Page 11 - In Focus (demo)

To the teacher

Welcome to In Focus, a three-level, corpus-informed course aimed at university
and college students. In Focus is designed to build vocabulary, reading, discussion,
presentation, and critical thinking skills. Each Student’s Book contains 12 topic-based
units, which are divided into two cycles of six general themes. Units follow a light

gradation of difficulty, which allows you to vary the order in which you teach them
according to your students’ interests and time. In Focus is supplemented by a range

of free, dedicated online components, which provide great flexibility and help to
speed language acquisition.

Using the multi-billion-word Cambridge English Corpus, we have created a unique
lexical syllabus containing the most important words for second language learners of
English. This syllabus comprises two word lists: a New General Service List (NGSL),
a list of approximately 2,800 words; and a New Academic Word List (NAWL), a list of
approximately 1,000 words that are especially useful for students who want to read
academic texts in English. Together, these 3,800 words allow learners to understand
92 percent of the words in most English academic texts; these are nearly all the
words learners will ever need (not bad, if you consider there are more than 600,000
words in English!). In each level of In Focus, 120 of these words are taught in depth
(10 per unit). In levels 1 and 2, these words are taken from the NGSL, while in level
3 they are taken from the NAWL. Students can use the online tools developed
especially for In Focus to learn the remainder of the 3,800 words.

Though In Focus can be used as a standalone textbook, dedicated online elements,
including both website and smartphone apps, enable students to personalize
and extend their learning beyond the classroom. Among the online components
are hundreds of hand-selected authentic videos, audio recordings of all reading
texts, and a spaced-repetition vocabulary learning system. An easy-to-use learner
management system allows you to set up a class and track your students’ progress,
whether they are using a computer or a mobile device. At the back of each Student’s
Book is a code, which gives your students free access to the online elements
(www.cambridgeinfocus.org).

In Focus 1 is designed for students at a pre-intermediate level. The 120 keywords are
taken from the NGSL. Each unit is designed to help your students build both their
knowledge as well as their ability to think critically about a wide range of important
topics. The topics covered are advertising, sports, population changes and life
extension, robots, how people use animals, and the Internet and news. Language
prompts are provided throughout to help students express themselves.

The In Focus Teacher’s Manual contains full step-by-step teaching notes, unit-by-unit
summaries, language notes, tips, extension activities, options for assessment, and a
complete answer key.

We hope you and your students enjoy using In Focus.

Charles Browne Brent Culligan Joseph Phillips

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