(Updated May 05, 2008)
Recommended Booklist
The following are some books that I think are suitable for students preparing to take the IELTS Speaking test. Of course, there are many other suitable books.
Click on the names of the books below to see an internet site for that book.
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1. Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary
There are other good dictionaries like this, such as the Longmans dictionary. You should have at least one of these big dictionaries.
Chinese name: 牛津高阶英汉双解词典
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2. Side by Side (Books 1 to 4)
Excellent for improving your spoken grammar. Books and recordings used together. This is the best material I know for self-studying speaking. For the IELTS test, the only weakness is that it is American English but that is not very important, compared to the benefits of using this book.
Even though the books contain many little cartoon pictures, this is a book for (young) adults, not children.
Chinese name: 朗文国际英语教程
Authors: Molinsky and Bliss
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3. New Headway
Another website is here: Headway.
This is a British English textbook series that has 5 different levels: Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and Advanced. It is an excellent all-round (speaking, reading, listening & writing) general English textbook. The topics and vocabulary are particularly suited to the IELTS test and, in fact this is one of the most frequently used textbooks overseas in long-term pre-IELTS courses.
The value of books like this is that they provide a lot of extra reading and listening materials that particularly suit IELTS students. IELTS students need to listen to more English and to read more about typical IELTS topics in order to increase their vocabulary and general knowledge as well as to see more examples of good writing, written by native English speakers. The reading and listening materials are ideal for learners of English because these books are carefully written to suit different English levels.
My copy is all English i.e., no Chinese. However, there might be a Chinese edition available.
Available in many good bookshops in China. There are several other similar excellent textbooks from England available in China. These imported textbooks are expensive (about ¥125 per book plus over ¥300 for two cassette tapes!) so it might be better to use imported textbooks that have Chinese editions, such as the book below.
Authors: Liz and John Soars
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This is another excellent British English textbook series that is ideal for pre-IELTS students. The most advanced book in the series, Book 3 is probably about the same level as Headway Intermediate or Upper Intermediate.
The Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in Beijing has also published a version of these books with a Chinese Introduction. These are about ¥50 - cheap when you consider the quality.
The value of books like this is that they provide a lot of extra reading and listening materials that particularly suit IELTS students. IELTS students need to listen to more English and to read more about typical IELTS topics in order to increase their vocabulary and general knowledge as well as to see more examples of good writing, written by native English speakers. The reading and listening materials are ideal for learners of English because these books are carefully written to suit different English levels.
See Here for some comments.
Publishers in China: 外语教学与研究出版社 and Cambridge University Press
Authors: Jack C. Richards with Jonathan Hull and Susan Proctor
Chinese name: 剑桥国际英语教程
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5. Collins Cobuild English Grammar
This is an excellent grammar reference book, not a textbook. This book is the result of a revolutionary new study of real English. British English; many lists of examples. Buy the edition that has both English and Chinese.
All of the Colins Cobuild series of books are excellent.
Chinese name: 英语语法大全
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6. Collins Cobuild English Usage
Chinese name: 柯林斯英语用法词典
This kind of reference book, a 'usage book' is different to a dictionary, although it does help explain the meaning of the words that it covers. Usage books do not attempt to include all the main words in English but focus on words and phrases that confuse people or are sometimes used unsuitably. This particular book also contains topic sections that show different ways to achieve certain language functions or language that is used in particular situations such as 'agreeing and disagreeing', 'giving opinions', 'requests, orders and instructions', 'suggesting', 'telephoning', 'transport', 'meals', 'days and dates', 'punctuation', 'abbreviations' etc.
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7. Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary
ISBN 7 - 5600 - 5131 - 6.
This is an excellent book that has both English and Chinese translations. It is published in China by both The Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and Oxford University Press. I saw several similar books to this at 外文书店, Wangfujing. It's a dictionary, with excellent examples. It would be more interesting and it would be a easier to learn if you had a book that included exercises for you to do, similar to #9, below, but I don't think #9 will be easy for students in China to find. This book should be good enough for you.
Collins Cobuild also has a Phrasal Verbs dictionary but I haven't seen it in the bookshops here in China. I'm sure that is an excellent book, too.
Chinese name: 牛津短语动词词典
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8. Chambers Guide to Phrasal Verbs
This small and cheap (about ¥16) book is ok but Number 7 above, or a similar book is better, if you can find it.
Chinese name: 短语动词
外语教学与研究出版社 北京
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9. Making Headway: Phrasal Verbs and Idioms
Also see Here
This is an excellent, imported book in the Headway series. It has lots of interesting exercises to enable students to test their understanding of the meaning and usage of phrasal verbs. However it is expensive (about ¥85) and might be hard to find even though I bought my copy in Beijing. It should be good enough to use #7, above, to help you enlarge your knowledge of phrasal verbs.
Author: Graham Workman
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10. Cambridge IELTS (Chinese Edition)
Every serious IELTS student has some of these books. There are now 6 books in this series.
Chinese name: 外研社·剑桥雅思考试培训教程
外语教学与研究出版社 北京
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This is a set of sample tests that was written by the same people who write the real tests. It has one sample Listening Test, an Academic Reading Test, a General Training Reading Test, Three (3) examples of Academic Writing Tests, and Two (2) examples of General Training Writing Tests. There are several photocopies of real students' answers to these writing tests but they are not all 'model answers' because some of the examples are a Band 4 and a Band 5. For Speaking, there is a CD recording of three different people taking a real test; one is a Band 4, one a Band 5 and one a Band 6 speaker.
Years ago, you could buy it at the British Council's office (for about ¥100) but now I think you can only get it by mailing overseas for it. The following is a link to the online order form. You have to download it as a pdf file by right-clicking your mouse. http://www.ielts.org/_lib/pdf/IELTS_SpecMatsOrderFormJan05.pdf
The good news is that you can find copies of this in Beijing (and I assume other cities) if you ask around. I think it's about ¥20 at these places. Don't worry if the date of the book is 2005 or 2006. The most recent Specimen Tests is still the same as the old ones except for the fact that the wording for the Writing questions was changed a little, in 2006 or 2007.
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12. Collins Cobuild Learner's Dictionary
Chinese name: 柯林斯英语用法词典
上海外语教育出版社
ISBN 7-81046-906-1
When you have reached a reading level of about IELTS Band 6.0, (or 6.5) you should start using an English-English dictionary as much as possible. This will help you to 'think in English', to practice or review the English you already know and to learn new synonyms for words you already know.
However, most English-English dictionaries that are written for native English speakers only use short phrases or groups of synonyms to define a word, with only a few full-sentence examples. In contrast, dictionaries such as this one are especially useful for learners of English because every word that is defined in the dictionary has at least one full-sentence example and many words have several example sentences. These examples will help you to not only understand the meaning, but also learn how to use the word.
Note that this dictionary only has a Chinese introduction - the rest of the book is all English.
There is also an Advanced Learner's Dictionary but I don't have a copy. You can read more about the different Collins Cobuild dictionaries HERE. An article about the Advanced Learner's Dictionary can be found HERE.
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13. Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English
Chinese name: 牛津英语搭配词典
外语教学与研究出版社
ISBN 7-5600-3429-2
A 'collocation' is a combination of words. This dictionary shows how words are combined in common or typical usage, for example what adjectives or what verbs usually go with a certain noun. Here's an example: in English we say, "strong wind" but, for rain we say, "heavy rain". Collocation dictionaries are very useful when writing essays but they also help you learn typical or normal spoken language, too.
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