says but what it means.”

3. The Name of the Rose, 1980
“What is love? There is nothing in the world, neither man nor Devil nor any thing, that I hold as suspect as love, for it penetrates the soul more than any other thing. Nothing exists that so fills and binds the heart as love does. Therefore, unless you have those weapons that subdue it, the soul plunges through love into an immense abyss.”

4. Foucault’s Pendulum, 1988
“I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.”

5. The Island of the Day Before, 1994
“It is necessary to meditate early, and often, on the art of dying to succeed later in doing it properly just once.”

6. Baudolino, 2000
“Yes, I know, it’s not the truth, but in a great history little truths can be altered so that the greater truth emerges.”

7. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, 2004
“Nothing can shake my belief that this world is the fruit of a dark god whose shadow I extend.”

8. The Prague Cemetery, 2010
“You don’t love someone for your whole life – that impossible hope is the source of adultery, matricide, betrayal of friends … But you can hate someone for your whole life – provided he’s always there to keep your hatred alive. Hatred warms the heart.”

9. Numero Zero, 2015
“Losers, like autodidacts, always know much more than winners. If you want to win, you need to know just one thing and not to waste your time on anything else: the pleasures of erudition are reserved for losers. The more a person knows, the more things have gone wrong.”

Source : www.penguinrandomhouse.com

 

Books, Secondary Learners

Gold Experience

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Gold Experience

The most engaging experience in teaching exams to teens.

Experience – Engage – Excel!
Gold Experience is a fast-paced course that engages and motivates teenagers with
its wide variety of contempoparty topics. Contexts such as the Internet, social media and television are relevant to students’ lives and content-rich

CLIL topics from which your students will learn about the world. Gold Experience is a perfect preparation course for revised 2015 Cambridge for Schools exams.
  • Motivating, age-appropriate topics
  • Attractive layout with useful boxes focusing on key language and grammar
  • Fast-paced, engaging lessons
  • Interesting CLIL subjects
  • Switch on sections with 2 types of topic-based video clips – authentic documentaries and podcasts filmed by teens
  • Useful exam tips on all the skills required for Cambridge exams
  • Speak up, Listen Up, Write On sections that teach new language in a personalised context
    An amazing digital learning experience for teens learning English:
    • DVD with authentic TV clips and cool Video Podcasts made by teens – all
    based on lesson topics, will take learning English and exams preparation to the
    next level.
    • MyEnglishLab for Gold Experience is an extra online component, which provides
    grammar, vocabulary, skills practice, tests, video and audio support all linked to
    the coursebook. The perfect way for students to practise when and where they
    want and instantly get their grades and feedback.
    Written specifi cally for Cambridge for Schools, Gold Experience ensures
    students get all the support they need to excel in their exams.

Authors: Rose Aravanis, Carolyn Barraclough, Kathryn Alevizos, Suzanne Gaynor, Lynda Edwards, Mary Stephens

Source : www.pearsonelt.com
Books, Secondary Learners

BEYOND

 

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Learn Beyond. Teach Beyond. Go Beyond.

Beyond is a new and exciting 6-level course for teenagers learning English. The course covers CEFR levels A1+ through to B2, with all levels being based on mapping of the requirements of the CEFR and international exams.

Beyond comprehensively addresses all key language skills through a thorough and detailed sub-skills syllabus supported by How to … tips.

Beyond also has a detailed and verified life skills syllabus specially designed to support students with the life skills they require, both during their education and in their life beyond.

For more information click here to visit the Beyond website and read our latest case study.

Take a tour of Beyond

Authors

Rob Metcalf and Rebecca Robb Benne and Robert Campbell

Source : www.macmillanenglish.com

Primary Learners

Macmillan English

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Six-level course combining L1 and L2 language learning methodology

Macmillan English is the first International English coursebook to be informed by English lessons in native-speaker classrooms. It is designed for second-language learners of English but uses many of the approaches to reading, writing and speaking that underpin the teaching of English to first-language children.

Designed for students who have a high number of contact hours in English, this six-level course recognizes that proficiency in English is an essential part of modern life, and that early exposure to rich and genuine language allows young learners to move confidently towards native-speaker fluency in both oral and written English.

In the early levels, the course does not assume a first-language child’s experience of spoken English or culture. Language structures are introduced and practised to give a firm grounding in grammar, but from the start, the exposure to new language is more extensive than in traditional second-language courses.

As children move up through the course, they experience more first-language teaching methods. At the upper levels children cover the same aspects of English as do first-language learners, though the needs of second-language learners are always taken into account.

Each level of Macmillan English is delivered through eighteen units. Each unit has six lessons requiring a minimum of seven teaching sessions.

Components 

For parents

  • Resource page with wordlists and ideas for learning at home

MACMILLAN ENGLISH

Authors

Mary Bowen and Printha Ellis and Louis Fidge and Liz Hocking and Wendy Wren

Source : http://www.macmillanenglish.com/courses/macmillan-english/

Books, Professionals, Students, Teachers, Training & Conferences

5 Benefits of Reading Books

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When was the last time you read a book, or a magazine article? Do your daily reading habits center around tweets or  Facebook updates? If you’re one of countless people who don’t make a habit of reading regularly, you might be missing out: reading has a significant number of benefits, and just a few benefits of reading are listed below.

  • Stress Reduction- No matter how much stress you have at work, in your personal relationships, or countless other issues faced in daily life, it all just slips away when you lose yourself in a great story. A well-written novel can transport you to other realms, while an engaging article will distract you and keep you in the present moment.
  • Knowledge- Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information, and you never know when it might come in handy. The more knowledge you have, the better-equipped you are to tackle any challenge you’ll ever face. Remember that although you might lose everything else—your job, your possessions, your money, even your health—knowledge can never be taken from you.
  • Vocabulary Expansion– The more you read, the more words you gain exposure to, and they’ll inevitably make their way into your everyday vocabulary. Being articulate and well-spoken is of great help in any profession, and knowing that you can speak to higher-ups with self-confidence can be an enormous boost to your self-esteem. It could even aid in your career, as those who are well-read, well-spoken, and knowledgeable on a variety of topics tend to get promotions more quickly.
  • Tranquility– In addition to the relaxation that accompanies reading a good book, it’s possible that the subject you read about can bring about inner peace and tranquility. Reading spiritual texts can lower blood pressure and bring about an immense sense of calm, while reading self-help books  has been shown to help people suffering from certain mood disorders and mild mental illnesses.
  • Improved Focus and Concentration- In our internet-crazed world, attention is drawn in a million different directions at once as we multi-task through every day. In a single 5-minute span, the average person will divide their time between working on a task, checking email, chatting with a couple of people (via gchat, skype, etc.), keeping an eye on twitter, monitoring their smartphone, and interacting with co-workers. When you read a book, all of your attention is focused on the story—the rest of the world just falls away, and you can immerse yourself in every fine detail you’re absorbing. Try reading for 15-20 minutes before work (i.e. on your morning commute, if you take public transit), and you’ll be surprised at how much more focused you are once you get to the office.

Source: [button color=”grey” size=”medium” link=”http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-benefits-reading-why-you-should-read-everyday.html” ]Source[/button]