Headway course!

[Hercules]

What your opinion about Headway course ?

I need to know your opinion because I might use it soon ...

[Jan]

Hi,
any course or book has good and bad sides , headway is pretty old one, at least I met the book with tapes something like ten years ago.
Maybe better to use one of interactive courses which had
changed a lot recently in learning process I mean way of learning the foreign language.
regards
Jan
another handsome ...and strong ,well Hercules was strong wasn't he?

[Hercules]

Hi jan

thank you , but did you mean that Headway course is like traditional way for learning English ?

please ..any advice

[Pamela]

As for me,Hercules,Headway is not bad.I was pleased with it while studying at the university.But I advise you to use different sources of learning English.There is a great many of books,CDs that for sure will help you!

[Alan]

Hi Hercules,

You might like to read the material I've written for the site covering many grammar points. You'll find all the articles under

http://www.english-test.net/lessons/

Let me know what you think.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Conditionals

[Jamie (K)]

Hercules, I haven't used the Headway course for a long time, but I thought it was very good. I especially liked it because it included many accents of English from all over the English-speaking world. This is important, because if you only understand one accent -- for example Oxford British or General American -- you won't understand most native English speakers. This is one big reason why Headway and The New Cambridge English Course are good.

The original Headway series is a bit old by now, since it came out in the early 1990s. However, it has been replaced by New Headway from 2003 and American Headway from 2001. Even if you use the old Headway books, I don't think they're so old that you will have any problems.

[Alan]

Hi,

Jamie wrote:

[Hercules]

[Conchita]

[Alan]

Hi Conchita,

What I meant was that the expression Oxford English is rather old hat now. If you walk down the streets of Oxford city today, you'll hear every accent under the sun. The days of the Oxford accent were more in the years between the two wars when a certain type went to university there but all that changed in the 1940's and 1950's. Of course the real Oxford accent is what the locals use in the county of Oxfordshire, which is a warm rural one spoken with care and calmness.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Saying It Twice

[Yankee]

Hi Alan

My experience in Germany tells me that many Germans had it pounded into their heads (at school) that the one and only "correct English" was "Oxford English". I suspect this is still being done today to a certain extent.

Just out of curiosity ... how many distinct "versions" of English would you say there are in the UK?

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Alan]

Hi Amy,

I really couldn't say, I'm afraid. The grumpy old man gene in me wants to say that Estuary English is taking over but standard English is spoken by BBC radio newsreaders and they maintain a subtle hint of the local area in the regional broadcasts.

Incidentally some 20 or so years back a woman reader by the name of Susan Rae who has a very pleasing Scottish accent caused a minor sensation by reading the main national news. There was a lot of tut-tutting and she disappeared from the airwaves. I am pleased to say she's now back on a regular basis. Things change slowly. An even bigger upheaval took place in the 1960's when a man with a very slight West Indian accent read the main national news. The other newsreaders including the head of that section led a protest and he was removed from duties. I've checked online but he seems to have sunk without trace. Sad business

Alan
_________________
English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Well, Hello!

[Yankee]

Hi Alan

I once had neighbors from the UK. The wife was from Ireland and I never had any trouble understanding her. Her husband was from London. I had to pay much closer attention to him since understanding him was sometimes a bit of a challenge for me.

That's an interesting story about Susan Rae. I did a Google search and found that there's even a Wikipedia entry about her. I like the Scottish accent, too, but there again, I sometimes have to listen more carefully than usual.

Thanks for the info.

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Fan of Arabian horses]

Hi together!

While I had English lessons at public school we had a techer whose favourite idiom had been -driving his hand from the bottom of his face all over his nose -pulling up the snot in his nose- into his greyed fully hair to babble anthing that sounded like "Eeeeeeeeedinnburgher Inglish! Eeeeexammmin". As he always seemed to be a bit old fashioned even at the 1970?s I liked to know more about the Oxford English which had went out with the ark, like Alan mentioned.

Michael

[Jamie (K)]