Rapid Question and Answer Text

[Edo]

Answers to this question may end up being quasi-spammish but my question is from the heart.

Way back in my early years of English teaching I came across a textbook that was pretty simple, page upon page of rapid fire questions. Each page had a kind of theme and the questions progressed from easy to more difficult to answer, yet there was a pattern to them so if you stuck with it the student would become familiar with a variety of question forms. It doesn't sound like a very exciting text and it wasn't but for some situations it was perfect.

I don't expect anyone to know which text I am talking about from my vague description and in fact the image of it in my mind is blurred. (well smaller sized, greenish brown cover and tattered...) However, if anyone knows of a text that is kind of along that format it would help me with one of those nagging questions that sits at the back of my mind and pops up at annoying times like when I am grocery shopping or cutting my toenails.

[iainmac]

Hello,
Do you recall exactly what happened in class with this text? What were the teacher and student roles?
The question - answer format was popular and fairly standard practice in audiolingual courses in the late fifties and through the sixties, mainly as the basis for learning (memorising) correct structures.
Do you have any other clues as to what the course might be?

[Edo]

Hi ianmac, thanks for the response! You know, it is 9 years ago since I saw the book and that was my first year teaching so I didn't realize back then how useful the book could be at times.

Do you recall exactly what happened in class with this text?

No, I don't live in the place where I was teaching at the time, I did give the school a call but people who may have known don't work there anymore either.

What were the teacher and student roles?

It was a pretty basic list of questions from one person as I remember, that one person could be from the teacher to a student or a student to another student. Again, its been a few years so I don't remember exactly.

The question - answer format was popular and fairly standard practice in audiolingual courses in the late fifties and through the sixties, mainly as the basis for learning (memorising) correct structures.

Hmm, it was an older book, I don't think 60s or 70s but maybe late 80s. Regardless, the format itself was older, that's for sure. I guess I could hit some used book stores and look for older English textbooks from back in the day. It was very structure based, the thing I liked about it was it was an easy way to snap some students out of thinking too much about the question.

Do you have any other clues as to what the course might be?

The course was a free conversation class, the book was one of many available to use during the time at the teachers discretion...I don't really have any more information to go on, but if anyone knows of any books similar to this format it would be a great help