The U.S.A.: Customs and Institutions: A Survey of American Culture and Traditions: An Advanced Reader for ESL and Efl Students [Paperback]

Ethel Tiersky (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0139463852 | ISBN-13: 978-0139463853 | Publication Date: January 1990 | Edition: 3

The U.S.A. improves students¿ reading comprehension while also providing a useful overview of American culture and traditions.
With an increased emphasis on the reading-writing connection, this edition has been revised to include updated research and statistics, as well as explanations of current attitudes and customs.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The U.S.A. improves students¿ reading comprehension while also providing a useful overview of American culture and traditions.
With an increased emphasis on the reading-writing connection, this edition has been revised to include updated research and statistics, as well as explanations of current attitudes and customs. A new chapter, ¿High-Tech Communications,¿ discusses the impact of technology on major areas of life in the United States.
Other new features include:

• Pre-reading and ¿guess¿ questions for each chapter.
• Completely new illustrations, including many photographs and cartoons.
• Comprehension checks throughout each reading.
• Longer, more varied exercises with additional paired and smallgroup work.

Includes a Teacher¿s Manual with valuable teaching tips, background information, exercise answers, and tests for each chapter.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 470 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 3 edition (January 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0139463852
• ISBN-13: 978-0139463853
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,843,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New and improved, September 27, 2001

By 

"qltiersky" (Lincolnwood, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The U.S.A.: Customs and Institutions, Fourth Edition (Paperback)

Thank you for your comment on our book. The 4th edition of this book (Feb. 2001) resolves the problems identified by the previous commenter. It has updated statistics, all new art, and shorter sentence structure. The vocabulary has also been simplified a little. The teacher's manual has just been released and is a useful supplement to the text. The text works well with community college ESL students as well as university students. It's also a popular text in high school ESL classes and in advanced adult education classes. It's also a handy guide for foreigners just looking to learn more about the U.S.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emphasize advanced, October 21, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The U.S.A.: Customs and Institutions: A Survey of American Culture and Traditions: An Advanced Reader for ESL and Efl Students (Paperback)

I would give this text 5 stars except for 2 large flaws: although I thoroughly enjoyed using this with my classes at a University, when I tried to use it in an advanced adult ed. class through our county, Tiersky's sentence structures were just too complicated for most of my students. They would get lost halfway through the sentences and forget what the subjects of the sentences were! The 2nd flaw is the book's age: since it's an intro. to America, many of the chapters rely heavily on statistics. It's impossible to use that kind of a text with any authority when it's 10 years old.

2.0 out of 5 stars Obsolescent Books for Sale, November 18, 2008

By 

E. J. Brisick (Irvine, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The U.S.A.: Customs and Institutions: A Survey of American Culture and Traditions: An Advanced Reader for ESL and Efl Students (Paperback)

This book is the third edition, which has been superceded by the fourth edition which is for sale on Amazon.com. The material in the books is similar, as is the teaching format; the material is up-to-date. Price, alone, might recommend buying the third edition.