New Headway English Course: Student's Workbook Cassette Pre-intermediate lev (New Headway English Course) - John Soars

Advantages: Straightforward questions for Foundation level
Disadvantages: Limited guidance for extended essays

...This is a workbook intended for students studying for AQA GCSE English Language, Specification A. Although forming part of the Language syllabus, this is in fact a collection of poems from the AQA Anthology. They are all poems from different cultures or traditions and most are written by non-native speakers; some of the poems, such as 'Half-Caste', feature non-standard English. In total there are sixteen poems, and they are divided into Cluster 1 and Cluster 2, eight poems each. Poems by Imtiaz Dharker and Grace Nichols are featured in both clusters, whilst Cluster 1 also includes poems by Chinua Achebe, Nissim Ezekiel, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Edward Brathwaite, Tatamkhulu Afrika and Denise Levertove. Cluster 2 additionally has poems by Sujata Bhatt, Tom Leonard, John Agard, Moniza Alvi, Niyi Osundare and Derek Walcott. In the exam... Read review

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Advantages: Covers a wide range of topics
Disadvantages: Less able pupils may struggle with some aspects

...Although this workbook claims that it 'supports curriculum teaching in the UK and Ireland', it does considerably more than just preparing pupils for the SATs tests that they sit towards the end of Year 6. It features a broad outlook on the English language, covering a myriad of topics from Malapropisms to reported speech. For a child interested in creative writing, there is plenty here to inspire, and for those that find English a little dull, there is a sprinkling of humour here and there. A page entitled 'Puns' initially asks the child to complete a list of homophones (such as aloud and allowed), and then asks them to choose some of the paired words to write sentences containing puns, giving the example 'My pony is a little hoarse today.' Opposites are introduced in an original way by Richard Wilbur's poem, from which... Read review

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Advantages: Thorough, detailed, easy to understand
Disadvantages: Doesn't go far enough

...This book was recomended to me by an English teacher when I was trying to decide whether to do an English degree. I have since thanked that teacher a thousand times in my head as Peter Barry's book has bailed me out whenever the study has seemed too hard. The book goes through various theories of reading - liberal humanism, structuralism, post-structuralism, postmodernism, feminism, psychoanalytic criticism, Marxism, new historicism, postcolonialism, in a series of chapters which contain an amazing amount of detail given the whole book is only 320 pages. There are other books which give an introduction to theory, but the advantage of this book is that Peter Barry seems to have an understanding of an ordinary person and how to tell them things. He seems like an amazing teacher that can get your head round ideas without you being too... Read review

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