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CHAPTER 3 serve in planning entire courses. For the adapter's needs, however, this two-dimensional grid is easier to manage, and almost as effective.

Ted Plaister (private communication) has suggested how selected boxes from such a matrix might be placed on individual cards or sheets of paper and made into starting points for adaptations or for complete lessons.

EVALUATION: FOUR COMPONENTS

Earlier drafts of this chapter ventured the guess that a successful lesson needs components of four--and only four--kinds. Subsequent experiments, and discussions with many dozens of language teachers, have turned this hunch into a belief. The four essential components,whether for speech or for writing or for both, are: occasions for use, a sample of the language in use, exploration of vocabulary, and exploration of (phonetic, orthographic or grammatical) form. To make this assertion is not, however, to prescribe a method or a format. Each of the four components may take any of countless shapes, and the student may meet them in any of several orders. It should also be pointed out that the order in which the components are written need not be that in which they are placed before the student.

Every lesson should contain a number of clear suggestions for using the language. Each of these suggestions should embody a purpose outside of the language itself, which is valid in terms of the student's needs and interests. Insofar as these purposes relate to the external world (see Chapter 1, p.21f), most of them will fall under one or more of the following rubrics: