PREFACE To Students
The aim of Speaking 1 is to help you enhance your pronunciation and
communication skills, so that you feel more confident about the speaking skills
you need to do in everyday life. The speaking practice assignments give you the
chance to practice this day-to-day type of speaking topics (e.g., hobbies, family
relationship, people and places, transport, study and work, health and fitness,
communication). In addition, there are pronunciation aspects of speaking that you
may need to study (e.g., the schwa /ə/, weak form and strong forms, word stress,
silent letters, stress shift, consonants, expressing enthusiasm)
In this book, you can also practice your reading and listening skills through
a variety of different exercises. You are often asked to work in pairs to discuss
given topics. This is a good way of improving your speaking skills. We hope that you enjoy it. To the teachers
Speaking 1 is to help students at B1 level to develop their speaking ability
in English and to give them the confidence to use this ability in everyday life.
Students at this level often want to and need to speak fluently and coherently, but often hesitate or avoid it.
There are various reasons for this, but in this book, we aim to point out
three main barriers to students’ confidence. Firstly, the students feel worried that
they will be criticized or they will lose face if they commit an error while
producing a sentence. Therefore, despite having a lot of knowledge about the
topic of discussion, the students make a lot of mistakes in the sentences they say
or they choose not to participate in class activities. Secondly, the students who
perform seemingly badly and do not participate in class discussions in speaking
classes seem to have low English background knowledge and experience in the
field. Every skill and aspect of language knowledge can lead them to low
confidence and stop them from participating in activities. Thirdly, a student's
confidence in speaking is also influenced by affective factors. Anxiety and self-
restriction can seriously affect speaking ability and prevent a student from participation.
The book does not aim to teach items of vocabulary or grammar, except
where such items seem to be specific enough to the speaking context and
important enough to the successful completion of the tasks being set to warrant
special guidance and practice. There are many textbooks which do not teach these
things and students and teachers may want to refer to these as they use this book.
The practice tasks in this book will however provide a realistic and relevant
context within which students can practice any newly acquired items of grammar and vocabulary.
We believe that this book will not only meet the needs of the target group,
but also be found equally useful by all those working towards improving their
language and communication skills. ! i TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNIT 1 - HOBBIES ............................................................................................. 1
VOCABULARY ............................................................................................. 1
A. Likes and dislikes ................................................................................... 1
B. Hobbies .................................................................................................... 1
PRONUNCIATION ....................................................................................... 3
PRACTICE ..................................................................................................... 3
Practice 1 ..................................................................................................... 3
Practice 2 ..................................................................................................... 3
Practice 3 ..................................................................................................... 6
UNIT 2 - FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS ............................................................... 8
VOCABULARY ............................................................................................. 8
A. Character and personality .................................................................... 8
B. Relationships .......................................................................................... 8
PRONUNCIATION ..................................................................................... 10
PRACTICE ................................................................................................... 11
Practice 1 ................................................................................................... 11
Practice 2 ................................................................................................... 12
Practice 3 ................................................................................................... 14
UNIT 3: TRANSPORT ...................................................................................... 16
VOCABULARY ........................................................................................... 16
A. Transportation ..................................................................................... 16
B. Travelling in UK ................................................................................... 17
PRONUNCIATION ..................................................................................... 18
PRACTICE ................................................................................................... 20
Practice 1 ................................................................................................... 20
Practice 2 ................................................................................................... 20
Practice 3 ................................................................................................... 22
UNIT 4 – PEOPLE AND PLACES ................................................................... 24
VOCABULARY ........................................................................................... 24
A. Talking about cities .............................................................................. 24
B. Describe places ..................................................................................... 25
PRONUNCIATION ..................................................................................... 26
PRACTICE ................................................................................................... 27
Practice 1 ................................................................................................... 27 ii
Practice 2 ................................................................................................... 28
Practice 3 ................................................................................................... 29
UNIT 5: STUDY AND WORK ......................................................................... 31
VOCABULARY ........................................................................................... 31
A. Information card .................................................................................. 31
B. Your study and job .............................................................................. 31
PRONUNCIATION ..................................................................................... 32
PRACTICE ................................................................................................... 33
Practice 1 ................................................................................................... 33
Practice 2 ................................................................................................... 34
Practice 3 ................................................................................................... 35
UNIT 6: COMMUNICATION .......................................................................... 39
VOCABULARY ........................................................................................... 39
A. Keeping in touch .................................................................................. 39
B. Globalisation ......................................................................................... 39
PRONUNCIATION ..................................................................................... 40
PRACTICE ................................................................................................... 41
Practice 1 ................................................................................................... 41
Practice 2 ................................................................................................... 42
Practice 3 ................................................................................................... 43
UNIT 7: HEALTH AND FITNESS ................................................................... 46
VOCABULARY ........................................................................................... 46
A. Free time Activities .............................................................................. 46
B. Sports and exercises ............................................................................. 46
PRONUNCIATION ..................................................................................... 47
PRACTICE ................................................................................................... 49
Practice 1 ................................................................................................... 49
Practice 2 ................................................................................................... 49
Practice 3 ................................................................................................... 50 iii UNIT 1 - HOBBIES VOCABULARY A. Likes and dislikes
1. Look at statements a-g and decide if they express positive or negative feelings
or indifference about each activity. a. I’m keen on photography.
b. I can’t stand board games.
c. I’m crazy about computer games. d. I don’t mind cooking.
e. I’m fanatical about playing cards.
f. Going to the theatre? I can take it or leave it.
g. Going to the cinema is not my kind of thing.
2. Use each of the phrases above to talk about how you feel about various
pastimes. There are some more pastimes you could talk about below. camping entertaining watching TV crafts going clubbing eating out going for walks fishing working on cars cooking listening to music shopping B. Hobbies
Complete each text with the words below. READING
about character opening page-turner set
The novel I'm reading at the moment is a real
(1) …………. I just can't put it down. It's (2)
…………. in Renaissance Italy and is (3)
…………. young women who are forced to
become nuns because they've brought shame
on their families for various reasons. In the (4)
…………. chapters, for example, a (5)
…………. falls in love with her music teacher
and the family don't approve. 1 ART abstract exhibition
hype original representational work
I’m sorry to say the student art (1) ……….
Was rather dull. I had expected it to be really
thought-provoking after all the (2) ………….
But none of the art was very (3) ………. . It
was mostly sculpture, though there were a
couple of installations and quite a few
paintings. Most of the painters seemed to think
they needed to be strictly (4) ………., but I
prefer (5) …………. art. It allows you to
respond more personally to a (6).………. of art. MUSIC charts concert
gigs live lyrics taken up tunes I’ve just (1) the piano. It was after a (2)
……………. I went to that inspired me
because the pianist was so talented. I love (3)
………. performances, though usually I’m
more into (4) …………. . I went to see my
favourite band the other week, actually. What
I like about them is their thoughtful (5)
………… and catchy (6) ………... Of course,
the band write their own music unlike the
manufactured groups you see so much these
days. They always reach the top of the (7)
………… but I think it’s more down to marketing than talent. FILMS
genre predictable rave rom-com slow-moving star-studded
When it comes to film, my favorite (1) …………. is comedy. I went to see a
(2) ………… last night, and it was so hilarious. It was well acted - well, it was
a (3) ………. cast so that's not surprising. And it was so touching. Last
weekend, my friends made me go and see a horror film with them. It was 2
terrible, not scary at all. It was a (4) …………. plot and the ending was so (5)
…………… . My friends had wanted to see it for ages because it's getting (6)
…………… reviews so they were really disappointed. PRONUNCIATION The schwa /ə/
1. Listen to the schwa sound and repeat it. To pronounce it, you just relax your mouth.
2. Listen to the words being said below. For each word, underline the stressed syllable. author yoga today England summer internet collection suppose person gardening leisure photography famous opinion
3. Listen to the words in Exercise 2 again. Underline in a different color any
letters that are pronounced as a schwa.
4. Check your answers, then practice saying the words. Remember not to stress the schwas. PRACTICE Practice 1
Work in pairs. Ask and answer the following questions. 1. What are your hobbies?
2. What is your favorite musical instrument?
3. Do you prefer action films or comedies? Why?
4. Do you often read books? Do you think it is important to read novels?
5. What is your favorite song?
6. What kind of TV programmes do you like watching? Practice 2
Describe the following pictures 3 Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 4 Picture 4 Picture 5 5