EXPERIENCE has taught many teachers that one of the most challenging tasks of listening material is to capture student interest and then to actually keep students tuned in to what they are listening to.      Most teachers are familiar with the standard test-style type of listening textbooks.  While there is a need and a place for this kind of material, it is usually very difficult to build an entire lesson around it.      Students understand the purpose of such lessons, just as a patient understands the purpose of medicine.  “I know it will help me, but it sure doesn’t taste good.”  Our experience has been that students can only listen so long before their minds begin to drift off and their attention is more and more drawn to the classroom clock.        As we watched rising numbers of students lose interest in learning English, we felt it was of utmost importance to bring excitement and life back to the classroom through fresh, innovative and relevant material.  If we are to help students improve their listening skills, we believe it is important to provide, first of all, stimulating material. There needs to be rich input—input that is interesting to students and hopefully to teachers, as well.  Topics need to be ones that naturally draw students into the lesson.      In New Airwaves students listen to and talk about such things as food, shopping, music, dating, traveling, personality traits, work, sports, the future and even gambling/ risk taking.  These high-interest topics have proven to be successful in the classroom and help increase student involvement. 

Professional Voice Actors and Sound Production

    Let’s face it — we’d all like to think of ourselves with perfect accents and voices, but in reality most teachers are not natural voice actors. Our intent was to provide the very best quality through every phase of production. Nothing was spared in the production of the three classroom CDs. Only professional voice actors were used and high-quality sound effects and music were included to bring added life to the script. 

Why Teachers Like New Airwaves

    There are several reasons why teachers like using New Airwaves. Some enjoy using it because it is easy to use.  The lessons are clearly laid out with little to no preparation needed.  Other teachers comment about the nice balance between listening and speaking activities or the humorous dialogs.      New Airwaves is really more than a listening book. The speaking activities provide a sort of mental break for students, allowing them to try out language that they’ve heard, and to talk about topics that they are naturally interested in.  The speaking activities are practical and personalized, and there are plenty of opportunities for students to talk with a partner or in small groups.      Another significant point is that there is enough material in a unit to cover a typical lesson.  Teachers are never left hanging trying to figure out what to do next.  Of course, flexibility is built into the course, as well.  Teachers are free to go as deep as they wish with explanations of vocabulary and cultural points.  In fact, the very first activity of each lesson provides opportunities for teachers to interact with students by observing answers made by students, and possibly asking follow-up questions. 

Made in Japan for Japanese Students     New Airwaves was created from the stated interests and experiences of Japanese students themselves, from various aspects of Japanese culture, and from what Clyde and I have personally learned from our 30-plus years of teaching in Japan.  Many new features have been added to the best-selling first edition based on feedback from students and teachers.  We are confident that this new edition will serve you even better. 

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