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I NTR O D U C TI O N
What do low-intermediate students need?
Low-intermediate students are at a crucial stage in their
learning. The novelty of being a beginner may have worn off,
but the goal of communicating with ease and fluency can
still feel a long way off. More than ever students at this level
need material that maintains their enthusiasm and builds
their confidence. They need to know how much they are
learning and what they can now achieve.
At the same time they need the encouragement to push
themselves to use the new language that they are learning.
Grammar, Vocabulary, and Pronunciation
At any level, the tools students need to speak English with
confidence are Grammar, Vocabulary, and Pronunciation
(G, V, P). In American English File 2 all three elements are
given equal importance.
Each lesson has clearly stated grammar, vocabulary, and
pronunciation aims. This keeps lessons focused and gives
students concrete learning objectives and a sense of progress.
Grammar
Low-intermediate students need
● thorough review of beginner structures.
● clear and memorable presentations of new structures.
● regular and motivating practice.
● student-friendly reference material.
We have tried to provide stimulating recycling of language
low-intermediate students should already know, and
contexts for new language that will engage them, using real-
life stories and situations, humor, and suspense.
The Grammar Banks give students a single, easy-to-access
grammar reference section, with clear rules, example
sentences, and common errors, plus two practice exercises
for each grammar point.
Student Book pages 126-127.
The photocopiable Grammar activities in the Teacher’s Book
can be used for practice in class or for self-study.
Teacher’s Book page 139.
Vocabulary
Low-intermediate students need
● to review and reactivate previously learned vocabulary.
● to increase their knowledge of high-frequency words
and phrases.
● tasks that encourage them to use new vocabulary.
● accessible reference material.
Every lesson in American English File 2 focuses on high-
frequency vocabulary and common lexical areas, but keeps
the load realistic. Many lessons are linked to the Vocabulary
Banks, which help present and practice the vocabulary in
class and provide a clear reference bank so students can
review and test themselves in their own time. The stress in
multisyllable words is clearly marked, and where we think
the pronunciation of a word may be problematic, we have
provided the phonetic script.
Student Book page 144.
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Students can practice using all the vocabulary from the
Vocabulary Banks in context with the MultiROM and the
American English File Student Website.
Pronunciation
Low-intermediate students need
● a solid foundation in the sounds of English.
● systematic pronunciation development.
● to build on their awareness of rules and patterns.
With new language come fresh pronunciation challenges for
low-intermediate learners, particularly sound–spelling
relationships, silent letters, and weak forms.
Students who studied with American English File 1 will
already be familiar with American English File’s unique
system of sound pictures, which give clear example words to
help students identify and produce the sounds. American
English File 2 continues with a pronunciation focus in every
lesson, which integrates improving students’ pronunciation
into grammar and vocabulary practice.
Student Book page 17.
If you or your students have not used the American English
File series before, the Teacher’s Book provides clear guidance
on how to introduce them to the sound pictures system.
Teacher’s Book page 14.
The pronunciation focus is often linked to the Sound Bank,
a reference section that students can use to check the
symbols and to see common sound–spelling patterns.
Student Book page 156.
Throughout the book there is also a regular focus on word
and sentence stress, where students are encouraged to copy
the rhythm of English. This will help students to pronounce
new language with greater confidence.
Speaking
Low-intermediate students need
● topics that will arouse their interest.
● tasks that push them to incorporate new language.
● a sense of progress in their ability to speak.
The ultimate aim of most students is to be able to
communicate in English. Every lesson in American English
File 2 has a speaking activity that activates grammar,
vocabulary, and pronunciation. The tasks are designed to
help students feel a sense of progress and to show that the
number of situations in which they can communicate
effectively is growing.
Student Book page 41.
The Communication section of the Student Book provides
“information gap” activities to give students a reason to
communicate.
Student Book page 108.
Photocopiable Communicative activities can be found in the
Teacher’s Book. These include pair and group activities,
mingling activities, and games.
Teacher’s Book page 183.
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Listening
Low-intermediate students need
● confidence-building, achievable tasks.
● to practice getting the gist and listening for detail.
● to make sense of connected speech.
Even high-level students often say that they find understanding
spoken English one of the hardest skills to master. At
low-intermediate level students need confidence-building
listening tasks that are progressively more challenging in
terms of speed, length, and language difficulty, but are
always achievable. They also need a variety of listening tasks
that practice listening for gist and for specific details. We
have chosen material we hope students will want to listen to.
Student Book page 23.
American English File 2 also contains nine songs that we
hope students will find enjoyable and motivating. For
copyright reasons, these are cover versions.
Reading
Low-intermediate students need
● engaging topics and stimulating texts.
● challenging tasks that help them read better.
Many students need to read in English for their work or
studies, or will want to read for pleasure about their hobbies
and interests. Reading is also important in helping to build
vocabulary and to consolidate grammar. Students need
motivating but accessible material and tasks that help them
read better, e.g., guessing the meaning of words and phrases
from context. In American English File 2 texts have been
adapted from a variety of real sources (newspapers,
magazines, news websites) and have been chosen for their
intrinsic interest.
Student Book page 18.
The Review & Check sections also include a more
challenging text that helps students measure their progress.
Student Book page 15.
Writing
Low-intermediate students need
● clear models.
● an awareness of register, structure, and fixed phrases.
● a focus on micro writing skills.
Worldwide, people are writing in English more than ever,
largely because of the importance of e-mail and the Internet.
American English File 2 has one Writing lesson per File,
where students study a model before doing a guided writing
task themselves. These writing tasks focus on both electronic
and “traditional” text types, and review grammar and lexis
from the File. There is also always a focus on a writing
“micro skill”, for example, punctuation, spelling, or
connectors.
Student Book page 61.
Practical English
Low-intermediate students need
● to understand high-frequency phrases that they will hear.
● to know what to say in typical situations.
● to know how to overcome typical travel problems.
Students will need to use English if they travel to an English-
speaking country or if they are using English as a lingua
franca. The eight Practical English lessons revisit and review
common situations (for example, checking into a hotel) and
introduce and practice the language for new challenges (for
example, making a phone call). To help make these everyday
situations come alive, there is a story line involving two main
characters, Mark (American) and Allie (British), which
continues from American English File 1. Don’t worry if you
or your students haven’t used Level 1 – there is a summary of
the story so far in the first episode.
Student Book page 12.
The You hear / You say feature makes a clear distinction
between what students will hear and need to understand
(for example, With ice and lemon?) and what they need to
say (for example, Just ice.) The lessons also highlight other
key “Social English” phrases, such as Bless you!
The Practical English lessons are also on the American
English File 2 Video, which teachers can use with the
Student Book exercises instead of the Class Audio CD. The
video will provide a change of focus and give the lessons a
clear visual context. The video will make the lessons more
enjoyable and help students role-play the situations.
Extracts from the video (the second dialogue from each
lesson) are also on the MultiROM.
Review
Low-intermediate students need
● regular review.
● motivating reference and practice material.
● a sense of progress.
Low-intermediate students need to feel that they are moving
on, that they are increasing their knowledge, improving their
skills, and expanding the number of contexts in which they
can use English effectively. At the end of each File there is a
Review & Check section. What do you remember? reviews
the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation of each File.
What can you do? provides a series of skills-based challenges
and helps students measure their progress in terms of
competence. These pages are designed to be used flexibly
according to the needs of your students.
Student Book page 14.
The photocopiable Communicative and Grammar activities
also provide many opportunities for recycling.
Teacher’s Book pages 139 and 183.
Study Link
The Study Link feature in American English File 2 is designed
to help you and your students use the course more
effectively. It shows what resources are available, where they
can be found, and when to use them.
The Student Book has these Study Link references:
● from the Practical English lessons MultiROM.
● from the Grammar Bank MultiROM and Website.
● from the Vocabulary Bank MultiROM and Website.
● from the Sound Bank MultiROM and Website.
These references lead students to extra activities and
exercises that link in with what they have just studied.
The Workbook has these Study Link references:
the Student Book Grammar and Vocabulary Banks.
the MultiROM.
the Student Website.
The Teacher’s Book has Study Link references to remind you
where there is extra material available to your students.
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Student Book Files 1–9

The Student Book has nine Files. Each File is organized like this:

A, B, C, and D lessons Four two-page lessons that form the core material of the
book. Each lesson presents and practices Grammar and Vocabulary and has a
Pronunciation focus. There is a balance of reading and listening activities, and
lots of opportunities for spoken practice. These lessons have clear references to
the Grammar Bank, Vocabulary Bank, and Sound Bank at the back of the book.

Practical English One-page lessons that teach functional “survival” language and
vocabulary (situations like making a phone call, buying medicine) and also
social English (useful phrases like What’s the matter?, Never mind). The lessons
link with the American English File 2 Video.

Writing One-page lessons that focus on different text types (for example, informal
letters and formal e-mails) and writing skills like punctuation and spelling.

Review & Check A two-page section – the left- and right-hand pages have
different functions. The What do you remember? page reviews the Grammar,
Vocabulary, and Pronunciation of each File. The What can you do? page
provides Reading, Listening, and Speaking “Can you…?” challenges to show
students what they can achieve.
! File 9 has two main lessons, and then four pages of review of the whole book:
a two-page Grammar section and a two-page Vocabulary and
Pronunciation section.

The back of the book

In the back of the Student Book you’ll find these three Banks of material:
Grammar Bank (pages 126–143)
Two pages for each File, divided into
A–D to reflect the four main lessons.
The left-hand page has the grammar
rules and the right-hand page has two
practice exercises for each lesson.
Students are referred to the Grammar
Bank when they do the grammar in
each main A, B, C, and D lesson.

Vocabulary Bank (pages 144–153)

An active picture dictionary to help
students learn, practice, and review key
words. Students are referred to the
Vocabulary Bank from the main lessons.

You’ll also find:

Sound Bank (pages 156–159) A four-
page section with the American English
● Communication activities
File sounds chart and typical spellings (pages 108–117)
for all sounds. Students are referred to Information gap activities and
the Sound Bank from the main lessons. role-plays.
● Audioscripts
(pages 118–125)
Scripts of key listenings.
● Verb forms
(pages 154–155)
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For students
Workbook Each A–D lesson in the
Student Book has a two-page section in
the Workbook. This provides all the
practice and review students need. Each
section ends with:
● More Words to Learn, which reminds
students of new vocabulary from the
lesson that is not in the Vocabulary
Bank.
● Question time, five questions for
students to answer, which show them
how their communicative competence
is developing. (These questions also
appear on the audio CD portion of
MultiROM.)
For each File there is a Study Skills tip
on how to learn vocabulary.
Each Practical English lesson has a one-
page section in the Workbook, and
includes “Practical English reading”.
MultiROM
The MultiROM has two functions:
● It’s a CD-ROM, containing review of
Grammar, Vocabulary,
Pronunciation, and Practical English
(with extracts from the Video).
● It’s an audio CD for students to use
on a CD player or computer. They can
listen to, repeat, and answer the
questions from the Question time
sections of the Workbook.
Student Website
www.oup.com/elt/americanenglishfile/2
Extra learning resources, including
● grammar activities
● vocabulary puzzles
● pronunciation games
● Practical English activities
● interactive games
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For teachers
Teacher’s Book The Teacher’s Book has detailed lesson plans for all of the lessons.
These include:
● an optional “books-closed” lead-in for every lesson.
● Extra idea suggestions for optional extra activities.
● Extra challenge suggestions for ways of utilizing the Student Book material in
a more challenging way if you have a stronger class.
● Extra support suggestions for ways of adapting activities to make them more
accessible for weaker students.
All lesson plans include keys and complete audioscripts. Extra activities are
color-coded in blue so you can see where you are at a glance when you’re
planning and teaching your classes.
You’ll also find over 70 pages of photocopiable materials in the Teacher’s Book:
Photocopiable Grammar activities see pages 139–173
There is a photocopiable Grammar activity for each A, B, C, and D lesson. These
provide extra grammar practice, and can be used either in class or for self-study.
Photocopiable Communicative activities see pages 183–217
There is a photocopiable Communicative activity for each A, B, C, and D lesson.
These give students extra speaking practice.
Photocopiable Song activities see pages 220–227
American English File 2 has a song for every File. In File 9 the song is in the
Student Book, and the other eight songs are in the Teacher’s Book.
The Teacher’s Book also includes the Answer Key for the Workbook (see pages
228–239)
Video This is a unique “teaching video” that links with the Practical English
lessons in the Student Book. The video has a story line that features Mark
(American) and Allie (British). Each video section can be used with the tasks in
the Student Book Practical English
lessons as an alternative to using the
Class Audio CD. There’s no extra
video print material, and you don’t
need to find extra time to use it. It
shows students language in clear
contexts and will help them role-play
each scene.
The speed of delivery is slightly faster
than on the recording, as video is
easier for students to understand.
Extracts of the video also appear on
the MultiROM.
The American English File 2 package also includes:
Class Audio CDs These three CDs contain all the listening materials for the
Student Book.
Test Generator This CD-ROM includes over a thousand questions organized
both in ready-to-print tests (in PDF format) and in question banks, where they
can be selected and edited into tests customized to your students’ needs. The
CD-ROM also includes the audio for the listening sections of the tests.
Teacher Website
www.oup.com/elt/teacher/americanenglishfile
This gives you extra teaching resources, syllabus information, etc.
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