4 out of 4 stars
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Effective communication is the key to success.
This is a practical, innovative and easy-to-use guide to learning conversational English. The book contains 15 chapters, featuring daily topics like food, family, homes, movies, fashion, leisure, money, news reports, holidays, culture, values, sports etc.
Besides, it is aimed at foreign students of (mainly American) English at Intermediate or High/Upper Intermediate level. By quoting various global idioms within the context of American culture and using proverbs from around the world, it helps improve learners' critical thinking skills.
Expanding vocabulary, conversing in real, natural adult English, using the Internet, engaging in serious discussions, asking and answering meaningful questions, researching and sharing valuable ideas, discovering their innate potential and achieving fluency are also among the objectives of the book.
Numerous sources are used throughout, without overwhelming the reader. Well structured, thought-provoking, purposefully contradictory at times, this read engages learners, and attempts to 'get them talking' even about more philosophical matters.
Overall, the layout, editing and formatting of the book are quite good. Understanbably though, there are only but a few minor remarks, such as: some too many intervals between certain words on a couple of occasions, a missing interval after a period, using the digit '8' instead of another more appropriate sign in front of the website links, doubling the number '4' in Chapter 4, thus omitting the title itself, comparing 'non-English' to '(non)-English' video at the end of Chapter 1, and possibly not using italics and/or underlining properly in the Bibliography section.
Personally, I found repeating parts of 'Asking Questions' and 'Search and Share' sections in most chapters slightly annoying.
Nevertheless, the book leaves a perfect impression on the reader, be it a teacher, an academic, a student/learner or a researcher. Compliments on the suitable illustrations and photos used, the attempts at raising cultural awareness, referring to the Academic Word List (despite the obsolete link there), all the fun and excitement involved, outlining useful writing prompts etc.
Therefore 4 out of 4 stars is a well deserved score.
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Compelling American Conversations
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