The Tower Talk series is the main combined text and workbook for children and teenagers taking weekly lessons at Tower English school in Abiko, Japan. This book is intended for non-native leaners of English, typically in their second year of junior high school. But I designed the book to be of equal use to the child studying English at home with the help of a parent English speaker.Tower Talk Junior High 2 provides 45 clearly structured lessons that children take throughout one year of study.. Each lesson is presented over a double-page spread that is designed to be the main element of a 45-minute class or home-study lesson. The textbook examples of target language are on the left of every lesson, with the workbook exercises for students to complete typically on the right.The lessons in this book are organised into groups of two following a topic, such as travel, school or entertainment. The first of each lesson is a sample speech with options for students to change to make their own speech on the topic. The second lesson of each topic is designed to focus on grammar or vocabulary with a chance to use new forms through prompts to write and speak.Each lesson is designed to build on students' existing knowledge and expose them to new language structures that they can make their own with practice. But at the same time, students are following a syllabus that will give them a thorough foundation in English, covering every major grammar form they will encounter in their second year of junior high school. The Tower Talk syllabus complements the Oxford University Press Let's Go series (popular with private schools) and the New Horizons series that 40% of all junior high school students in Japan use to learn English, but with some major differences: A clearer focus on what the student can learn lesson by lesson, which helps the teacher and parent alike know what the student is doing in the classroom.Four "Homestay" lessons are spread through the book to offer review practice for students with the theme of useful communicative language for their likely first experiences of speaking English outside of the classroom.Even while learning grammar and doing reading exercises, the focus is on building up a store of useful English expressions that students can use in realistic situations to communicate through building their active skills of speaking and writing. I hope your budding English-speaker enjoys using this book as much as I had creating it. Feel free to contact me at www.towerenglish.wordpress.com if you have any questions, comments or suggestions to make about the book.Highlights:1. 45 clearly structured lessons that children take throughout one year of weekly lessons.2. Each lesson is presented over a double page spread that is designed to be the main element of a 45-minute class or home-study session.3. The textbook examples of target language are on the left of every lesson, with the workbook exercises on the right.4. The lessons are organised into groups of two following a single topic.5. The first of each topic is designed as a lesson for the student to write and deliver their own speech.6. The second lesson focuses on grammar or vocabulary with a chance to use new language through prompts to write and speak.
About the Author: Patrick Sherriff runs Tower English language school which he founded with his wife in Abiko, Japan, in 2007. Patrick, a former newspaper journalist, has a CELTA from International House London, and has been teaching children as young as one year old with his wife since she set up a playgroup to teach neighbourhood kids a little English. They have now taught close to 1,000 Japanese children of all ages. This is his 11th textbook. He is working on more in this series, one for every year group from age three to 16.