ELT
Hula Hoop for Macmilllan
The Hula Hoop series was developed by Macmillan ELT in the UK in collaboration with their office in Mexico for Spanish-speaking Latin America. Catering to the growing market of ELT at pre- and primary-school level, the project comprised four pupil books, one teacher edition in English, its Spanish translation as a PDF, and audio material.
The fact that the series was designed for very young learners presented us with some very specific challenges. Children of the books’ target age group have limited vocabulary in their own language, which limits the language that can be used and taught. Special care also had to be taken with this series in designing activities that take into account the children’s motor skills.
Unsurprisingly, artwork played a central role in these books, and collaboration with our out-of-house designer was crucial. We worked closely with her to ensure that the customer’s brief was met and that text and illustrations always complemented each other perfectly.
Originally designed for Latin America, it was then decided that the series should be modified so that it could also be sold in the Middle East. The process of adaptation saw us identifying and amending culturally sensitive material from all components of the series while production was underway.
This series has received positive feedback from the market since its publication in spring 2010.
Scope of the project:
Full project management; liaison with out-of-house designer; commissioning the Spanish translation; copy-editing (English and Spanish); proofreading (English and Spanish); typesetting the teacher edition; delivery of open files; preparation of audio-material tapescript.
Backpack Gold for Pearson Education
Backpack Gold is an updated, Anglicised version of a series first published in the USA for the primary school market. It comprises seven levels, each with a student’s book, a workbook, a teacher’s guide, a teacher’s resource book and two assessment pack books, as well as CDs, CD-ROMs, posters and flashcards. It was completely redesigned for this second edition, with new songs and artwork and extensive changes to the exercises.
Anglicising this series involved not only cross-referring between UK and US editions to ensure that we were adapting the US language in line with Pearson’s UK style, but also being creative, even poetic, in finding new rhymes for songs where words had to be changed. As the series was to be sold in both the Middle East and Europe, all potentially contentious material and artwork also had to be amended.
One of our editors attended every lively recording session to make sure that the actors (mostly children) spoke and sang the words clearly and pronounced them correctly, with emphasis on the right syllables. At the same time they checked that the words spoken did not differ at all from those on the transcripts.
The new edition was published in 2010 and has been so successful that it has already been reprinted several times.
Scope of the project:
Full project management; in-house Anglicisation of text and audio script; commissioning new artwork; proofreading; typesetting; delivery of print-ready files; attending recording sessions for CDs; preparing comparison PDF proofs (UK edition against US edition) for CD-ROM producer.
Speaking Test Preparation Packs for Cambridge ESOL
Designed to prepare students from around the world for the speaking part of the Cambridge English examinations, these books each contain around ten photocopiable worksheets, an accompanying DVD and extensive teacher notes. As some of our in-house editors are also qualified ELT teachers, their experience was invaluable in developing the content.
Instead of sending proofs or PDFs by email or via an FTP site, we uploaded each stage of production to the Basecamp online project management system, through which Cambridge ESOL could share files with all relevant parties, alert colleagues by email when a new stage was ready, track project milestones, see the project 'history' and instantly check on any aspect of the schedule of a book.
Scope of the project:
Full project management (of ten titles); copy-editing; proofreading; typesetting; delivery of print-ready files; checking the DVDs.