The need to learn vocabulary is one point students and teachers unanimously agree on. People living in Sweden today need to understand thousands of English words in order to cope with the ever-increasing contact with the English language from radio, TV, newspapers, the Internet, etc. Unfortunately, little time is traditionally allotted in the classroom to learn new words, since grammar, being the “bastion” of the language, usually dominates the English lesson.

It’s All In The Cards is a pedagogical and custom-made method for Swedish students to increase their English vocabulary. During the process of creating this material, focus has been on answering the questions:

Which words should students learn in order to

• describe their environment?
• communicate with strangers/foreigners?
• respond to questions or understand directions?
• introduce themselves or pay a compliment?
• express personal or academic interests, feelings, etc?
• understand colloquial English; i.e. idioms, expressions, etc?
• enhance their conversation skills with synonyms/antonyms?

Bearing all of this in mind, the author has compiled and revised a selection of over 5,000 words and phrases spread over four levels of difficulty. Special attention has been given to “false friends”, i.e. words that sound or look alike in Swedish and English, but have different meanings (e.g. gymnasium, gift, eventually etc.).

In the classroom, It’s All In The Cards teaches students new words by making sentences using flashcards - active learning being the main goal of the method. As a compliment, an audio CD with pronunciation of both British and American dialect is included for each book.