The Idiom Advantage: Fluency in Speaking and Listening

Rating:
Summary: Great idioms for intermediate to advanced students
Review: I have been both teaching and studying English and have seen many books on idioms over the years. The most striking difference of this book is that it presents idioms in a very interesting context (fun talks, real ads, etc.). I also liked the choice of idioms, I feel this book would be appropriate for advanced students as well as for intermediate students.
The book has all the scripts and answers at the end so it can be well used for self-study.

Rating:
Summary: This reaches right into daily life--it's a great teacher.
Review: I have lived in many Latin American countries, and now can speak Spanish on a level that I can reasonably be understood and understand. But I am still trying to learn the Spanish idioms that each country has----and I have wondered, after reading Ms. Watkins' book---why someone has not written a similar book for those with Spanish as their second language. Her book is so to the core of American culture, that it makes it so much easier for someone learning English to pick up phrases, sayings, different meanings to words that couldn't be translated literally, and thus land on their feet running without having people listen to stilted, foreign-like phrases. This book should be used in every Institute or class that teaches English as a second language. I have taught elementary and junior high classes, and if I were to go back to teaching, and could teach English as a second language, this would be one of the first books I would use.

Rating:
Summary: a bit outdated
Review: some of the idioms are good -- but there are always two or three in each unit that i have to tell my students, "this one isn't really used anymore."