english vocabulary in use upper intermediate michael mccarthy

For me, the exercises were the strongest element of the book. Each unit consists of explanations, examples and challenging exercises. It impeccably serves its stated purpose.'įrom that point, the book continues in an orderly fashion, with sections such as “Word formation,” “Countable and uncountable nouns,” “Notional concepts,” “Feelings and actions,” etc. ' The book suggests various methods to study words and provides a multitude of topics with which students can practice. This seemed like a very nice introduction for students using this book before proceeding to the rest of the book, as well as an appropriate guide for a teacher, should a student have one, to follow when teaching. In the aforementioned first section, the book continues to advise the student how to use mnemonic devices, notebooks, dictionaries, and other means of learning and reinforcing vocabulary. The book recognizes that “There are many words in English that you don’t need at all,” and that “There are other words you need simply to understand when you read or hear them.” It then tells the student: “There are words that you need to be able to use yourself,” which, yes, the book focuses on.

Hence, the first section of the book is aptly named: “strategies for learning vocabulary.” This part immediately caught my attention, as it was rather unusual for a vocabulary book to specifically instruct a student how to study.

The book is organized in a logical order to help students achieve fluency in colloquial English lexicon. Vocabulary in Use, published by Cambridge University Press, attempts to bypass that problem by directly targeting learners who wish to learn words that enter the everyday language of English speakers. Although there are tons of English vocabulary books on the market, a problem that many students learning English as a second language face is that practicality is compromised by advanced words.

English vocabulary in use upper intermediate michael mccarthy