The book is planned as a bilingual course to teach spoken English (formal as well as informal) to adult beginners and takes the learner from this initial stage of learning to the intermediate stage. The following points will be useful in an understanding of the book and its purpose:

1. It is assumed that the user has had some instruction in English at school or college level and are familiar with the fundamentals of the language, but lack the skills and confidence to communicate through English.
2. Explanations, instructions etc. are in the regional language which will be considered as the resource language of the learner.
3. The book can be used as one-to-one teaching, as classroom teaching and as a self-learning tool.
4. There is an accompanying computer CD which has tracking facilities and text appearing on screen for listening and speech models.
5. The book is illustrated with small and lively illustrations just to relieve the tedium of the reading and not really to explain the text in any way.
6. The book adopts a functional–situational approach, that is, it will be organised around different language functions such as ‘introducing oneself’, ‘inviting someone’, ‘requesting for help’ and so on.
7. Typical expressions commonly used in performing different language functions (e.g. We would be delighted if you could . . .’) are used and repeated in the exercises to reinforce learning, but the dialogues will be designed to bring out the dynamics of communication.
8. Important points of grammatical usage are discussed wherever required.
9. Each dialogue is accompanied by explanatory notes and comments where required, as well as by exercises.
10. Exercises are straightforward because they are meant for learners with elementary skills in the language. Hence the exercises look at aspects such as repetition, completion with prompts, translation, echoing etc.
11. Cultural differences between the source and target languages are highlighted wherever relevant.
12. The book is divided into two parts: a. English in Social Situations b. English in Work-Related Situations
13. The book has a word list at the end with words divided according to situations and contexts. The word list is illustrated where possible.