Resources On English Improvement

Grammar Books

Two books which seem to have good reviews are:

• Murphy’s English Grammar with CD-ROM by Raymond Murphy and
• Advanced Grammar in Use with CD-ROM by Martin Hewings

There are a lot of other good books and I encourage the learners to read their reviews on amazon.com and flipkart.com before buying them.

Improving your spoken English

Fluentzy - I have not used these books. But I have seen a lot of their advertisements in "The Hindu". Also a search on "English fluency" in Google will first give this site as a link. So I am assuming this is a good resource for becoming fluent in English. But as far as I understand these books should be read only when you are good at English vocabulary and writing.

Books for writing better

As per the recommendation of a friend of mine, two books which can help you to write good English are:

1. "On Writing Well" by William K. Zinsser
2. The Elements of Style" by William Strunk and E. B. White

Free dictionaries for download

Wordweb - One of the best free dictionaries available. But it only provides meanings, few example sentences and a non-standard phonetic transcription.

Online dictionaries

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online - This has meaning + phonetic + example sentences + some sounds
Cambridge Learner's Dictionary Online - This has meaning + phonetic + example sentences but no sounds
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary Online
Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary.com - Meaning + phonetic (slightly modified IPA) + example sentence
Collins Dictionaries

Dictionary CD-ROMs which you can buy

Note: These dictionary CD-ROMs have meaning + example sentences + IPA transcription + sounds

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (with CD-ROM) - The current edition is the Updated edition of the the 4th edition and its CD is compatible with Windows, MAC and Linux (Paperback with CD) and it costs Rs.560. For the latest editions available in India and purchasing online, contact Pearson India.
Distributor details for Longman dictionaries can be got from http://www.pearsonedindia.com/how2order.asp. "Shraddha Book Depot" (near Secunderabad Railway Station) sell this book and they also offer 15% discount.

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (with CD-ROM) (ISBN: 0521539625) - The Indian edition of this dictionary costs Rs. 495 (this is the Paperback edition with CD-ROM). For the latest Indian editions and purchasing online, contact Foundation Books.
Distributor details for Cambridge dictionaries can be got from http://www.cambridge.org/asia/india/. I contacted the Andhra Pradesh distributor and he told me that they offer a 15% discount on Cambridge dictionaries.

http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2004/4307.htm - Comparison of Cambridge and Longman Dictionary CD-ROMs. According to this it does seem that Longman is a better choice for learners.

Word of the Day

I got this list when I did a google for "Word of the Day". If interested you can subscribe to some or all of them.

http://signup.dictionary.com/wordoftheday
http://www.wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/bwwod.pl

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl
http://www.oed.com/cgi/display/wotd
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/

Other Resources

Antimoon - A very nice resource on how to learn English effectively. This will give you an idea about the resources you can use to learn English effectively.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/33306/effective_ways_to_improve_vocabulary.html - Tips on Improving Vocabulary

http://www.ehow.com/how_13383_improve-vocabulary.html - Tips on Improving Vocabulary

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm - "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell

http://theamericanscholar.org/writing-english-as-a-second-language/ - Writing English as a Second Language