Practical Everyday English: Who is the book written for?

The Practical Everyday English book is specifically designed for foreign students of English who already have a good grammatical basis in the language. Unlike a dictionary, this book actually teaches you how and when to use the words by giving true-to-life examples, entertaining dialogue and useful exercises.

Purpose of the Book

You may feel, as an upper-intermediate or advanced student, very frustrated at your recent lack of progress in English. Your grammar is good; you have taken and passed some of the important recognised written English exams but you still struggle to follow a conversation between native English speakers.

You feel stupid and depressed that, despite years of studying English and even living in an English speaking country, you keep having to say:

Sorry, I don't understand. Can you repeat that please?

You pick up a newspaper and often only understand 50% of what you are reading, especially reported speech. Television and the cinema, without subtitles, present you with enormous difficulties…

Or maybe you can understand nearly everything but feel you cannot express yourself in modern, idiomatic English.

DON'T WORRY. RELAX! THIS IS ALL PERFECTLY NORMAL.

If you study this book one page a day and keep listening to the CD (at the back of the book), you will soon notice a huge improvement in your listening and speaking skills.

The Audio CD

The CD with this book only relates to the dialogues appearing at the end of each chapter. I make no apology for the fact that it is only an audio CD and not a CD ROM with pretty pictures, games and music. You are not children! The biggest problem for adult students of English is understanding Practical Everyday English spoken at speed. (Do you speak your own language slowly?)

It is different from any other English aural teaching aid you will have used before. Most audio work in the English teaching world is presented by trained actors speaking unnaturally slowly. Although this CD has been professionally recorded in a modern studio, the voices are those of a variety of English speakers, all talking at their normal speed. One of the male speakers is particularly fast. This is excellent practice for all students.

You are unlikely to be able to understand the CD without the text from the book in front of you. After you have listened to a particular passage while following in the book, you should then listen to it again with the book closed… and again… and again. This way, you will soon get accustomed to listening to conversational English spoken at high speed.

The Method and Structure of the Book

Practical Everyday English is not just a book, but a method which helps upper-intermediate and advanced students to understand and then use everyday vocabulary.

Most of the material in the book is good conversational English rather than academic. However, I should like to point out that "good conversational English" does not mean street slang. There is included within the book a small amount of slang which now passes as "acceptable" English, but even members of the British Royal Family would use most of the phrases and idioms contained in these pages.

The method is simple: in almost every example in the book, apart from the first few pages, I have tried to use a word or phrase that has been taught on earlier pages. For example, in Chapter 5 the reader is taught the expression To get carried away, which means to become too enthusiastic about something. One of the examples given is:

He or she will already know To be bound to, To hit the roof and To get through because they appear in earlier chapters. Therefore, after reading these words and expressions time and time again, the students will find themselves being able to understand, speak and write Practical Everyday English almost automatically.

The Practical Everyday English book consists of:

• Nine Chapters.
• Three Lessons a chapter consisting of ten or more words or expressions, plus examples.
• Dialogues containing words taught in that chapter.
• Exercises with answers at the end of the book.
• Audio CD containing all the dialogues.