Listening and Speaking skills
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Improve your IELTS Listening and Speaking skills | |
Publisher: MacMillan
Authors: Barry Cusack, Sam McCarter
€ 24.50 (approx retail price)
ISBN 9783191728953
Listening and Speaking are particular problems for students who are studying for exams, especially if they are studying by themselves in a non-English speaking country. Therefore a book that will help with both will be welcome, especially as this one is designed for both classroom and self-study. Although the book cannot actually have a a dialogue with you, it does as best it can by supplying tips on how to carry on short conversations, whilst the listening is covered by about 140 minutes of exercises on CD.
In fact it is best to think of this book as two IELTS listening practice CDs with a free book, rather than the other way around. The actual content of the book is only 78 pages (with another 40 pages of tapescripts), and these pages have such wide margins and huge spaces between sections that the actual content could easily have been fitted into 50 pages with a different layout. There are ten sections dealing with topics such as Machines, Education, and Nature. In each case you are shown conversational techniques, such as how to correct yourself ('That's the river Exe, no, it's the Avon') and get listening practice. There are also little 'technique boxes' which take up a fraction of those huge margins. However, there are not many of them, and some of the techniques explain things which are obvious, such as advising that you listen for linking words so as to understand the flow of a conversation. The CDs themselves provide good practice for the exam, and seem to be where the most effort has been made with this book.
Who is this book for? Anyone with plenty of money and the IELTS to prepare for could find it useful. But in terms of preparation for the exam, even with listening and speaking, there are other alternatives which might be better value for money. However, if listening practice is a really urgent priority, the CDs will help.
Verdict: Get it if you need the CDs
Assessment 4/10