Email English

I teach EFL in Germany and was recently invited to teach a series of workshops on emailing in English for staff at a university. I bought this book to support my planning, and found it very useful. The activities focus clearly on the types of language most common in emails (both personal and business). As such, it isn't a stand-alone language course as such, but is more based on developing students' ability to write emails in English using an appropriate register and to master key phrases for emailing.The books uses a guided discovery approach, where students study examples and largely deduce the rules for themselves, rather than having them summarised and presented. As such, it's ideal for a workshop where students work together to discuss ideas, followed by whole-class feedback. I think the book could also be used fruitfully for self-study (an answer key is provided), though it's not a reference work where you could easily and quickly look things up by yourself.Useful features include a bank of typical phrases used in emails categorised by function in the appendix, and online suggestions for writing activities to accompany each unit.There's a lot of focus on the difference between formal and informal styles, which my students really appreciated, as this is an area they wanted to work on. I wish, however, that there'd been more examples of 'neutral style'. The book explained that truly formal language was now only rarely usedin emails, and that most business emails were written in a clear, direct neutral style. The following exercises, however, then went on to focus almost exclusively on formal and informal language. In other words, there wasn't much support for students to develop the 'clear, direct' neutral style which the book recommended for standard business emails.Overall, however, I found the book a very valuable resource, with well-designed and varied activities. The units are an appropriate length (one double-page per topic) and the level (B1-B2, according to the publishers) suited my mixed ability class well. Both higher and lower levels students came away having learned something, I think.

Bought as an EFL teacher for a student who needed practice with writing emails in English. This book is very useful, looking at different registers and levels of formality, as well as breaking down the various set phrases/functional phrases we use for different aspects of emailing - e.g. making a complaint, taking an order, and so on.

Excellent book, full of useful exercises - including grammar and vocabulary. However, my Intermediate-level students find some of it rather difficult, and I think a more realistic designation of level might be 'Upper Intermediate'.

Great structure of book and examples for all purposes.

It's a good book ,I like it .

Good

AAA+++