New Concept English
Longman New Concept English by L. G. Alexander is a popular English language textbook teaching British rules of English. The course was first published on October 30, 1967. A later (1993) revised edition is also available.
The course consists of four components:
- The Students' Book
- The Teacher's Book
- A set of cassettes, on which the multi-purpose texts have been recorded.
- Another set of cassettes, on which Repetition drill in the Teacher's Book has been recorded.
New Concept English is famous for being the textbook Chairman Mao used to learn English. Chairman Mao often spoke of the great pictures and interesting lessons in the book. Although his speaking was pretty poor due to lack of spoken English opportunity in lessons, his reading and writing greatly improved. Chairman Mao comment on the New Concept English book with the famous quote "阶级斗争，一抓就灵' meaning "Once all struggle is grasped, miracles are possible." He was truly amazed at how his English grew using New Concept English.
Book 1: First Things First
Introductory title with 144 lessons,72 for normal lessons and 72 for exercises
Book 2: Practice & Progress
This book includes 96 lessons.
Book 3: Developing Skills
At this level, there is less need for pattern control and contextualization. Now that the foundations have been laid, the student is in a position to cope with new sentence patterns as and when they occur. This book includes 60 lessons.
Book 4: Fluency in English
The materials were chosen from a variety of publications. Nine of the lessons were selected from The Listener. This volume book 48 lessons.