An Email Interview with Jack C. Richards
Q: It appears that you have been very busy in
the last few years and teachers will be very happy to see Strategic
Reading, Connect and now the new edition of the Interchange series.
I am sure that teachers will be delighted to see Interchange
3rd edition. Could you tell us more about the reason
for this new edition?
JCR: The Interchange series has always been
a market leader in the field of ESL/EFL. In order to keep
to keep it this way we conducted a review of the series to
find out what revisions would be useful in order to address
the needs of today’s teachers and students.
Q: What was the process used to decide what should
stay, what should be left out and what should be added
when looking at the new edition of the Interchange series?
JCR: We conducted focus groups with teachers around
the world and surveyed some of the key institutions who use
the course in order to get suggestions as to what to change,
what to add and what to improve.
Q: Why do you think the Interchange series
has been so successful over such a long period of time
while other courses have tried and failed?
JCR: I think the series has been popular because
teachers find it easy to use, easy to adapt to their teaching
contexts, and because they find it brings about visible results.
Students too around the world have responded well to the
topics and the activities in the course. I think it is true
to say that the Interchange series soon established itself
as an original course with many novel and appealing features.
Imitators have tried to copy some of these features, but
as with any imitation of a popular product, many people prefer
the original. After all as a teacher in Mexico commented
to me recently, why trade in a Mercedes for a Mazda!
Q: What are the new features in Interchange
3rd edition?
JCR: The main changes can be summarized as follows:
- Substantial new content, through new Snapshots and readings.
- A substantially revised pronunciation syllabus.
- A new writing syllabus.
- Progress checks after every two units allow units to
assess their progress.
- A new section at the back of each book containing self-study
listening exercises.
- In levels 2 and 3 in each unit a new activity called
Perspectives is used to contextualize new grammar, replacing
one of the conversations in the current edition.
- New audio recordings.
- More extensive fluency work following each grammar activity.
- New pre-listening and post-listening exercises for listening
exercises.
- Many new Interchange activities.
- New design and illustrations throughout.
- New teachers edition with bank of supplementary activities.
Q: What are the principals the Interchange series
is based on? How have these changed from the first edition
to Interchange 3rd edition?
JCR: Interchange is based on a communicative
approach to teaching, the principles of which can be summarized
as follows:
- Make real communication the focus of language learning
- Create opportunities for communication, interaction
and negotiation of meaning through activities such as information
sharing, problem solving and role play
- Provide opportunities for learners to experiment and
try out what they know
- Provide opportunities for learners to develop both accuracy
and fluency
- Link the different skills of speaking, reading, listening,
and writing
- Link the learning of grammar to communicative tasks
- Choose content that relates to students’ lives
and interests
- Encourage students to personalize learning by applying
what they have learned to their own lives.
These principles have provided the rationale for the 1st
and 2 nd editions of Interchange. In the third edition
they continue to provide the basis for the methodology of
the series and have provided the criteria used to review
and revise the series to ensure that it reflects the best
exemplification of these principles today.
Q: Once again, thanks for your time
and we are sure that Interchange 3rd edition will
continue the success of the series.
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