Criterion

Grade: 5/4/3/2/1

Comments (5 being the highest grade and 1 the lowest)

Originality

4

Since first appearing in 2010 The English Vocabulary In Use series has set the standard in vocabulary reference and practice books. This new edition has just shy of 3,500 new words and expressions, cherry picked from the billion-word-plus Cambridge English Corpus and cross-referenced with the English Vocabulary Profile, thus ensuring C1 and C2 level words. The book retains the same format as before, with vocabulary presented in a variety of contextualised sentences or conversations, tables, mind maps, pictures or definitions, thus aiding understanding. The addition of Language Help and Common Mistake boxes give further support to the student, while there is a variety of practice activities to cement understanding.

Practicality

5

This is an easy book for students to just pick up and use - it’s logically organised and very user-friendly. As with previous editions, the units are split into two well organised pages, the left with the vocabulary and the right with the practice. Advice is given in the introduction on how to get the best results out of the book and with the answer key at the back it is very practical and easy for students to get to grips with. The units are clearly labelled, so finding units which are relevant to the individual students’ needs is done with ease. With the words presented in a variety of contexts, rather than just lists of words, it is also more accessible and understandable to students. Each corresponding practice page has several activities, ranging from gap fills, error correction, multiple choice and transformations among others, while the inclusion of the CD-ROM supports this well. It contains extra exercises for each unit as well as printable tests to really allow students to ‘get’ the language.

However, while it is ostensibly a self-study book for students, there are certainly ways in which teachers can use the materials in class and given that there is such a wealth of material here it can and should be. A number of the units have an Over To You activity, which is ideally exploited as a class or pairwork discussion to practice the language in a communicative fashion. As such it acts as a perfect supplementary vocabulary book to a main coursebook.

Presentation

4

With so many new words being introduced, it would be easy for the pages to become overcrowded and for it all to blur into a heaving mass of words. The units are well organised and these are further split into 2-3 sub-units. By using different methods to present the words, as well as good use of colour shading and colour images, the information never seems to become overwhelming. As such it is easily digestible by students.

Overall rating

4

What outstanding strengths/ weaknesses do you feel this title possesses?

In terms of developing students’ range of vocabulary in a contextualised and thorough way it is excellent and ideal for self-study.

Provides good supplementary material for main courses.

On which courses do you envisage being able to use this material?

With its wide-ranging mix of topics, it could be used as supplementary material for General, Business and Academic English courses.

Criterion

Grade: 5/4/3/2/1

Comments (5 being the highest grade and 1 the lowest)

Originality

4

The style and structure of English Vocabulary in Use Advanced may not be original but some of the vocabulary areas seem very contemporary, particularly those dealing with topics such as modern technology, work and global English.  Unit 98 is called ‘Language and Gender’ and raises awareness of ‘the sexist nature of some traditional English vocabulary’, with examples of how usage has changed - such as how we use ‘artificial’ instead of ‘man-made’.  This unit includes discussion questions that allow learners to use the new language and asks them to consider how their first language may differ from English.

Gap-fills, matching exercises, correcting errors and rewriting sentences are the type of practice activities most often found in the book and which make it ‘feel’ like self-study material. However, many units contain an ‘Over to you’ section with personalisation activities asking learners to respond to questions or to find out information from particular websites. For example on p75 in Unit 34 ‘Authorities: customs and police’ - learners need to look up information and note new vocabulary about immigration on the UKBA website (this could potentially be very useful in the current political climate!).

Practicality

4

The book is well organized and straightforward to use with 100 units spread across 14 clearly defined topic areas. Each unit is a double page with language presented on one page and exercises to be found on the other. A unit contains approximately 40 vocabulary items divided into smaller sections and the answer key at the back of the book is very easy-to-use for learners and teachers.

The vocabulary presented is high-level and appropriate for C1/C2 with explanations pitched at this level. It is useful language covering a variety of topics including areas related to academic English, work and business.

A CD-ROM is included that has additional practice activities for each unit for further self-study and a test-maker that teachers could use to adapt the material to their students’ needs. There is also a pronunciation feature which learners can use to listen to a model and then record their voices and compare.

Presentation

4

Clear contexts are established to help learners grasp the meaning of new vocabulary items. For example in unit 21 ‘Talking about books’ the unit is divided into 3 sections one of which is called ‘Blurbs’. This section contains a brief explanation of the meaning of ‘blurb’ followed by 6 examples. These short example texts are used to present descriptive language about books, for example ‘wry’, ‘evocative’ and ‘gripping’ with concise definitions given underneath. A C1/C2 learner shouldn’t find this lexis too easy or challenging or have to reach for a dictionary translation.

‘Language help’ and ‘Common mistakes’ boxes regularly occur to raise awareness of various interesting and useful language issues such as ‘Don’t confuse remind and remember’ on p158.

Visually, English Vocabulary in Use Advanced presents itself as serious self-study material aimed at adults, as it is mostly text with the occasional picture and has minimal use of colour. The 100 units are very similar in layout which students could find repetitive.

Overall rating

4

What outstanding strengths/ weaknesses do you feel this title possesses?

Strengths:

The quantity of language items and study material - 3,460 new words and expressions according to the introduction (I didn’t count them).

The clarity of how the vocabulary is presented, contextualized and explained.

Personalised practice activities that can be used in the classroom or for self-study

Weaknesses:

The density of new language squeezed into each unit is potentially overwhelming for learners or inexperienced teachers.

The repetition of style throughout means a learner may need to dip in and out rather than go through systematically from unit 1 – 100.

On which courses do you envisage being able to use this material?

It is suitable for Advanced (C1) general English courses in addition to Cambridge Advanced (CAE) or Proficiency (CPE). Non-native English speaker students living, studying or working in the UK may also find the material appropriate for self-study.

It would be a great book to have in a Learning Centre or school library along with the other levels of this series and English Collocations in Use.

Other comments

The material appears primarily intended for self-study but can be adapted for the classroom by selecting certain sections of the unit (rather than trying to cover all the language items presented) and exploiting the ‘Over to you’ activities in pair-work and group-work activities. Teachers would also need to focus on the pronunciation of the new vocabulary, which isn’t explicit in the book.