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The demand for materials suitable for use with young learners continues to grow. Many of the materials currently available offer sets of activities which the teacher can draw upon to supplement regular course materials, or to introduce novelty.

This book differs from such materials in offering coherently organized projects which can engage the learner over a period of time. Each project is broken down into a set of self-contained units, which can be used separately or built up sequentially into a final project outcome.

The advantages of this approach are:

– that the projects aim to draw upon the ‘whole child’, that is to say, all aspects of children’s life, not simply their linguistic competence. This enables them to relate what they know from their own lives to a concrete problem worked through in the target language.

– that the projects encourage, even demand, that learners take a greater responsibility for their own learning than is often the case with more conventional materials. As such, they are in line with current thinking on ‘learner independence’.

– that they allow learners with different levels of competence to co-operate on an equal basis in the completion of the tasks the project requires. This goes some way to solving the problems of mixed-ability classes.

– that the level of personal involvement by learners is consequently higher, which tends to enhance their motivation for continuing learning.

The authors have drawn upon their long experience of using a project-centred approach with young learners. What they offer here is a distillation of this experience. The units are clearly organized and laid out so that even a teacher unfamiliar with the approach can implement it.

For any teacher, experienced or not, who is looking for a set of well-organized project frameworks, this book will be an essential guide. We hope it will serve as a springboard for teachers to develop their own projects.

Alan Maley