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Book report and review (407-

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BOOK REVIEW
SPEAKING NATURALLY
By Bruce Tillitt and Mary Newton Bruder

Speaking Naturally Communication Skills in American English is written by Bruce Tillitt
and Mary Newton Bruder. The genre of this book is non-fiction, scientific. It consists of 11
chapters and has 115 pages. Speaking Naturally is for intermediate and high intermediate
students who want to communicate effectively in both formal and informal situations. Speaking
naturally gives useful information about the kind of language that is appropriate in different
situations. For example, how and when do we thank people? How do we invite our friend to
dinner? with whom we talk to, and etc.
Summary of the content
It's a good source of conversational practice for ELL students who want to feel at ease among
Americans.
There are 11 units in speaking naturally
1. Opening and Closing
Opening a conversation and bringing a conversation to an end are essential parts
of our everyday language. In this lesson we will learned more detail how
americans perform these fuctions.
Example :
Opening: how are you?
Good morning
Closing : Im sorry i think i have to go now.

2. Introductions and address system
When making an introduction in any language, you need to know the formulas
and rules for doing it. We also need to know what to call the participants. This
lesson eill help you to identify given names and surnames (last names) and decide
which form of the name is appropriate to use. You will also learn how
introductions are made.
Listen to the following dialogues, paying attention to the introductions and the
way people address each other.
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Book report and review (407-
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Example :
George : mrs. Carr, i would like to introduce a friend of mine,
if i may: Albert Douglas. Albert, this is Mrs. Elaine
Carr.
Albert : Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Carr.

3. Invitations
This chapter focuses on social invitations-how to make them and how to respond
to them. After completing the exercises, we should comfortable in making and
replying to invitation in various situations.
Example :
Shinta : whant to come over Thursday for supper?
May : Thanks, but i have to work that evening.

4. Thanking people and replying to thanks
In this unit, we will look at and practice situations that require an expression of
thanks. As you proceed through the unit, you may notice situations that in your
native culture do not require a thank you. You may also notice situations where a
thank-you would be expected in your country, but not expected in the United
States.
Example :
May : Thats a nice shirt.
Robby : Oh, thanks. I just got it at sears.

5. Apologizing
Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone needs to know what to do and say after
making a mistake. This unit focuses on apologies, and the aim is to help you know
both what to say and when to say it.
Example :
Jorge : Forgive me. Im terribly sorry.
John : Thats quite all right.

6. Expressing anger and resolving conflict
We may have heard Americans epressing their anger and been unsure of what
they were saying, because they were talking so fast. Or perhaps you didnt
understand why they were angry. In this unit, we will study what makes
Americans angry and how they express their anger. We will also learn the
acceptable ways of reacting to someone elses anger.
Example :
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Mr. Walters : Hey, can you get your dog to shut up? Some
people are trying to sleep around here!
Mrs. Hudson: Now, wait aminute! Prince is just barking
because your cat is screaming all over place.

7. Giving compliments and replying to compliments
In this unit, we will look at situation that require a compliment and practice giving
compliments. These situations may be different from those requiring compliments
in our native culture. We will also learn what to say when youu want to give a
compliment to someone in English.
Example :
Jane : This soup is terrific.
May : Thank you.

8. Getting peoples attention and interrupting
Getting people attention and interupting people are important skills in any
language. These are sometimes difficult to do in another culture, where the
gestures or ways of speaking are very different from your own. As always, the
formality of the situation and relationship of the spekers will affect the way
people talk each other.

9. Agreeing and disagreeing
In talking about almost anything, and especially when discussing certain topics,
such as religion, sports, the economy, or politics, you hear many opinions
expressed. We will problaby agree with some and disagree whit others. This
section describes appropriate ways of doing this English.

10. Controlling the conversation
In this unit, you will learn different ways that people control and change a
conversation. You will study what to do to change the subject politely, how to
show the other person that we are listening and understanding, and how to get the
other person to repet or speak more slowly when speaking with us.

11. Getting information
Every day we are confronted with situations that require us to obtain information
from strangers. We need to find out where an unfamiliar street or office is, for
example, or we need more information on plane achedules or car prices before we
can make a dicision


[NAJIB KHUMAIDILLAH (2201411094)]
Book report and review (407-
408)

The writers style in this book is simple. They make the book simple for giving the
readers an easy understanding because the book is made for the English learners so that it should
be easy to be understood then.
The book is also well-organized that the readers can easily understand the material given
by reading the information of each chapter first and then try to apply the dialogue to get deeper
understanding. For example :
- In Giving compliments and replying to compliments chapter the readers are given brief
information about the material before applying such kind of dialogue or conversation
from the dialogue given
In this unit, we will look at situation that require a compliment and practice
giving compliments. These situations may be different from those requiring
compliments in our native culture. We will also learn what to say when youu want
to give a compliment to someone in English.
Example :
Jane : This soup is terrific.
May : Thank you.
The author gives chart to support delivering the argument and also make easy to the
readers in understanding the material. For example :

Female
First name (full) First name (short) First name
(diminutive)
Barbara Barb Barbie
Christina Chris, Tina Chrissy

Male
Alfred Al Alfie
David Dave Davy, Davie
John Jack Johnny, Jackie
The table is used for deciding or guessing the persons gender for the English learner by
looking at his or her name or nickname. I think the table given above is one of the strong
evidence because from the table given we can analyze the gender of a person by looking their
name so that it can avoid embarrassment if we are wrong in doing conversation in phone from
anonymous number or unpredictable number or in daily life such as when our friends are talking
about their new friends, but they dont mention his or her gender and they just mention his or her
name.
I think the argument of the author is quite weak because the book is made by empirical
research that involved the teacher and students in the advanced speaking classes at the English
Language Institute, University of Pittsburgh.
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Book report and review (407-
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Strength:

The book used easy methods to lead the reader understand the content of the book, using what
youve learned, cued dialogues and mini role-plays. The second is, this book focused on the
students apply their speaking ability in their daily condition naturally. Then, the explanation,
examples and exploration about the material are easy to understand. Next is, the material are
composed systematically from low to high level, so it makes the book clearer for the reader.
There are several pictures which help the reader easier to understand the situation, condition and
the role-plays. And this book focus on the student development skill, that more appropriate for
learner to improve their speaking ability as the purpose of the book.

Weakness:

The weakness of the book is this book used the same method from the first chapter till the end of
the chapter, so it will make the readers get bored of the method and material.

Speaking Naturally is very useful to be used as a textbook, especially for the second semester of
university students for Interpersonal and Transactional Conversation in speaking class.
Speaking Naturally gives useful information about the kind of language that is appropriate in
different situations. For example, how and when do you thank people? How do you invite a
friend? What is the most polite way to interrupt?
So, it gives lessons about many things in speaking. We can analyze the formality of the
relationships between different people in the situations presented.
So, we recommend this book to be read not only by university students but also by secondary
students to improve their speaking skill.