| Book of the Month | ||
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The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (second edition) | |
Publisher: Cambridge
Author: David Crystal
500 pages
Price £ 25
ISBN 0-521-530033-4
This month we look at a book which is becoming essential for teachers, English language professionals (including journalists and writers) and yet is still fun and easy for advanced students to read. This is not just a book for people who want to learn English. It is also a book for people who know English, love English and want to find out more about it. The first Edition came out in 1995, when English for Everybody was a much smaller site, so this is the first chance we have had to review the new edition.
The first thing to notice is that this book has a paperback cover. This may not be a good idea for a book which has 500 large pages, since it may be easy for the weight of the book to pull itself from the binding. The pages are done very colourfully, with lots of boxes holding different kinds of information. There are hundreds of illustrations, most in colour and there are an extra 44 in the new edition - they make the book more fun, but most don't give much extra information.
The book is divided into six parts, with another 50 pages of appendices and indexes. Part one takes us through the story (or stories, the author prefers to say) of English. So we see Old English - which no Englishman today can read without a lot of study - through Middle English to World English. Readers in the USA might notice that because David Crystal is British, he pays much more attention to the English of the United Kingdom, though much of what he says it just as true of US English. EFL students will be particularly interested in parts two and three, where he looks at the lexicon of English (The lexicon is the stock of words used, in this case all the words in English), the structure of the lexicon, and etymology (where words come from). Part three is about English grammar, word classes and sentence structure. Part six is about learning English, how children do it, how technology is changing the way English is learned and taught, and how technology is also changing the shape of the English language.
Who is this book for? Anyone who loves English should look at this book. If you are a teacher, the book is full of interesting information which you can use to entertain and inform your students, and at the same time impressing them with how much you know. If you are a student, and want to know more about English than your teacher, you will find plenty of help in this book. But if you are studying for an EFL exam or are not interested in the history or background of English, £25 is a lot of money for something you don't really need.
Verdict: Expensive, but worth it for some people.
Assessment 9/10