Nelson Proficiency Course: Workbook

by Susan Morris, A.J. Stanton

This is a revised edition of the teacher's book for "The Nelson Proficiency Course", which was highly commended in the 1990 Duke of Edinburgh English Language Competition. The course places particular emphasis on vocabulary development, grammar and reading. The course new reading material; grammar approached from a deductive viewpoint; a variety of writing tasks, with guidance on content, organization, style, exam technique and summary writing; a language awareness section; and exercises in the format of Proficiency papers one and three. A students' book and two cassettes are also available.

96 pages, Paperback

First published August 13, 1990

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database. For more information please see Susan Morris.

Reviews

[Nick Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few students of English as a foreign language choose to study at Common European Framework of Languages level C2, which is described on ALTE’s website as “approaching the linguistic competence of an educated native speaker”. This statement not only suggests that students at this level have already achieved a high level of linguistic competence, but also that the teachers of such a level should be experienced and knowledgeable above the average level of native speakers. Furthermore, the majority of students at C2 level are not continuing their studies purely to achieve competence in itself, but to take the Cambridge Proficiency Examination.
The Nelson Proficiency Course has much to recommend it. The listening recordings and reading texts are completely unedited and authentic, including many extracts from works of English literature. The grammar elements, rather than following the usual trend of restating the same tenses and structures as earlier books and in the same order, often presents example sentences and asks the student to interpret the patterns of use and function. The vocabulary is interesting and is given no explanation, leaving it either to the student to discover its meaning or the teacher to introduce it. There is a strong emphasis on metalinguistic concepts such as style, register, ambiguity and puns.
On the negative side, while many tasks follow the format of the exam, there are no practice tests and no formal instructions on exam techniques, such as one would find in a book like Objective Proficiency (Cambridge University Press 2002). However, this can easily be overcome with supplementary material from New Proficiency Testbuilder (Macmillan 1990) and past papers. Additionally, the Workbook which accompanies the main Students’ Book is an invaluable addendum. Unlike other workbooks, which follow the unit structure of the student book, it is a grammar and vocabulary practise book with challenging and stimulating exercises.
In summary, the Nelson Proficiency Course alone makes a fine course book for non-native trainee EFL teachers or those who wish to use English at the highest level in creative contexts such as journalism, marketing or the legal profession. Its brief, concise explanations, while useful in themselves, provide sufficient leeway for the creative and motivated teacher to insert his or her own personality, knowledge and additional materials. In itself, it may not be suitable for an intensive exam preparation course, but it is full of thought-provoking topics, enjoyable material and challenging language for the motivated and ambitious student.