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Key words for Fluency | |
Publisher: Tomson
Author: George Woolard
£11.50
ISBN 0-7593-9628-0
'Words have friends' says the cheerful introduction to this book which takes the unusual approach of teaching vocabulary through collocations, or 'learning and practising the most useful words of English' according to the book's cover. Collocations are words that often go together in various phrases, so for example, if someone starts a sentence 'Act your ...' you can be fairly sure the last word will be 'age'. Thus this book does not teach individual words, but complete phrases, which is an original and useful idea. This book is aimed at Intermediate students and the second in a series of three, the first being Pre-intermediate, and the other being Upper Intermediate.
The book has 196 pages, almost all of which is taken up by vocabulary exercises and an answer key at the back. The writer has started with an introduction in which he explains what the book is about and how to use it. And then goes straight into the exercises. These all take the same form - cloze sentences, or 'gap-fills' as they are sometimes called. The book is divided into topics - twenty-two in all, and these are further sub-divided into one page exercise sets. So for example, chapter one is four pages on 'A place to live' and this is sub divded into one page each on world, country, home, building, and accomodation and rent. On every page, you get the vocabulary in a box at the top, and ten to twenty sentences to fill in underneath. Uusally these are in groups of vocabulary word plus preposition, vocabulary word plus noun, and so on, giving the student a complete view of how the word is used. Illlustrations are black and white line drawings which do not take up too much space, and enliven the text somewhat.
Who is this book for? This is useful for anyone who wants to expand their vocabulary (by 3,000 phrases within a year, the book promises). Also it will be useful for students who have a reasonable vocabulary but are not sure how the words fit together. If you have ever said something like 'I am twenty years of old' this is the book for you. Again, this is the sort of book which even if an individual student might not find essential, deserves to have a place on the bookshelves of every good EFL school's library.
Verdict: Original but not essential
Assessment 7/10