Slang Rules!: A Practical Guide for English Learners

by Orin Hargraves and Lexicographer and Author of Language Reference Books Orin Hargraves

Book Overview

A learner's guide to American English and its usage when speaking and writing in informal contexts. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877796823
• ISBN13: 9780877796824
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Merriam-Webster
• Length: 185 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.8" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

I really liked this book!

It was an excellent teacher on slang. Easy to read and follow along with. From Merriam-Webster.

This Book Rules!

Slang is an essential part of any language, and SLANG RULES gives learners of English tools they need to understand the language they hear around them every day, as well as how to use (or not use) it correctly. As an ESL teacher and a professor of teacher educator for over 30 years, I know that students yearn to develop natural speech, which includes slang, colloquialisms, and other language that might not be in a dictionary, but which they encounter every day online, at school, and at their workplaces. SLANG RULES teaches common phrases such as cheapskate, out of whack, sting operation, lose your edge, kvetch, bummer and common elisions (coulda, woulda) which are not in dictionaries. I enjoyed seeing beamer, but probably because I have one (a BMW, that is)! SLANG RULES presents this common vocabulary and, in a feature very useful for language learners, tells whether the slang is current or old-fashioned, and gives tips on usage. Words that are offensive are clearly identified, so that learners can make informed decisions about whether to use them. Imagine the embarrassment that this will save learners when they hear an improper word at school or work, and then use it inappropriately. Learners who use this book will never experience that. After reading SLANG RULES, learners will understand the vocabulary that native speakers use and be able to make informed decisions about whether to use those words. SLANG RULES both informs and empowers learners. The material was developed by Merriam-Webster, and the quality of this book shines through. SLANG RULES contains the language learners need to fit in to American culture and life. I have already shared this book with learners coming to the US to live, and it has helped them immeasurably, giving them confidence and understanding of life in the US.

And now for a dissenting opinion...

I have to respectfully disagree with the normative and slightly menopausal expression of outrage in other reviews. Speaking as a 30 year ESL teacher of teens and young adults, I opine that the ability to use both slang and curse words is an absolutely vital functional skill for students to have. Unfortunately, there are both institutional (in high school settings, for example) and attitudinal ones (see other reviews) that prevent our students from mastering the essential skill of how to curse in a foreign language. I feel sorry for students fresh out of non-comprehensive language class who immediately confront actual L1 teens using real street language, and our students are unarmed, unprepared, and ready to be linguistic victims of parochial instructional attitudes. In my classes, I try to establish an atmosphere of lexical neutrality - they are just words, for god's sake! - and I am the trusted expert on the prosody of using "fighting " words. I have recommended that the blonde Swedish angel teen can't carry off "motherf-er" but that her Israeli peer might just be able to. The idea that "if you teach them the n word, they might use it! (gasp horror) is as specious as "if you teach them about sex, they might have it." Silly and self-righteous.