Rights Information

AVAILABLE IN ALL COUNTRIES SYNCHRONO-A.G.CHONDRAKIS PUBLICATIONS

Marketing Information

Marketing newsletters, visits to local private ELT schoolsand through webinars.

Reviews

Parallel 1-Going Parallel in English

A linguistic approach

The principles of structural linguistics of Z. Harris (1964) and M. Gross (1975) are followed in the English Parallel 1-Going Parallel in English textbook where the meaning of a word derives from the environment in which it is found. E.g. I fly the kite in sky, but it can also be "birds fly in the sky". I therefore consider it particularly important that a language textbook follows these principles because I believe that beyond the theoretical requirements this framework allows for a better and in-depth understanding of the function and consequently of the meaning of words within the linguistic environment. I also find that the fact that language (terminology) is used in terms of language functions in each lesson as we go along, although one might say that it is not necessary, however, it describes the function of a word and reveals the mechanism of language in the student's eyes. Thus e.g. on pages 48 and 49 the verbs to be and to have are combined with an adjective or with a noun which becomes clearer when it’s illustrated: to be + noun or adjective.

The whole book is governed by the principles of modern Linguistics and namely, as we have said, the principles of the American and European Structuralism, where the combination between different elements is what gives meaning to the word and the sentence. For example, on page 29 we show how to be is combined with an adjective as opposed to do combined with a noun. Another example of the role of combinations is when we have for example the verb play (p. 66) we observe that the verb accepts an animate, as we linguists say, subject (he) to give it meaning. (The radio plays - he plays football).

As new linguistic elements (object, etc.) are added, the meaning is specified - "what plays" is given. The noun tennis, as the object of plays, completes the meaning of the verb, the meaning / significance of which is very general without the object, i.e. in he plays. So, the combinations that the verb needs to be understood "pass" to the student internally, without much detail. The student sees that the verb play can have all these syntactic forms and that apart from all the types of games that can be the possible complements of the verb there is the possibility of deleting them when the verb suggests where (plays) , with whom (plays), when (plays). And here we come to a very interesting point because these small words where, when, how, why, etc. are the basis for building any text in any language and for that Aristoteles spoke first, in his "Rhetoric". These are the famous Aristotelian categories which, analyzed and specialized, form the basis of every text as shown on page 77 who, what, what he does, how, where, with whom, when, why.

Angeliki Fotopoulou

Director of E.C "Athena" - Research Center for Innovation in Information Technology, Communication and Knowledge

Author Biography

Anastasia G. Chondrakis, born to a Greek family, educated in Greece and the UK, involved in teaching English as a key teacher-director and school owner of the Synchrono Language Center since 1985. Eventually, she has used her rich experience to  write Parallel 1,2,  ELT teaching books while exploring teaching based on exploiting the people's innate language instict. The methodology focuses on exploiting the usage of the verb as the key word of speech. Her method has been applied in class and individual lessons for almost a decade and its publication, in the form it now appears, took place in September 2019 .

Copyright Information

Synchrono Publications _ A.G. Chondrakis. All rights Reserved.