Touchstone
Michael McCarthy, Jeanne McCarten and Helen Sandiford
This course is considered to be a major breakthrough in the history of English Textbooks.
About the course
Enjoyable to teach and packed with exciting ideas, this innovative four-level American English series teaches learners valuable communication strategies to help them cope effectively with real life conversations. Touchstone also places special emphasis on teaching vocabulary and offers exciting ideas for personalized, learner-centered interaction. Interactive whiteboard software, video and the Touchstone Arcade website are exciting additional components that complement the main course. Easy-to-use Test Crafter software also enables teachers to create customized tests.
A full-service solution
The course is available completely offline in the form of the existing Touchstone course books and supporting materials, and will be completely available online next year with a full range of interactive digital materials and collaborative tools, including a fully online version of the course: Touchstone Online. Teachers can use the materials as they please – from 100% online to 100% offline or any blend of the two.
Touchstone Learning Management System (LMS)
The Touchstone Online course is delivered to students and teachers through the Cambridge Learning Management System (LMS). This software allows universities to set up English courses, monitor progress, create reports, administer assessment and create collaborative learning and portfolios.
The Touchstone Online Course content maps onto the Touchstone Student's Book at every step right down to the level of individual exercises. There is also additional material such as video explanations of grammar points to support self-study. This enables successful blending of the online and offline experience and means that the material can be used for a variety of purposes such as:
- Pre-class preparation
- Post-class revision, remedial work, extension, consolidation
- Replacing a class or allowing a student to make up a missed class
- Dealing with multi-ability classes – quicker students have extra materials, slower students can repeat, recycle, and review as often as necessary.
Key Features
- Beginner to Intermediate
- 90–120 hours teaching time for the printed version; can be extended to 150 hours teaching time if the online component is used alongside the printed version.
- All language is presented in natural, real-world contexts to ensure students communicate naturally and effectively.
- Conversation strategies taught in every unit help students hold their own in real-life conversations.
- Listening and speaking activities allow students to practice these complementary skills in a variety of real-life conversational situations.
- The Test Crafter allows teachers to prepare tests after every unit, after every three units, mid-term, and end of term.
- The classware allows the teachers to rebuild the units as per their teaching goals and objectives.
- Students who successfully complete the course will be qualified to score IELTS band 4.5.
Components
| Level 1 | |
| Touchstone 1 Student's Book | 9780521146265 |
| Touchstone 1 Student's Workbook | 9780521128315 |
| Touchstone 1 Teacher's Book | 9780521128698 |
| Level 2 | |
| Touchstone 2 Student's Book | 9780521146296 |
| Touchstone 2 Student's Workbook | 9780521188739 |
| Touchstone 2 Teacher's Book | 9780521151689 |
| Level 3 | |
| Touchstone 3 Student's Book | 9780521146319 |
| Touchstone 3 Student's Workbook | 9780521127196 |
| Touchstone 3 Teacher's Book | 9780521131995 |
| Level 4 | |
| Touchstone 4 Student's Book | 9780521146340 |
| Touchstone 4 Student's Workbook | 9780521127189 |
| Touchstone 4 Teacher's Book | 9780521132015 |