) ssential E FOR FOREIGN STUDENTS Book 1 BY C. E. ECKERSLEYESSENTIAL ENGLISH _ for Foreign Students BOOK ONE revised edition by C.E. ECKERSLEY ___ Ilustrations by CHARLES SALISBURY, BURGESS SHARROCKS and from‘ Punch? and ‘ The Humorist? @ FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS Sofia, 1967PREFACE EssenTIaL ENGLISH is a course in four books, of which this is the first, for the teaching of English to adult foreign students. It aims at giving the student a sound knowledge of the essentials of both spoken and written English and taking him well on the way to a mastery of idiomatic conversational and literary English. ‘The normal constructions and sentence patterns of English are introduced gradually and systematically, and are well drilled at every stage. The learner is guided through “essential” grammar in the simplest possible manner, and every new construction is explained and illustrated as soon as it is used. The restricted vocabulary within which the four books are written has been based on A General Service List of English Words+ But neither this list, nor any other list, has been followed slavishly and blindly; the vocabulary and the grammar and the structures taught have been tested constantly by the experience gained during some thirty years of teaching English to foreign students or writing text-books for them. “Because I believe that a knowledge of the spoken tongue is the true basis of language learning, much of this book is in “conversational” form; and my constant endeavour has been to ensure that, despite the restrictions that a limited vocabu- lary naturally imposes, every sentence in these conversations is expressed in the living, colloquial idiom that an educated Englishman would use. And, since the most effective spur to learning a language (or anything else) is interest, every effort has been made to cover the linguistic pill with the jam of gaiety. So, as soon as 2 A new edition of the Interim Report on Vocabulary Selection (Longmans). in iiiiv PREFACE the preliminaries are mastered, the reader is introduced to Mr. Priestley, his household and his group of students. We see them here and in subsequent books chatting together, telling jokes, reading stories that they have written, singing songs or acting short plays. It is on these conversations and stories and the “‘talks by Mr. Priestley’’ that the language teaching is based, and from them that the copious exercises by which the teacher is enabled to test how far the work has been understood, are drawn. : Fundamentally, this new edition of Essential ENGLISH is the same as the old one, but there are one or two changes. Some extra material has been added; the Future Tense has been treated rather more fully; comparison of adjectives, which originally was delayed until Book II, is now treated here in Lessons 20-22; Lesson 11 has been expanded; there are two new “Stories without words” (page 155 and 166); the sections on sentence construction have been deferred to a later book and an index has been added. In the Teacher’s handbook! that has been prepared to accompany this volume the general principles and the main techniques of language teaching are discussed, detailed suggestions and practical hints are given on the teaching of each lesson, and a complete Key to the Exercises is provided. Though a text-book that is the ideal one to every teacher and student is, perhaps, an impossibility, it is hoped that most students and teachers will feel that this new edition is an improvement on the old one, but the author will be most grateful at any time for further criticisms and suggestions that wiil help to make EssenT1aL ENGLISH more useful to those who study it or teach from it. C.E.E. August 1955. * 1 Essential English, Book I, Teacher's Book.CONTENTS Tug Sounps 1n ENGLisH . . . . . LESSON 7 x Tue First EssentiaL STRUCTURES . . . 2 Tue First EssentraL STructures (2). . . 3 Prurats. “THERE Is . . . THERE ARE...” . 4 Question Worps. Gener . : . . . 5 Tue VerB “To Be” ~ : . . . 6 Reapinc Lesson. ‘‘ THE Farm” . . . . 7 Possessive Apjectives. Prrson. THe SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE . . . 8 Tue Present Continuous Tense | a _ . 9 Tue Verss “Have” ann “Can” , . . . io Reapinc Lesson. “THE SEASIDE” . . 11 Time. Days, Montus, Seasons. PossEssIvE Case 7 12 Tue Past Tense, “To Be,” “To Have,” “Can” . 13 Tue CHARACTERS IN THE Essential English Books (1) Mr. Priestley . . . . . 14 Tue Sipe Present TENSE 15 Discusston oF Lesson 13. SIMPLE PRESENT "Tense NEGATIVE . - 16 Supjects AND Opyects 7 17 THe CHARACTERS IN THE Essential English Booxs (2) Mrs.’ PRIESTLEY AND SOME OTHERS 18 Tue Future Tense 19 THe CHARACTERS IN THE Essential English Booxs (3) Tue Stupents . . . . : 20 COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES (1). . 21 THe STUDENTS TALK TOGETHER. ON “Lines AND Dis.ixes”” . . . . . 22 COMPARISON OF Apyscrives (2) ‘| . . . 23. ‘Tue Car THat Causep a Weppinc.” REGULAR AND IRREGULAR VERBS. . . . . PAGE Vii 147 157 168 177CONTENTS -ESSON 24 Tue Srmpre Past TENSE . 25 IrREGULAR VERBS. Past TENSE NEGATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE . ‘ . . . . 26 COMMENTS ON LESSON 25. : . 27 THE STupents TALK TOGETHER ON “ Foop” 28 IRREGULAR VERBS . ‘ : . 2g THE PpEseNT PERFECT TENSE (x). ‘J . 30 THE Present PerFECT TENSE (2) . . 31 Tue Present Perrect TENsE (3). More Drricutt EXAMPLES : . . 32 THE Present PERFECT Tense (4) - . APPENDIX: PRINCIPAL Parts OF THE IRREGULAR VERBS IN Essential English Book 1 : : : . GrammaticaL ' TERMS IN Essential English Boox I PRONOUNCING VocaBuLary oF ” Essential English Boox I . Inpex . . . . : . . . PAGE 179 186 192 199 208 214 220 226 231 236 238 239 247THE SOUNDS IN ee | VOWELS Phonetic _ Symbol Examples ; ir me, tree, three, he, people, the! | i ship, it, ticket, this, king, shilling e bed, pen, egg, yes, men, well | 2 man, that, am, and, Paris, can, Spanish a past, dark, arm, are, car, hard 2 not, lot, wash, song, from, rock, coffee Oo: all, small, ball, or, forty, morning | u put, full, look, good, foot, book | ur who, move, noon, blue, do, too A up, cup, much, sun, some, but ar her, Thursday, burn, third, thirteen, worth, » work 2 a, the’, under, father, address, servant, Saturday ! DIPHTHONGS ei say, baby, train, plate, table, waiter, Spain ou no, smoke, those, motor, only, Poland, hotel ai five, nine, ice, eye, my, side au how, count, flewer, clouu, hour, now 31 boy, noise, boil, voice io dear, clear, beer, really, ear 29 where, there, their, chair, hair, care 208 / four, door, your, more, floor ua / “sure, poor 1 Strohg form. 2 form, 3 Many speakers of Standard English do not use this sound. They use, instead, [9:]. viiPhonetic Symbol p> az Sg NG Py RAW ON eo Se Oo RAO a oO rt CONSONANTS Examples © pen, pay, people, pull, open, inkpot, help be, bath, boy, bad, husband, bed, beef train, tree, sit, tea, inkpot, table, hotel, stop door, day, sad, kind, desk, Friday, word cold, back, clock, car, class, king gold, bag, girl, dog, good, go, egg-cup fine, far, safe, flower, fifteen, after very, save, vegetable, seven, never thank, thick, thin, nothing, think, twentieth then, that, there, weather, with, together 80, sit, sleep, thinks, place, cigarette zero, has, knives, comes, plays, noise ship, sharp, fish, English, shilling, short pleasure, measure Charles, each, Richard, much John, judge, age, Japan, language his, happy, here, help, unhappy man, make, many, my, swim name, near, then, finish sing, thing, working, English, king red, around, very, rich, every, room leave, long, full, pull, greatly, last will, work, away, when, window, wash yellow, year, you, young, yes, piano THE ENGLISH ALPHABET c DEF GHIdJ «K ec doe f g h ij * 1 Q@ RS T-UVW X Y qf y a an BE s t uo vw x viii 73 \LESSON 1 (First oe Number 1 (one): “War Number 1 is a man. This is a man, “az Number 2 (two) “WE Number 2 is a woman. This is a woman. Number 3 (three) A 3 “WE This is a boy. Question: What is this? ; Answer: This is a boy. Number 4 (four) “WE This is a girl. Question: What is this? | Sfea) Answer: This i is a girl. WHATS ee ?2 ESSENTIAL ENGLISH Number 5 (five) Number 6 (six) THis IS A MOTOR-CAR Question: What is this? | £ Answer: It is a train, Number 7 (seven) Question: What is number 7? Answer: Number 7 is amountain. Number 8 (eight) t @ Question: What is number 8? Answer: Number 8 is a clock.