"The common-core knowledge in this series is the next big step for ELT to take in the 21st century."

"Extremely well-planned and constructed and very impressive."

"At last a course that truly prepares students for IELTS by developing the necessary skills from the pre-intermediate level."

"Skills in English has formed the backbone of our 2008 Intensive English Course and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a skills-based course with an academic focus."

"I would thoroughly recommend this series to any centre running academic English courses."

"We have finally found a textbook which caters for international students at tertiary level."

"A very useful addition to the EAP tutor toolkit, which has received positive feedback from students too."

"Attractively presented, with interesting topics and a number of language tasks which engage the students' interest and enhance the four language skills."

"The topics are very interesting because they reflect today's world and what surrounds our students."

"Very appropriate for mixed-ability groups having different degrees of confidence in their English abilities."

"We are now using this series very successfully."

"The single most useful tool you could buy, if you are going to invest in a resource for embedding ESOL into a mainstream Science or other study curriculum, or if you are resourcing a Language Support provision."

"The topics and tasks are appropriate for all learners and the course is preparing them well for future university study."

"The series is called Skills in English and take students in four levels from Elementary to Advanced in the four skills, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Each of the four skills, at each level, can be either used as stand alone or in conjunction with the other skills books.

This is a course made up of 3 parts, Reading, Writing and Speaking, and aims to 'build the skills' of the learner in each area, by working through a series of themes, such as Education, Daily Life, Work and Business, Science and Nature, Culture and Civilisation, Sports and Leisure. The themes that are dealt with are the same in all 3 skills and levels. Although I haven't yet used the books as a complete course, I can imagine doing so. Each book covers its particular skills in detail with plenty of room for practice and with a well-structured approach. I have found them very useful as a teaching resource, using them to focus on either a topic or a particular grammar point. In the Writing part of the course, for example, theme 3 deals with 'Hiring and Firing' and gives some good vocabulary for the topic, as well as introducing the area of flow charts.

I have used this very successfully in numerous classes, with students producing a flow chart showing some process at their place of work, for example, the disciplinary process in their company. In short, this is quite a good book for the teacher to dip into, but you wouldn't be able to use it as a stand alone resource."