SELF-STUDY BOOKS: a few classics

·      English Grammar In Use (Intermediate), by Raymond Murphy. 

·      English Pronunciation In Use (Elementary), by Jonathan Marks.

·      English Pronunciation In Use (Intermediate), by Marks Hancock. 

·      English Vocabulary in Use (Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate), by Stuart Redman.

They are all published by Cambridge.

These are wonderful self-study books for you (provided you get the answers, which will normally be included at the end, anyway). Of course you may decide to get yourself one, two, three or none of them.

As I have told you, you need to activate your English outside the classroom. These methods have always proved to be excellent. They are divided into so many units, each one having practice on the right-hand page about the topic on the left-hand page.

The grammar book is not to be learnt from beginning to end, but depending on your needs. It includes an initial test for you to check which units you need most. It is also a good idea to begin with topics that you know you have dealt with in previous years, and those studied this year. As with the other books, it is useful for several years and courses.

Regarding the pronunciation methods, both are good for you. For most of you I would say the first is even better than the second. Check yourself if necessary!

In any case, you’re of course advised not to buy them if you don’t think you’re really going to use them (not necessarily immediately or only for the next few months). They can help you at any time, but it’s pointless to pay for them and then just place them on your bookshelf forever.

They’re so well-known that someone you know may already have them! There are also many ways to buy second-hand books, as you know, including Amazon Books on the Net, and pinning up a notice on a board at any place where people study English (one of the largest Spanish Language Schools is the one in Jesús Maestro St - Islas Filipinas area and Underground Station).

You can have a look at them all (or any) either - preferrably - in a bookshop like FNAC or else on the Internet (I’m going to tell you how to do the latter).

As you will see, you can get either all the method components or just one or several of them. The components are typically a book, one or more CDs, a CD-ROM and an extra book with supplementary exercises or tests, depending on the language aspect. Not all of these components are available for each method, but almost so. The book and the CD(s) are always the basic pack, and they provide plenty of practice. If you really want to devote more time to the method, you can always add, for example, the interactive CD-ROM. The most important thing is to always get the book with answers (answer key). Of course, the audio CDs are central to the pronunciation methods, and advisable for the others.

How to browse these books on the Net

http://www.cambridge.org/elt/catalogue/

Click on “in Use” on the left of the page, near the top. Then look for “Components” at the bottom and choose the right item you want to browse, e.g. a book with answers and CD; you access it by clicking on its orange number on the right. Now you can both see the “Table of contents” and an “Excerpt”. In each case, click the word/phrase, and it will give you the possibility to unload or see a pdf. Click to accept.

“Table of contents” shows you all the contents, i.e., the topics in the different units of the book, whereas “Excerpt” is, as the word suggests, a little part of the book.

Some comments

Remember: be realistic. Make your own decision and act accordingly.  

Maybe you are really going to spend little time with your English and prefer to do so on the Web, or with CDs you have, or DVDs, or reading/listening to our library books (mainly fiction) … Which is best for you anyway? In principle, anything is convenient. It partly depends on “your weak points”. But I do advise you to listen to some English for comprehension - and for pronunciation – especially neither too basic nor too advanced for you. Bear also in mind that I’m going to tell you about more ways of improving your English. If you finally give these or similar book(s) a try, you’ll most probably find it/them quite useful and excellent for self-study.