Communication Beginnings: An Introductory Listening and Speaking Text for English Language Learners

Background and Rationale This textbook is designed for advanced beginner-low intermediate English language learners. The target audience for this book is an academic English program in a university setting, but with slight modifications, it can be adapted to meet the needs of adult learners in community classrooms. The book is composed of 7 chapters with brief descriptions in the table of contents on the next page. Each chapter includes listening and speaking components such as dialogues, interviews, discussions and conversation activities. Each chapter also focuses on 10 target words from the New General Service List of English vocabulary and reviews basic grammar points. The textbook includes an audio component that consists of recorded conversations of native and non-native English speakers, as well as links to additional listening resources on the web. It is my hope that this text can create and facilitate a communicative and productive learning environment for students and their instructors. Because of the open access format of this textbook, learners from around the world may also potentially benefit from the content and improve language skills independently by downloading this book free of charge. Lastly and importantly, there are currently very few open access textbooks in the field of ESL, and it is my hope that creating this one will inspire additional instructors to create their own in the near future. Enjoy!