Co-authors Dr. Ken Beatty and Julia Williams, Director of Renison's ELS program, have won the TESL Canada Innovation Award for their textbook series LEAP (Learning English for Academic Purposes).
The series began with a textbook Williams wrote in 2005, titled Learning English for Academic Purposes. The textbook was well received, leading Pearson Publishing to approach Williams to develop a full series. Between 2011 - 2013, Williams and co-author Dr. Ken Beatty published an additional seven textbooks. The series is currently into its third round of revisions with the new editions scheduled to be released in early 2018.
This award celebrates the innovation of English language teaching professionals, who produce relevant and creative resources that are used in thousands of classrooms across Canada and the world. The Innovation Awards, which were presented at the recent TESL Canada Conference in Niagara Falls, included awards for several textbook categories. The LEAP series won the award for Most Innovative Textbook Series published by an International Publisher and Designed for the Canadian Market.
The LEAP series is a four-level English for Academic Purposes series: LEAP 1 (High Beginner: CEFR Level A1+-B1), LEAP 2 (Intermediate – CEFR Level B1), LEAP 3 (High Intermediate – CEFR Level B2) and LEAP 4 (Advanced – CEFR Level C1). The series delivers a flexible, discrete skills approach to English for Academic Purposes with a Listening and Speaking, and Reading and Writing book at each level. The books use high-interest international content to prepare students for the academic world. They take a cross-curricular approach to teaching students the vocabulary and skills they need to thrive in a real-life academic context, while helping them apply critical thinking to a variety of global issues. The books have a clear, colourful and engaging layout that is easy to navigate and pleasing to read. The books include online support activities for students to reinforce the content presented.