Page 33 - ELG1810 Oct Issue 461

REVIEWS & RESOURCES

BOOK OF THE MONTH

COLLINS COBUILD publication of this 9th Collins Corpus. This panels present related
ADVANCED LEARNER’S edition made me refl ect contains over 4.5 billion words within typical
DICTIONARY on the respective benefi ts words. The dictionary contexts. The headwords,
and shortcomings of print is packed with popular in blue, stand out nicely.
9TH EDITION and electronic dictionaries. features: collocation When it comes to selecting
COLLINS This book, at over 1870 boxes, pictures, usage a dictionary, learner choice
ISBN: 978-0-00825321-9 pages, is hefty. Its strength notes which help users has never been wider.
is the use of real English avoid common errors, This one is a good buy for
Do your students still buy in the examples provided, and synonym boxes. The serious students at CEFR
print dictionaries? The based on the well-known ‘Vocabulary in context’ B2+ level. Sound.

reviews in brief

LEARN ENGLISH SKILLFUL 4 SECOND EDITION, Listening and Speaking,
WITH TED TALKS APP, Student’s Book, Emma Pathare and Gary Pathare, Macmillan,
National Geographic Learning, ISBN: 978-0-357-03397-5 ISBN: 978-1-380-01082-7
This app for Smartphones and tablets wraps language This course aims to help teachers prepare students for academic
exercises around 40 TED talks. The talks cover a wide variety university English programmes. It succeeds well. The ten units
of topics, including procrastination, stage-fright, street cover suitable topic areas including: energy, risk, behaviour and
art and meditation. The exercises cover four levels: pre- confl ict. The critical thinking strand is excellent, although quite
intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced. challenging, covering areas like ‘logical deduction’ and spotting
The app includes pre-and post-viewing tasks. The interactive fallacies. The material is strengthened by the inclusion of word
transcript is an absolute highlight. So are the many audio clips frequency information using Macmillan’s well-known star-system.
which focus learners on aspects of pronunciation including The authentic video clips, from the news agency Reuters, are
contrastive stress and the phoneme ‘schwa’. The vocabulary a key feature. US spelling is adopted. I teach presentation
exercises grouped words together rather randomly, I felt; a skills, and especially liked the activity involving annotating a
more selective grouping could lead to more effective practice. set of slides. Complemented by a Reading and Writing book.
Navigation is easy. Innovative, affordable and useful. Recommended.

Reviews by Pete Sharma for Bournemouth English Book Centre: www.bebc.co.uk