Agnieszka Kalinowska, a second year student of English at the Teacher Training College in Lowicz in Poland works with a group of sixteen seven to eight year old children for two lessons a week. She uses Playway to English with the children, and writes to tell us how Max has enlivened their learning of English.

Nowadays, publishing houses try to outdo one another at offering better-illustrated, and more and more varied coursebooks. Nevertheless the lion's share of the work with students still rests with the teacher. Every coursebook designed for young learners has its own main character leading children through the book from beginning to end. Not every character, however, can shake childrens'hands.

Max from Playway to English is an exceptional and unique idea. Max the glove puppet is something, or rather someone, whom children teachers can use in many different ways.

Pupils at this age easily get accustomed to anything new, and therefore they need far more stimuli than learners of other age groups do.

That is why teachers leading the course came up with the idea of animating Max. Thanks to the help of Tomasz Stolarski, Jagoda Paudyna and Mariusz Cieciara, the animated Max and the Max in the book look and act in exactly the same way.

Max visits the children once a month during their revision classes, and also twice a year when they are doing their exams. His face also features as the main picture on pupils'certificates, which they get twice a year. Max's visit is always a surprise for the children. Using different activities and games he revises recently learnt vocabulary and sings the childrens' favourite songs and chants with them. The fact that Max speaks only English and the children understand him (creating more realistic communication) raises their self-confidence and encourages them to speak Max's language. Pupils at this age love boasting about what they already know or have just found out. Max is a perfect person, a friend who is always there to listen.