Reseña

Why should you travel with us?


A French teacher and English tutor, I did a two-year master’s degree in France. During that time, I travelled through East and Southern Europe where I realized that English, unlike French, is not inextricably linked to one culture. Rather, it is one of the most international languages in the world. Writing my memoir as a sophomore I found out that developing second language speaking skills is a procedural learning best acquired speaking, like learning to ride a bicycle riding. In contrast, my research work shows that even though people prefer to speak to learn to speak, they commit grammar rules to memory instead.

On the other hand, I realized that real world contexts play a key part in second language learning facilitating recall. Likewise, varied practice produces greater accumulation of skill over time. Moreover, isolated words or words in isolated sentences do not carry a message and therefore cannot evoke emotions or involvement in the learner. This is how I came up with the idea of a reading experience combining all those factors to bolster learning, a travel journal that not only makes for an original eyewitness travel guide, but also an enlightening story dealing with hot topics such as immigration, global warming, automation, and democracy.


In each chapter readers are required to play a tourist to make choices as to where to go, what to eat, and how to get around. They are invited to take a stand and discuss a variety of issues ranging from open borders to robots taking over jobs. To this end, they are provided with accurate information that may support or contradict their beliefs, thus confronting them with cognitive biases or tendencies making people depart from rationality, particularly loss aversion, anchoring effect, availability heuristic, and confirmation bias. Lists of words and sentences related to the issues brought up follow every discussion question to arouse thought. Those sentences include verbs followed by the Gerund, or the Infinitive, or the Simple form of another verb in bold characters so that readers notice how they work.

Two remaining categories of activities diversifying training are those designed to deepen knowledge of art and culture, and those meant to encourage creative thinking. One explores European cultural heritage (traditions, art and architecture), avant-garde and contemporary art, while the other involves finding out new ways of getting people to be environmentally conscious.

This book consists of an introductory section, six chapters divided into several units, and a conclusion. Each of the seventeen units unfolds in a different site and can be read in sequence, or picked at random. It is intended for non-native speakers of English aged 21 and older who want to improve their discussion skills. It is suitable for reading groups and can be a supplement to high intermediate English manuals, or become a tool to acquire specialized vocabulary skills.