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advanced expert CAE coursebook | |
Longmann
Authors: Jan Bell, Roger Gower with Drew Hyde
207 pages
£18.20
ISBN 0582823919
Right, let's get the complaint over with first. This book calls itself a CAE coursebook. Not just an expert CAE coursebook, but an advanced expert CAE coursebook. Do not do as the 'advanced experts' have done here, and start your exam essay without capital letters ('the best movie i have ever seen'). A book telling people how to use English properly should call itself the 'Advanced Expert CAE coursebook'. This detail is typical of the problems with this coursebook. It uses a lot of jargon; 'sub-skills' , or 'extension material' (In case you are wondering, 'sub-skills' are things that improve your skills, such as understanding the mood of a writer or speaker, and 'extension material' means extra exercises.) The book has lots of glossy colour pictures (we estimate they make up £8 of the cost of the book) but exercises are small and fragmented - a typical reading exercise may have 150 words and eight questions, though there are some CAE length exercises too.
If you want exam practice material, pass over the coursebook and get the Student's Resource Book instead. As is common these days the coursebook is only the main book in a set. The Students Resource Books have fewer pictures and more and better exercises. Depending on your needs, there is a version with a key, or without a key or with or without an audio CD. There is also a teacher's book which includes classroom activities. The coursebook has ten modules each of six parts. The six parts are reading/vocabulary, listening, speaking, English in use, language development (a fancy name for 'grammar'), and writing. Because this book cannot decide whether it is a course book or an exam practice book the modules are not the same as parts of the exam, so the bits of the exam which match the modules are given in parentheses afterward. An example might look like this . 'Module 3 part 1' (exam reading part 3). You will find information about the exam on page six and on pages 168-173, but there is not much about the CAE or how to prepare for it in the rest of the book.
Who is this book for? A class doing the CAE with members who prefer not to buy a course book and an exam preparation book separately might find this useful, but for everyone else there are good course and exam preparation books available for £10 each. The pictures in this book are of excellent quality, but you might prefer to buy something where the money has been spent on EFL material, and look at your photo album or flikr.com instead.
Verdict: Just get the Student's Resource Book
Assessment 3/10