Merry Team is a six-level English course for children in Primary School, who have had some exposure to the language. It covers the curriculum requirements for the English language.

Duration

Each level of the course offers sufficient material for between 80 and 90 lessons, including evaluation. Each lesson takes approximately 45 to 60 minutes, but the teacher's guide provides suggestions for extending or reducing lessons.

Aims

The general aim of the course is to teach English as a means of communication and to develop young learners' knowledge of a different culture. For this reason, language is presented within a context and the children are given the opportunity to use it in a pleasant, motivating and supportive atmosphere.

Topics

Each unit of the book is developed around a specific topic chosen to reflect the age and developing interests of the children. The topics cover aspects of the real world as well as imaginative themes. In levels 1 and 2, the topics centre on the children, their immediate world and daily experiences.

In levels 3 and 4, they start branching out into the wider world and include cross-curricular activities. Levels 5 and 6 are a continuation of the previous levels. In addition, they provide a bridge to secondary education.

Progress and skills

The aims of levels 1 and 2 are to provide children with non-verbal strategies for communication, a core vocabulary that they will recognize along with sufficient self-confidence to attempt to produce it whenever they can. The progression between these two levels is gradual and integrates frequent revision, thus providing constant consolidation of the language learnt in earlier lessons. Priority is given to listening and speaking skills, promoting communication between learners.

All four language skills are progressively developed through the levels, so that by the end children have acquired the strong grounding that will prepare them for English at Secondary School.