Exploring Spoken English

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A practical, insightful exploration of natural spoken English based on 20 varied authentic extracts. Exploring Spoken English is a practical guide to the features of natural spoken English, designed for teachers and advanced learners of English for use in groups and for self-study. The material consists of 20 varied extracts of authentic spoken English drawn from the Cambridge University Press and University of Nottingham corpus of spoken English. Each unit contains an activity for the reader and a line-by-line commentary offering new insights into grammar, vocabulary and discourse patterns in the text. Audio CDs to accompany this book, available to purchase separately, contain all the extracts, some re-recorded for the purposes of clarity.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• Glossary of important terms
• Notes on transcription
• Section A Narrative
• Dangerous childhood pranks
• Flying over Budapest
• Section B Identifying
• Two old friends meet up again
• An elderly lady reminisces
• Section C Language in Action
• Doing a job
• Cooking rice
• Section D Comment/ Elaboration
• Family and relatives
• Two teachers chatting
• Students chatting round the tea-table
• Section E Service Encounters
• At the post office
• Ordering food in a restaurant
• At the hairdresser's
• Section F Debate and Argument
• Local radio phone-in
• Political debate
• Student discussion
• Section G Language, Learning and Interaction
• School discussion
• Kid's stuff
• University tutorial group
• Section H Decision Making/ Negotiating Outcomes
• Planning a family holiday
• Company business meeting
• References
• Index