Customer Reviews

Improve Your English: English in Everyday Life (DVD w/ Book): Hear and see how English is actually spoken--from real-life speakers

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This book and DVD program provide teachers and students with an exquisitely rich array of real English language materials, the kind of language that English learners will come across outside the classroom in a real world setting. The program includes a series of interviews with both native and proficient non-native English speakers reflecting the variety of accents, dialects, vocabulary, and registers that are normally found in real communication situations within a diverse society. It is refreshing to see the inclusion of ethnic and linguistic groups whose dialects have traditionally been left out of English-teaching materials. The topics of the interviews are interesting and have contemporary relevance. The book includes transcriptions of the video interviews as well as glossaries explaining idiomatic expressions and cultural references. These materials could be used as the primary texts in a language course or as complementary texts in other types of courses, such as a conversation or a culture course.

Improve Your English: English in Everyday Life (DVD w/ Book) (Improve Your English)

I'm not really sure what I was expecting when I ordered this dvd & book set for a friend, but this isn't it. What you get is a dvd full of people talking, in the most mind-numbingly dull fashion, on the most gruelingly uninteresting subjects imaginable. It is much like watching the worst public access cable program, from a town you don't live in or care about, if the said show were to have an accompanying text that also had a glossary. I think that a person could get just as much out of watching boring television, with closed-captioning, and referring to a dictionary. This product has a sedative side effect.

I was astonished to see how different the written words of natural spoken slang are from what we normally read. This book is extremely insightful and helpful to anyone that might not know how to express themselves in a more natural tongue. The book exposes how English is actually spoken and does an excellent job of pointing out and defining phrases that everyday speakers are not even aware they use. This can be critical for someone that doesn't know the language to understand the meaning and inflection behind the conversation.

Improve Your English: English in Everyday Life (DVD w/ Book)

We all know that language spoken in everyday life can be quite different from the language taught in proper grammar texts. This book and DVD set is a wonderful tool to help people who are learning English to bridge that gap. This series demystifies the slang and idiomatic expressions people will come across in real life, and makes is much easier to understand the language actually encountered. Unscripted interviews are lively and entertaining. They are accompanied by verbatim text transcripts, and explanations of all the things that are said that could not be looked up in a traditional language/grammar text. This is a totally unique and innovative approach. Highly recommended!

I purchased this book with DVD with high hopes. This item was not what I expected and was not helpful in improving my english or speaking skills. Video was very basic and lower quality then assumed.

This book contains a wealth of interesting topics and related interviews on DVD. It's exactly what I expected fom a book intended to help you communicate more easily and naturally.

I still can't believe this book and DVD exist and for such a cheap price ! This DVD is so interesting that i will not say more about it. Just have to discover it ! I only wish it could have lasted longer than these 3 hours and 10 minutes ! Ok, not bad anyway ! Now I still have to take time to read and study this book which contains all the chats of these persons interviewed, plus the definitions and questions added at the end of the 10 chapters.Defintely i will soon order another one for a friend of mine,Zaza, who is also working hard on her English-speaking skills. To finish, many thanks to the authors and to the editor too !