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This teaching package of two tapes holds revision programs for "O" Level and CSE students of Shakespeare and contains a surprising amount of information and study exercises. I wouldn't have thought it possible to produce meaningful programs for Shakespeare's plays but I was impressed by the presentation and usefulness of this package.

Shakespeare packs so much into his plays that one reading is not sufficient to absorb and sort out the plots let alone their meaning. These programs have three main aims; to test by questioning; to present learning text; and to give the student an appreciation of the meaning and setting of the play.

The first tape places the play into its historical context and uses a family tree to illustrate the political tensions which mould play. It develops an understandirig of the relationships between the various characters before finally attempting to sort out all the plots. All through the text, questions are posed and comments are given with different coloured text giving emphasis to the various teaching points.

Chunks of text with missing words are then presented for the student to fill in. The student can choose the text and degree of difficulty. Predict rate one is the hardest with only dashes to represent the words. The second tape holds two very long programs which, by means of quotations, leads the student to a deeper understanding of the play.

Although it has a limited market this impressive package presents students of Shakespeare with a valuable teaching resource.

J.D.