Learning to communicate in written, and more formal, English is much easier than learning to communicate in spoken, or informal English. Apart from anything else, it is sometimes difficult to find teaching material that is based on up-to-date, colloquial English. Also, less formal language of written texts. Colloquial English, being the language of everyday conversation, is subject to fashion and, accordingly, is less static.
The difficulties involved in becoming familiar with less formal English must obviously be overcome if learners are to become fluent in English. Such fluency is the ultimate goal of learning a language.
This book is intended to assist the learner to become more familiar with the expressions used in everyday communication, and so help them achieve the goal of fluency. It presents a series of 30 specially written passages which are based on the kind of realistic conversations which might take place in everyday life. The passages are modern, interesting and lively. Passages can, of course, convey the style and language of conversations much more vividly than individual example sentences can.
The passages contain the kind of informal, sometimes idiomatic or slang expressions associated with such conversations. These expressions are printed in bold type in order to bring the attention of the learner.
Immediately following each passage is an explanation section. This section defines or explains each of the expressions given in the bold type, to give students more usage guidance. Where relevant, further language help has been given. This additional help might, for example, take the form of another expression which is used in a similar way.
A set of exercises with accompanying answers, has also been included in the book so that students can test their comprehension of the key expressions and their explanations.
_Everyday Idioms_
