The Right Word [antikvár]

Introduction Aims In some ways vocabulary has been a neglected area in English language teaching in recent years. In concentrating their efforts on grammatical accuracy or authentic commimication, teachers can easily overlook the fact that the source of many mistakes or of students being unable to express themselves in English is quite simply that they do not know the right words. The aim of this book is to remedy the deficiency for students at intermediate levels leading up to that of Cambridge First Certificate. It is universally recognised nowadays that new vocabulary is best learnt in context. Even those course books that adopt a thematic approach, however, cannot contextualise in a natural way all the words students are likely to need. If authentic texts are used, it is evident that the writer, not having foreign students in mind, will not include all the necessary vocabulary for students to carry out spoken or written tasks for themselves and at the same time will present students with many items that are not of immediate practical use and have to be looked up in a dictionary. The object of this book is to concentrate on vocabulary items that are practical and in most cases essential to intermediate students. It can be used either as an independent source of new vocabulary or in conjunction with course books in order to fill the inevitable lexical gaps. Content The book consists of two parts, the first teaching and providing the means for practising about 1,000 nouns, almost all of which fall within the lexical demands of the Cambridge First Certificate examination, the second dealing with almost 200 common verbs. Each part is divided into two sections. Unless students are enrolled in an intensive course, the coverage of the first section in each part corresponds to the demands of a Pre-First Certificate course, and that of the second section to a level equivalent to a First Certificate course. The vocabulary areas and tasks embodied in practice exercises have been graded accordingly. Nouns Nouns make up about three-quarters of the vocabulary items students need to learn at this stage. This is self-evident when we consider that for a relatively simple task such as describing a room, some 20 items may be required; students will already know 'chair' and 'table', but may not readily produce items such as 'fireplace', 'lamp shade', 'rug', 'sideboard' or 'wallpaper', and may confuse 'floor' with 'ground'. Such words, where they are new vocabulary items or only half-recognised, are best learnt in groups associated with a common theme. It is clearly easier to understand and remember words such as 'wardrobe' and to distinguish between 'sheets' and 'blankets', 'pillows' and 'cushions', from seeing a drawing of a bedroom and