Longman Language Activator

I have taught English as a Second Language to refugees for nearly 20 years. For my more advanced students of English, I was absolutely delighted to find the Language Activator series from Longman. It helps me structure lessons around a group of words that deal with an area of discourse. It's a real step up from even the best of ESL "learner" oriented dictionaries, and FAR more useful than a simple thesaurus. I showed a short excerpt to a fellow ESL teacher, who immediately said, "Wow! I have to get this book!"For example, under the general heading of HOPE are 12 different subtopics with phrases and models for each meaning group, including four pages of examples of how each meaning can be expressed, which show detailed examples of how to use language like:-- "if all goes well"-- ''encouraging"-- "losing hope"-- "despair"-- "desperate"-- "optimistic"-- "the light at the end of the tunnel"It's a well thought out, well organized presentation of how to express hope, the lack of hope, idioms for hope, etc.Highly recommended to ESL teachers and advanced ESL students. The book is over 1500 pages, and the latest editions offer CD ROMs. Also of interest: The "Essential Activator" version.

very useful book. its totally worth to buy.

The best “dictionary” for writers!

I study English on my own and I have always been trying to find a tool that could help me write (and speak) natural English. It is very hard to accomplish this, especially living in a foreign country (I am Brazilian) and to make things worse I don't live in a big city which would present far more opportunities to enhance my knowledge and practice. So, in order to improve my knowledge I try, as far as I can, to embed English language in my every day activities. I work in a bank and have to be constantly reading manuals to learn procedures, etc. So, all notes I make, since they will be for my own purpose, I write in English. The problem is translating them into authentic English. As an example, I needed to write some important details about giving the customer an overdraft limit. Overdraft limit in Brazilian Portuguese is written "limite de cheque especial", which literally translated would be something like "special check limit". I am sure neither British nor American say it that way. I searched through Longman Language Activator and I didn't manage to find a definitive answer. I found the word "overdraft" in the OWE keyword. There isn't a keyword such as "BANK". If you look up the index for the entry "BANK" you will find the following reference (LINE 6; SIDE 2 it won't break the bank; CHEAP 1). But I also have a copy of Longman Essential Activator and this book does have an entry named "BANK" where I finally found what I was looking for: the term "overdraft limit".Longman Language Activator is not the suitable book if you need words related to a particular situation such as being in a HOTEL, AIRPORT, RESTAURANT, etc. There aren't even such entries in the book. But if you'd like to say how BAD something is, what terms could be used in the sense of "PREJUDICE", for example, this is the book for you. It could be compared to a thesaurus apart from the fact that this book has tons of natural examples with sections that describes another related senses of the term. If you find the entry "IGNORE" you'll know how to express these ideas in a variety of ways: 1) to not pay attention to what someone says or does; 2) to rudely pretend not to notice someone; 3) to ignore something bad, even though you know it is wrong.This book really deserves a 5 star review because it is very good if you know how to use it. It isn't fair to review it with a low rate only because it is not suitable for your current needs.

I just love this book; it has been one of the most useful ones in helping me build vocabulary and understand the sometimes subtle differences in meaning. As a learner of English as a second language (already in post-advanced level) I have seldom come across a more useful aid. The definitions are surprisingly simple -always a relief for the student- and the logic behind it pure genius: group words alphabetically AND conceptually. All dictionaries should be like this one, hands down.

The Longman Language Activator is a new kind of dictionary - it is a dictionary that enables language students to selectively encode what they want to state in English to a degree of linguistic accuracy that had hitherto been impossible using conventional dictionaries. Basically speaking, the Longman Language Activator is a dictionary of ideas. These ideas are the1052 key words that have been distilled from a spoken corpus of 10 million words and a written corpus of 30 million words. From these key words, the student is presented with options to help guide her in homing in on the most semantically relevant word for a particular context or situation. All the options are common, and are shown in order of frequency. The great strength of this dictionary is that it gives clear guidance on how words are normally used, and in which context they are appropriate, whether it be spoken or written, formal or informal, child or adult, or American or British. I particularly liked the dozen or so illustrations that demonstrate how proper use of the dictionary can train the learner to select words and phrases that a native-speaker would use, and perhaps I would have liked to see more of them. The Longman Language Activator is an excellent reference guide for teachers, and simply a must have for any advanced learner hoping to turn passive knowledge into active use.