Past Simple is a fascinating introduction to British history and culture, designed to improve the language skills of adult learners of English but suitable also for use in sixth-forms and FE colleges in Britain. The authors, both practising teachers, succeed in delivering a wealth of historical facts and improving students’ language and critical thinking skills all in an engaging, entertaining and often humorous way.
Past Simple comprises 22 chapters, 12 on key episodes or periods of British history (such as the First World War), 10 on significant themes (imperialism, the growth of democracy, etc.) that run through the story of these islands.Each chapter is based around a central reading text, followed by comprehension and critical thinking exercises, additional primary source material and a focus on relevant language points. There is a clear emphasis on skills development and follow-up extension tasks to encourage Internet and library research.
This book is based on the idea that learning about a country's history is a wonderful way to learn its language. English was born in Britain, and has both shaped and reflected British history over many centuries. History and language are intimately bound together. You cannot truly understand one without knowing something about the other. History is traditionally narrated in the past simple tense of our title, but its richness and variety mean that all sorts
of other language and structures are used, too: idioms and conditionals, for example, as well as the full range of perfect and continuous tenses. All of these (and more) appear and are explored in the book. Past Simple consists of 22 chapters on selected aspects of British history, 12 of them on key episodes or periods such as the Elizabethan Age or First World War, the other 10 on some of the big themes (imperialism, the growth of democracy) that run through the story of these islands. Each chapter is based around a central reading text, which is followed by comprehension and critical thinking exercises, additional primary source material and a focus on relevant language points. Plenty of opportunity is also given for skills work - speaking and writing as well as reading - and there are follow-up research tasks to be done on the Internet and in libraries. Within this regular structure, the texts themselves are presented in different ways - as conventional factual accounts, as magazine-type articles, and in the style of webpages - to ensure a varied diet for the learner. Our aim has been to create a book on British history for learners of English, and not in any sense a definitive History of Britain. We have included the material that we consider most interesting and useful for learners of English to know, keeping the needs of would-be British citizens in mind. The book can be dipped into at will -and the timeline should help anyone doing so to keep their bearings - but the largely chronological arrangementmeans that learners can acquire an overall sense of the development of British history by starting at the beginning and working through to the end. That way they will also cover most of the main English language areas studied at intermediate level and above. People learn best when they are engaged by the subject matter. Past Simpledelivers English through the culturally vital medium of British history, which offers so much stimulating material that the hard part for us was choosing what to leave out. In our view, history's great advantage as a language-learning topic is that it is just so much more interesting than the typical subject matter you find in most English language textbooks. Our message to anyone using this book is: enjoy and learn. m+m+m
Category: Past Simple, Teacher Resources and Photocopiables
Level: Upper intermediate to proficiency
CEF: B1+
IELTS: 5.0+
