13 best books and textbooks for learning English

Learning new languages ​​is never too late, especially English, which is considered an international language. It is sometimes necessary not only for travel, but also for career growth, expansion of professional duties, including business trips to English-speaking countries. Textbooks and books will help to remember the language skills acquired at school or university. With them you can learn English even from scratch at a convenient pace, choose the desired level of development from a “teapot” to a professional in a particular industry.

The experts of the online magazine EXPERTOLOGY identified 13 best books and textbooks for learning English and made a rating. The choice was made based on the opinions of professional linguists, teachers, as well as those who studied according to the presented manuals. Do not rule out their own assessment of the literature.

Ranking of the best books and textbooks for learning English

Nomination	a place	Name of product	Rating
Ranking of the best books and textbooks for learning English	1	Speakout by Frances Eales	4.9
	2	Gold Series by Jan Bell, Amanda Thomas	4.8
	3	Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL Test by Jolene Gear, Robert Gear	4.8
	4	Cutting Edge Level 3 edition by Moor Peter	4.7
	5	IELTS Foundation by Sam McCarter, Verity Cole	4.7
	6	English Grammar in Use - Raymond Murphy, Martin Hewings	4.7
	7	English Pronunciation in Use	4.6
	8	16 English lessons	4.5
	9	English step by step. Full course	4.5
	10	New Round-Up: Student's Book: Level 1	4.5
	11	Face2Face: Intermediate	4.5
	12	Tree or Three? An Elementary Pronunciation Course	4.4
	13	Assimil. English without difficulty today	4.4

Speakout by Frances Eales, JJ Wilson, Antonia Clare, Steve Oakes

Rating: 4.9

The best recognized textbook from the authors Frances Eales, JJ Wilson, Antonia Clare, Steve Oakes. This is a full course of basic English, having mastered that you can confidently go to live in English-speaking countries, communicate at the conversational and business level, understand the literature.

Interesting: Speakout was developed by linguists in collaboration with the BBC organization (Worldwide and Learning English), it has been translated into many languages ​​of the world and is intended for adults to study around the globe.

The uniqueness of Speakout is the adaptability of the supplied material to real life. Passed at school, college or university, a general course of English prepares a person for selective understanding of speech and the ability to translate with a dictionary. Having mastered the proposed program, you can tighten up the old knowledge and improve it, the book builds a bridge between “textbook” and real English, helps to improve sound perception, written speech and even distinguish accents in conversation. Colorful pictures, schemes and logical presentation of the material contribute to the better absorption of the material to people with different types of memory. For audials and visuals, the DVD will be a useful addition - authentic material that repeats and supplements the information from the book; it contains various interviews.

Most Russian university lecturers, specialized classes and courses consider Speakout one of the most interesting and “understandable” textbooks.

The average price of a book with a DVD from the BBC is 830 ... 1100 rubles.

Gold Series by Jan Bell, Amanda Thomas, Jacky Newbrook, Sally Newbrook

Rating: 4.8

In the second place in the ranking is a set of books of the Gold Series series, which includes manuals for learning the spoken and literary international language. Gold Series courses are suitable for preparing for exam sessions, including FCE. The material is presented not only in ordinary texts, but in pictures; to consolidate knowledge, the program suggests passing fascinating tests. Gold Series is suitable for people who want to learn a wide lexical base of the language, but the material is compressed. In order to help the student, the publication offers a DVD disc - it has more material for improving skills, practical tasks, topics for conversations and discussions, working out written language.

The Gold Series textbooks have good reviews from basic English teachers, but more advanced experts say: without audio and video files, you still have to add additional materials and literature to consolidate skills and practice vocabulary.

Total books 5, the average price - 1000 rubles.

Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL Test by Jolene Gear, Robert Gear

Rating: 4.8

Cambridge Preparation is the only educational material in the ranking for mastering American English. The collection of tasks is developed and used for preparatory work before the TOEFL certification: in the literature there is a practical workshop for thorough working out the conversation technique and grammatical skills, the creators offer many options for oral and written reasoning.

Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL Test is a tutorial for those who have mastered the average language level, for beginners the information will be difficult to understand. The main task of the program is to improve and expand knowledge of words, their combinations, and integrate it into a real interactive environment.

To simplify the perception of information, an audio CD is attached to the textbook, the answers are to monitor the correctness of the assignments. Despite the complexity of the Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL Test course, the manual is often used for self-study without an instructor. In the third edition there are practice tests with generated feedback. The process of passing them is a demo version of the real exam, so this experience is very useful for training and will help to cope with the excitement of the real test.

The average price of a book with an audio CD is 3,000 rubles.

Cutting Edge Level 3 by Moor Peter, Craceham Sarah, Cunningham Sarah, Jane Comyns-Carr, David Albery, Cindy Cheetham

Rating: 4.7

The Cutting Edge Level 3 edition book series is recognized by reputable teachers as one of the most effective for learning aristocratic English in the British version. The point is the breadth of information - the student receives the entire basic framework with a high-quality pronouncement, because the main focus is the spoken language. Sound perception and written speech do not stand aside, however, not much attention is paid to the latter. So, resumes and letters are covered rather poorly. However, this is the only drawback of the course.For the rest, there is nothing to complain about - mastering the material thanks to the pictures, texts and entertaining tasks happens quickly and with high quality.

When learning the Cutting Edge Level 3 edition course, students are introduced to a variety of topics that are useful in everyday life, and study articles and tasks aimed at improving conversational technology in their natural environment, rather than a pattern statement.

The average price of each of the 5 textbooks is 1,800 rubles.

IELTS Foundation by Sam McCarter, Verity Cole

Rating: 4.7

In fifth place in the IELTS Foundation rating is a book for acquaintance and mastering the classic type of international language. Publishers in compiling the course did not overload the page with theory; attention was paid to the practice: grammar, writing and speaking.

Noted: the emphasis on practice in this manual allows pupils and students to better prepare for the examination tests.

The IELTS Foundation course uses materials from the famous Macmillan Collocations Dictionary to increase the vocabulary. The whole training cycle is divided into thematic blocks: reading, texts and writing, mastering is focused on group lessons. It will not be easy for some to study on their own - lessons will be available only to those who have mastered the basic level, but if you wish, you can purchase CDs with audio materials.

The IELTS Foundation cycle includes a book for a student, a teacher, a training manual for mastering practical skills and audio materials.

The average price of books is 1,400 ... 3,200 rubles.

English Grammar in Use - Raymond Murphy, Martin Hewings

Rating: 4.7

The collection “English Grammar in Use” is in demand all over the world, it is one of the best-selling textbooks for people with a basic level of English language. It was reissued 4 times at the time of publication of our rating, the latest version is considered the most recent in terms of the preparation of the program.

Experienced teachers claim that each English Grammar in Use print version will help you master the basics of pure British speech and improve your understanding of writing. The effect is achieved, in particular, due to the complete absence of Russian words in the textbook, because it was compiled by native speakers at Cambridge University.

The publication is rich in pictures and photos, the information is clearly structured. The texts contain explanations of complex rules on each left page, on each right - verification of the learned material.

English Grammar in Use is a textbook of the average level of complexity, it is suitable for student's classroom and independent work. It concentrates a large amount of theoretical and practical material, a variety of training exercises.

The average price of a book is 1300 rubles.

English Pronunciation in Use: Elementary: Self-Study and Classroom Use

Rating: 4.6

The seventh place was given to the textbook English Pronunciation in Use: Elementary: Self-Study and Classroom Use. It is part of a multi-volume English course.Specifically, this book is designed to improve the level of English students who have mastered the elementary course, the textbook can be used even in high school classes.

English Pronunciation in Use: Elementary: Self-Study and Classroom Use will help you recall the basics of the English language and improve your skills by carefully crafting pronunciation, writing, and hearing, including intonation and stress.

For a better mastery of the practical part of the training, an audio course on a CD-ROM is attached to the book; it also contains animated dialogues, as well as tests to check the learning of the material. All sound files are recorded by native English speakers with a British accent.

Included is a key with answers. The average price is 900 ... 1000 rubles.

16 English lessons

Rating: 4.5

The next textbook in our ranking is the Russian development of “16 English lessons” from Dmitry Petrov. This is an excellent tool for those who want to learn the language at the primary level, sufficient for short-term travel and basic communication, understanding of simple texts. The book has been republished 2 times, the last copy contains an increased number of exercises for mastering pronunciation, the emphasis is on verbs.

The methodology of Dmitry Petrov suggests mastering the basic English course in 16 lessons, after passing which the student comes to understand the basics of building sentences and using them automatically, but there is no talk about conscious and deep knowledge in this case.

The book will teach you to speak correctly and quickly perceive the speech thanks to the 2 DVDs attached to it. You can use them both when learning in the classroom and at home on your own. For the latter, an additional collection of keys with answers to the tasks and explanations to the exercises is proposed.

The position of the author is as follows: it is proposed to first learn to speak the language without emphasis on correctness and only then pull up the grammar. How true this judgment is is to be decided only by the student who chooses the textbook. But among the newbies there are many who decide on such tactics and choose the first book “16 English lessons”.

The average price of a book is 540 rubles.

English step by step. Full course

Rating: 4.5

Another textbook of English, created by Russian authors for the basic study “English step by step. Full course. It is suitable for self-study of vocabulary and grammar, used by more than one generation of students and students.

“English is step by step. Full course ”is a classic course with a traditional built-in program for convenient and consistent learning. The publication used the reference version of the language in the British version.

As in any primer, in “English step by step” there are a lot of pictures, schemes, exercises, dialogues. To help the student, a disk is attached to acquire the skills of listening to the reference language, which is somewhat different from the spoken language.

The course is designed for mastering within 1-2 years, the result of training is the acquisition of the level of confident user B1 on the scale of competence, mastering the skills of free communication, understanding the construction of sentences and knowledge of more than 1200 words.

The book "English step by step. Full course "universal in use, you can buy it for just 580 rubles.

New Round-Up: Student's Book: Level 1 / English Grammar 1

Rating: 4.5

The book New Round-Up: Student's Book: Level 1 - is a workshop for studying the international language, starting with the average level of them. The process is implemented in games that simplify the understanding of even complex tasks. The authors present the material in the form of bright and illustrative tables, illustrations, the process of learning literally takes place effortlessly without bristling. This contributes to a meaningful assimilation of the material.

Textbook New Round-Up: Student's Book: Level 1 is suitable for use as a manual in classroom classes, it is more convenient to work with it in pairs or groups to implement the gameplay, build dialogues. The book will be useful for home schooling, consolidating the knowledge gained in class.

New Round-Up contains detailed explanations of complex grammatical rules, which you can now deal with independently.

An apprentice book is supplemented by a teacher’s volume, which contains the keys to the exercises, test tasks, and the texts of audio recordings.

The average price of the New Round-Up: Student's Book: Level 1 / Grammar of English 1 with a CD-ROM - 890 rubles.

Face2Face: Intermediate

Rating: 4.5

The textbook Face2Face: Intermediate, widely known in Europe and Russia, is intended to prepare people for real communication in the international language - it is the sound perception and speech skills that are emphasized in the educational program. The assignments offered real situations that can arise in everyday life, traveling, walking, in the store, etc. At the same time, it is not necessary to master the basic course skillfully for learning - the material is set out well, and students and pupils do not have problems with its mastery .

The book “Face2Face: Intermediate” is suitable both for self-study at home and for group lessons, often used as an additional material to clarify grammar and vocabulary to the basic teaching material.

The authors of the course open up new points of view of ordinary situations, offer a lot of opportunities for the disclosure of universal themes by various exercise scenarios. All material is divided into lessons, which are placed on 2 pages. For the development of one level creators allocate from 80 to 120 hours. A CD with audio materials (dialogues, lessons, test questions for posting topics) is attached to the student’s book.

The average price of a book with a CD is 770 rubles.

Tree or Three? An Elementary Pronunciation Course

Rating: 4.4

The textbook "Tree or Three? An Elementary Pronunciation Course ”was developed to improve the skills of pronunciation of English speech and understanding of its construction, individual“ problem ”sounds. The course is suitable for high school students with an Elementary level (beginner). The second edition of the book is supplemented by three audiobooks, which make the process of mastering the material more understandable.

Second edition of Tree or Three? Adapted for mastering the classic British pronunciation of English. It added practical exercises and exercises with an emphasis on the features of the language, which can be heard in the speech of residents of Albion.

The developers of the training material did not complicate the simply stated text, in the textbook there are still a lot of pictures with games and dialogues that are convenient for working both independently and in pairs during class lessons.

To help students are attached keys to assignments.

The average price of a book is 1200 rubles.

Assimil. English without difficulty today

Rating: 4.4

Closes the ranking collection of learning lessons «Assimil. English is easy today. ” The program is based on the Assimil method, which assumes intuitive assimilation (articulation, pronunciation) as a result of daily speech training in classical English. The whole course is divided into 2 phases. The first one contains the accumulation of information by reading texts, memorizing new words, the second one is practice, writing a text, pronouncing, applying theoretical knowledge gained in practice.

The authors of the textbook present the material to a greater extent in the form of dialogues and real life situations. So, in their opinion, the assimilation of skills and knowledge occurs most succinctly.

During the entire course there is a repetition of materials for its fixation. “Cherry on the cake” - English humor, which is also in the collection “Assimil. English is easy today. ” In addition to the book is attached audio CD.

The average price of the collection is 1,250 rubles.

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Attention! This rating is subjective, is not advertising and does not serve as a guide to the purchase. Before buying, you should consult with a specialist.