Interview

Liz & John Soars

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On Writing & Headway

When did you decide that it was time to write a textbook? Were the texts at the time pretty bad?
John: As teacher trainers, we had spent years talking to trainees about the ideal course book, and what components it would have - clear contexts for grammar and functions, lots of varied practice material, authentic readings and listenings, speaking and writing activities, strong lexical input, situational and survival work, grammar explanations at the back of the book... and inevitably concluded that this book didn't exist.

However, there were some very good course books at the time, notably Strategies, Meanings into Words, and the Cambridge English Course. We wanted to combine a strong grammatical element with interesting skills work. For years we thought we might try writing, (a lot of teachers think they might, but just don't get round to it) but we had absolutely no confidence or knowledge of how to go about it. Then in the summer of 1983 we actually got down to it, and Headway Intermediate was published in 1986.

How did the name Headway come about?
Liz: For a while it was 'Noname' course. Then it became necessary to choose a name and various names were tossed about. We were unenthusiastic. Then Susanna Harsanyi, our first editor at OUP, suggested 'Headway'. We felt immediately that this was the one. Somehow it was just right. It must be even more difficult to choose names now. It seems that nearly everything suitable has been used!

How do you explain Headway's popularity?
John: We listen to others giving reasons for this and never fully agree! Perhaps teachers like it because they feel they can rely on it. A course book is only successful if teachers return to it again and again, because it has worked before. A director of studies once told us that her experienced teachers liked Headway because they could use it as a springboard - they could play around with the order of activities, bring in their own material, and use the book to tie it all together.

Her inexperienced teachers could just do exactly what the book told them to do and it worked, the lessons would go in pretty much the right direction. Another teacher told us that he liked it because having done an activity, he'd think 'Ah - now I feel my students should do x or y', and he'd turn the page and x or y would be there. We hope its success is due to the fact that it helps produce good users of English. This after all should be the main aim of any English textbook.

What advice would you give to potential course writers?
Liz & John: First of all don't just talk about how you could do so much better than existing course books. Start writing. But before you do...

1. Be sure you have a very clear set of principles behind your course. You need to present these and sample units to a publisher.

2. Be aware that writing a course book is not just putting together a series of favourite lesson plans that worked for you. Your own material always works best because your own thinking and enthusiasm shines through to your students. Writing for other teachers to use and feel enthusiastic about is much more difficult because it is second-hand. Your material needs to interest them and their students.

3. Be clear as to how to do activities, but keep rubrics to a minimum (tricky!).

4. Remember that a course book is also a manual for students. It should not be impenetrable to them without a teacher's help. They need it to revise from and refer to. It is not like a magazine for entertainment-only.

5. Don't be tempted to include fashionable gimmicks - unless you truly believe in them.

6. Never publish anything that you haven't taught yourself. Not just individual activities, but your course as a complete ongoing course.

On Liz & John

Away from ELT and Headway, how do you spend your time?
Liz: We have four children and so their lives and activities take up a great part of our lives. Kate, the youngest, has just finished her GCSEs. Megan has just completed her first year at university. Justin is about to go off to New York to work for a couple of years. Joey, TEFL trained, is at the moment teaching English in a high security prison in the UK. Also, we love walking. A day of pure pleasure for us is walking for miles in the countryside, with our dog, Molly, and having a picnic or a pub lunch. We have a place by the sea in Devon and we go for long coastal walks or, weather permitting, we walk in the wilds of Dartmoor. We also love gardening. Flowers and fruit and vegetables. John loves cooking, especially Indian and Thai cooking. He probably has every cookbook ever published. We both like food a lot. We never take for granted the fact that Headway has given us the freedom (to some extent) to organize our time as we want to. We can sit on a cliff top on a Monday morning and breathe in the pleasure of no longer being a commuter.

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