Includes an appendix with conversation gambits.

“Welcome to LEAP 3: Listening and Speaking. This new edition builds on the work of the previous edition and incorporates feedback from teachers in Canada, the USA, and around the world. Changes include new focuses on critical thinking and accuracy, as well as new listenings and videos in each chapter. Updated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics include economics, secret codes, and statistics. A Critical Connections task at the end of each chapter allows students to build on what they have learned and apply it to new ideas.
Traditional English programs don't always develop students' thinking and language skills that are so necessary for college and university. LEAP 3's cross-curricular approach focuses on developing critical thinking skills, while giving students opportunities to explore content from a range of subject areas.

[...] In an ever-changing world, students need critical thinking and interaction skills. They need to know how to engage in active listening, understand the subtexts of the messages they hear, and fashion their own spoken responses using informative, compelling, and persuasive language in formal and informal settings. LEAP 3: Listening and Speaking helps students meet these and other challenges.” (Introduction, p. iii)

Chapter 1 ENGINEERING LIFE
Subject Areas: education, engineering, robotics

Listening: Listen to infer attitudes, emotions, and intentions; pay attention to word choice and sentence structure
Listening 1: Choosing the right path
Listening 2: Vanishing Trades in the Digital Age
Listening 3: One Day in the Life: Six Jobs

Critical Thinking: Think about hypothetical situations; explore positive and negative consequences

Speaking: Give presentations; structure your presentations with a template and key phrases

Accuracy: Talk about if; use the first, second, and third conditional forms

Academic Survival Skill: Learn note-taking skills; use the Cornell Note-taking System

Assignments:
Warm-up Assignment: Develop a hypothetical situation
Final Assignment: Present, discuss, and take notes on a hypothetical situation

Chapter 2 THE BRAIN’S SECRETS
Subject Areas: education, neuroscience, psychology

Listening: Listen to understand charts; recognize the differences among charts
Listening 1: The Best Way to Learn
Listening 2: The Science of Mindfulness
Listening 3: Harnessing the Power of Brain Plasticity

Critical Thinking: Use mind maps for note-taking; show connections among ideas and develop new ones

Speaking: Talk about procedures; use linking words

Accuracy: Work with modals; understand which modals are more polite

Academic Survival Skill: Use visual aids; understand how to structure and limit the information

Assignments:
Warm-up Assignment: explain a chart
Final Assignment: present and discuss a procedure

Chapter 3 SELLING DREAMS
Subject Areas: computer science, marketing, political science

Listening: Listen for how speakers organize ideas; recognize organization types using signal words
Listening 1: Understanding Propaganda
Listening 2: Brain Hacking
Listening 3: Contagion, Affirmation, and Lies: The Psychology of Social Media

Critical Thinking: Use strategies to propose solutions; identify the consequences of a solution

Speaking: Use stress and intonation to enhance meaning; learn the difference between content and function words

Accuracy: Talk about the past; use the simple past, past progressive, and present perfect tenses

Academic Survival Skill: Answer questions in a presentation; recognize key question types and when and how to answer them

Assignments:
Warm-up Assignment: Discuss ideas about how to create a marketing campaign
Final Assignment: Present a marketing campaign to a group

Chapter 4 CHANGING BUSINESS
Subject Areas: history, marketing, psychology

Listening: Listen to identify bias; identify biased strategies and the speaker’s purpose
Listening 1: Creating Your Me Brand
Listening 2: Innovation and Its Enemies
Listening 3: Fake Online Reviews

Critical Thinking: Summarize key information; identify main ideas, answer the 5-W questions, and keep opinions separate

Speaking: Use formal and informal language; recognize the differences between formal and informal language

Accuracy: Use the passive voice; understand the reasons for using the passive voice

Academic Survival Skill: Develop interview skills; learn tips to conduct an effective interview

Assignments:
Warm-up Assignment: Profile a business innovator
Final Assignment: Conduct an interview

Chapter 5 APPLYING SCIENCE
Subject Areas: biology, ecology, history

Listening: Listen for cause and effect; identify words and phrases showing cause and effect
Listening 1: The Scientific Method
Listening 2: Being a Dog
Listening 3: One on One: Bob McDonald

Critical Thinking: Evaluate a presentation; learn key evaluation factors

Speaking: Develop an argument; learn techniques to follow

Accuracy: Use linking words to talk about cause and effect

Academic Survival Skill: Cite sources in a discussion; learn about spoken citations

Assignments: Warm-up Assignment: Explore a scientific issue
Final Assignment: Discuss cause and effect in a group

Chapter 6 FROM NUMBERS TO IDEAS
Subject Areas: mathematics, statistics, economics

Listening: Listen to recognize certainty; identify key words and expressions
Listening 1: Prime Secrets
Listening 2: Weapons of Math Destruction
Listening 3: Too Much Math, Too Little History

Critical Thinking: Identify logical fallacies; recognize argument techniques

Speaking: Discuss pros and cons; use pro and con points to build arguments

Accuracy: Create cohesion for communicating; use pronouns and conjunctions to connect clauses

Academic Survival Skill: Learn informal debating strategies; develop ideas using a debate structure

Assignments:
Warm-up Assignment: Prepare for a debate
Final Assignment: Participate in an informal debate

Chapter 7 THINKING MACHINES
Subject Areas: computer science, innovation, psychology

Listening: Listen to recognize paraphrases; identify signal words
Listening 1: Your AI Future
Listening 2: AI and the Fate of Humanity
Listening 3: AI on the Brink

Critical Thinking: Play the devil’s advocate; challenge others’ thinking using strategies

Speaking: Apply turn-taking to conversations; recognize signaling strategies

Accuracy: Make and understand comparisons; use words to connect clauses

Academic Survival Skill: Brainstorm in a group; learn brainstorming techniques

Assignments:
Warm-up Assignment: Brainstorm intelligences
Final Assignment: Discuss brainstormed ideas in a group

Chapter 8 OUR HUNGRY PLANET
Subject Areas: agriculture, political science

Listening: Listen for clarification; recognize clarification strategies
Listening 1: Food Security, World Security
Listening 2: The Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet’s Future
Listening 3: Agriculture and Africa’s Promise

Critical Thinking: understand complex ideas; use the Feynman Technique to break down complex ideas

Speaking: Discuss problems and solutions; follow logical steps to provide solutions

Accuracy: Review gerunds and infinitives

Academic Survival Skill: Take part in discussions; learn about the role of a moderator

Assignments:
Warm-up Assignment: Develop a topic for discussion
Final Assignment: Contribute to a panel discussion

Appendix 1 Conversation Gambits

Photo Credits

Audio and Video Credits

B2 (CEFR)
High-Intermediate