13 best books and textbooks for learning English

Review of the best according to the editorial board. On the selection criteria. This material is subjective and does not constitute advertising and does not serve as a purchase guide. Before buying, you need to consult with a specialist.

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

The experts of the editorial board of the online magazine have identified the 13 best books and textbooks for learning English and made a rating. The choice was made based on the opinion of professional linguists, teachers, as well as those who studied according to the presented manuals. They did 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. Complete 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 is the textbook from the authors Frances Eales, JJ Wilson, Antonia Clare, Steve Oakes. This is a complete course of basic English, having mastered which you can confidently go to live in English-speaking countries, communicate on a conversational and business level, and understand literature.

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

The uniqueness of Speakout is the adaptability of the presented material to real life. A general English course taken at school, college or university prepares a person for selective understanding of speech and the ability to translate with a dictionary. Having mastered the proposed program, you can pull up old knowledge and improve it, the book builds a bridge between the 'textbook' and real English, helps to improve sound perception, writing and even distinguish accents in a conversation. Colorful pictures, diagrams and logical presentation of the material contribute to better assimilation of the material by people with different types of memory. For audiences and visuals, the DVD will be a useful addition – authentic material repeating and supplementing the information from the book, it contains a variety of interviews.

Most Russian university professors, 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.

Advantages

• Multilevel course available from scratch;
• Large format A4 book;
• Logical and structured material, supplemented with pictures and diagrams;
• Preparation for real language communication without a dictionary;
• Accompanying material on audio and video media;
• Optimal price.

disadvantages

• The DVD does not always reach the user in working form;
• Soft cover. Relative, but still a disadvantage for such a voluminous and multi-level collection.

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

Rating: 4.8

The second place in the rating is the set of books in the Gold Series series, which includes manuals for mastering the spoken and literary international language. Gold Series courses are suitable for preparation for exam sessions including FCE. The material is presented not only in ordinary texts, but in pictures; to consolidate knowledge, the program offers exciting tests. The Gold Series is suitable for those people who want to master a wide lexical base of the language, but the material is presented in a concise form. To help the student, the publication offers a DVD disc – it contains more material for improving skills, practical tasks, topics for conversations and discussions, writing practice.

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

There are 5 books in total, the average price is 1000 rubles.

Advantages

• Capacious five-level basic language course;
• There is video and audio accompaniment;
• Pictures, test tasks;
• Accessible presentation of theory and practice;
• Suitable for exam preparation;
• The optimal price for each book.

disadvantages

• Incomplete study of the grammar base, additional training materials will be needed.

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 assignments is developed and is used for preparatory work before the TOEFL certification: the literature concentrates a practice for thoroughly practicing speaking technique and grammatical skills, the creators offer many options for topics for oral and written reasoning.

Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL Test is a self-study guide for those who have mastered the intermediate language level with good quality, 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 conversational environment.

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

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

Advantages

• Advanced study of American type of English;
• Many tasks for paraphrasing, thinking, composing and reasoning;
• Diagnostic tests for the passed sections;
• Audio disc accompaniment;
• A complete program to improve all 4 speech;
• Answer keys and examples of real TOEFL exam tests.

disadvantages

• Dear collection;
• Suitable only for students with an initial level of language proficiency.

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

Rating: 4.7

The Cutting Edge Level 3 edition book series has been recognized by respected educators as one of the most effective for learning aristocratic English in the British version. The point is the breadth of information presentation – the student receives the entire basic foundation with high-quality pronunciation, because the main emphasis is the spoken language. Sound perception and written speech do not stand aside, however, not enough attention is paid to the latter. So, CVs and letters are covered rather poorly. However, this is the only drawback of the course. For the rest, there is nothing to complain about – the assimilation of the material thanks to pictures, texts and entertaining tasks occurs efficiently and quickly.

When mastering the Cutting Edge Level 3 edition course, students are introduced to a variety of topics that are useful in everyday life, study articles and assignments aimed at improving conversational technique in a natural environment, and not in a template.

The average price of each of the 5 textbooks is 1800 rubles.

Advantages

• The best basic course of spoken English among the manuals of different countries;
• Study of individual situations;
• Many interesting tasks, stories, illustrations;
• Clear and well thought-out presentation of the material;
• 5 textbooks in a series, of various difficulty levels;
• Emphasis on perfect British spoken language.

disadvantages

• Not enough practice for writing and grammar, a lot of theory;
• The high price of books.

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 classical form of the international language. When compiling the course, the publishers did not overload the pages with theory, attention was paid to practice: grammar, writing and speaking.

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

The IELTS Foundation course uses materials from the famous Macmillan Collocations Dictionary to increase vocabulary. The entire training cycle is divided into thematic blocks: reading, writing and writing, mastering is focused on group lessons. It will be difficult for some to study on their own – only those who have mastered the basic level can do the lessons, but if you wish, you can purchase CDs with audio materials.

The IELTS Foundation cycle includes a book for a student, teacher, a manual for the acquisition of practical skills and audio materials.

The average price of books is 1400… 3200 rubles.

Advantages

• Advanced level of study of the material;
• Answers to tasks;
• Includes a training system of several books and audio materials;
• Attention to all types of speech;
• The system is adapted for preparation for examination papers.

disadvantages

• The high price of books;
• No emphasis on spoken language, emphasis on exam and traditional language.

'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 who speak basic English. It was reissued 4 times at the time of publication of our rating, the latest version is considered the most recent in terms of program preparation.

Experienced teachers say that each print of the English Grammar in Use 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 at the University of Cambridge by native speakers.

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

English Grammar in Use is an intermediate level textbook suitable for classroom and independent student work. It contains a large amount of theoretical and practical material, a variety of training exercises.

The average price of a book is 1,300 rubles.

Advantages

• Extensive grammatical theory and practice;
• The book was written by professors of the University of Cambridge (native speakers);
• The textbook is suitable for repetition and assimilation of new material;
• Visual training, visualization with flowcharts, pictures and tests;
• Average level of difficulty;
• Optimal price.

disadvantages

• The lack of Russian explanations can be a problem for those who just repeat or master the material.

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 intended to improve the level of English proficiency for 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 remember the basics of the English language and improve your existing skills by carefully working out pronunciation, writing, auditory perception, including intonation and stress.

For better mastering of the practical part of the training, the book is accompanied by an audio course on CD ROM, it also contains animated dialogues, as well as tests to check the assimilation of the material. All audio files are recorded by native English speakers with British accents.

The kit contains a key with answers. The average price is 900 … 1000 rubles.

Advantages

• Recording of dialogues and speeches in pure British English;
• Audio accompaniment;
• Affordable price of the book;
• Skills development from the initial development course;
• Attention to pronunciation, writing;
• The possibility of a subsequent deeper study of the language.

disadvantages

• Not defined.

16 English lessons

Rating: 4.5

The next textbook in our ranking is the domestic development of '16 English lessons' from Dmitry Petrov. This is an excellent guide for those who want to master the language at an initial level, sufficient for short-term travel and basic communication, understanding 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.

Dmitry Petrov's methodology involves mastering the basic English course in 16 lessons, after which the student comes to understand the basics of constructing sentences and their automatic use, but in this case there is no question of conscious and deep knowledge.

The book will teach you to speak correctly and quickly comprehend speech thanks to the 2 DVDs attached to the volume. You can use them both when teaching in the classroom and at home on your own. For the latter, a collection of keys with answers to tasks and explanations for the exercises is additionally offered.

The position of the author is as follows: it is proposed to first learn to speak the language without an emphasis on correctness and only then to tighten up the grammar. How true this judgment is is up to the student who chooses the textbook. But among the beginners, there are many who decide on such tactics and choose '16 English lessons' as their first book.

The average price of a book is 540 rubles.

Advantages

• Affordable price;
• Audio and video materials on 2 discs;
• Crash Course – 16 lessons in total;
• Ability to master the language from scratch;
• Simplified assimilation of the material due to easy feeding.

disadvantages

• Mastering at the initial level without much understanding of the language in general;
• There is no guarantee that after 16 lessons the student will speak correctly and will be understood by the opponent in conversation.

English step by step. Complete course

Rating: 4.5

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

'English step by step. The complete course 'is a classic course with a traditional structured program for easy and consistent learning of the material. The edition uses the reference language in the British version.

As in any textbook for beginners, there are many pictures, diagrams, exercises, dialogues in Step by Step English. To help the student, there is a CD for acquiring listening skills in a reference language that is somewhat different from the spoken language.

The course is designed to be mastered within 1-2 years, the result of the training is gaining the level of a confident user B1 on the scale of competence, mastering the skills of free communication, understanding the construction of sentences and knowledge of over 1200 words.

The book 'English step by step. The full course 'is universal in use, you can buy it for only 580 rubles.

Advantages

• Mastering the basic English course up to the B1 level;
• Easy presentation of information;
• Training in the language of the British variant (classic type);
• Disc for auditory perception of information and performance of speech exercises;
• Structured material.

disadvantages

• There is no emphasis on colloquial speech, only correct classical speech.

New round-up : Student's Book: Level 1 / English Grammar 1

Rating: 4.5

The New Round-Up: Student's Book: Level 1 is a workshop for learning an international language from intermediate level. The process is implemented in games that make it easier to understand even complex tasks. The authors present the material in the form of bright and visual tables, illustrations, the assimilation process literally takes place playfully without cramming. This promotes meaningful assimilation of the material.

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

New Round-Up contains detailed explanations of complex grammar rules, which you can now figure out on your own.

The student book is supplemented by a volume for the teacher, which contains the keys to the exercises, test assignments, and printed audio recordings.

Average price for New Round-Up: Student's Book: Level 1 / English Grammar 1 with CD-ROM – 890 rubles.

Advantages

• Visual presentation of material in pictures and diagrams;
• Affordable price;
• Suitable for group lessons;
• Audio accompaniment of the book (CD);
• The teacher's book will help you cope with assignments and exercises.

disadvantages

• Typos are found in the textbook.

Face2Face: Intermediate

Rating: 4.5

The textbook 'Face2Face: Intermediate', widely known in Europe and Russia, is designed to prepare people for real communication in the international language – it is on sound perception and speech skills that the emphasis is placed in the educational program. The tasks offer real situations that may arise in everyday life, on a trip, on a walk, in a store, etc. Moreover, it is not necessary to master the basic course for learning – the material is presented in an accessible way, with its assimilation, students and pupils have no problems .

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

The authors of the course open up new points of view of common situations, offer a lot of opportunities for revealing universal topics with various exercises and scenarios. All material is divided into lessons that fit on 2 pages. The creators allocate from 80 to 120 hours to master one level. The student's book is accompanied by a CD with audio materials (dialogues, lessons, test questions for fixing topics).

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

Advantages

• Emphasis on spoken language and analysis of its complexities, nuances;
• Issuing new words at the beginning of each unit;
• Structured and illustrated lessons;
• Audio CD complete with a book;
• Affordable training kit price.

disadvantages

• Explanations from the teacher are required, for home teaching, we recommend purchasing the Face2Face teacher textbook.

Tree or three ? An Elementary Pronunciation Course

Rating: 4.4

Tutorial 'Tree or Three? An Elementary Pronunciation Course 'is designed 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 a mastered Elementary level (beginner). The second edition of the book is supplemented by three audiobooks that make the process of mastering the material more understandable.

The second edition of Tree or Three? Adapted for mastering classic British English pronunciation. It adds practical exercises and exercises with an emphasis on the features of the language that can be heard in the speech of the inhabitants of foggy Albion.

The developers of the training material did not complicate the simply stated text; the textbook still contains a lot of pictures with games and dialogues, which are convenient to work out both independently and in a couple of classroom lessons.

Keys to assignments are attached to help students.

The average price of a book is 1200 rubles.

Advantages

• Ease of presenting information;
• A guide for self-study and group learning;
• Additional audio materials;
• Structured program, which included 47 units;
• The program is suitable for classes in schools.

disadvantages

• Not defined.

Assimil. English without difficulty today

Rating: 4.4

The collection of educational 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 entire course is divided into 2 phases. The first is the accumulation of information by reading texts, memorizing new words, in the second – practice, composing a text, pronouncing, applying the obtained theoretical knowledge in practice.

The authors of the textbook present the material mostly in the form of dialogues and real life situations. So, in their opinion, the assimilation of skills and knowledge is most concise.

Throughout the course, materials are repeated to consolidate it. 'Cherry on the cake' – English humor, which is also in the collection 'Assimil. English is easy today. ' An audio CD is included with the book.

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

Advantages

• Visibility of material presentation;
• Audio materials on a complete disc;
• The focus of the material is oral speech;
• 2 phases of training.

disadvantages

• Not defined.

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Attention! This rating is subjective and does not constitute an advertisement and does not serve as a purchase guide. Before buying, you need to consult with a specialist.