Hello!

Welcome to Making Progress to First Certificate !

I really enjoyed preparing the material for this course, and I hope that you'll enjoy using it.

I'm sure that Making Progress to First Certificate will help you to become much more confident when using English. You'll get plenty of speaking practice -- mostly working in pairs or groups in class, so that you have lots of time to talk and develop your fluency -- and plenty of listening practice to help you to understand English speakers better.

I'm also sure that you'll learn a lot of new things. Making Progress to First Certificate is full of exercises and puzzles to help you to:

• increase your vocabulary
• improve your pronunciation
• improve your grammar, and make fewer mistakes
• improve your writing skills
• develop your reading skills

If you use the "with answers" edition of the Student's Book or Workbook, you can do many of these exercises on your own.

The Workbook gives you lots of extra practice in grammar and vocabulary. These will help you to make even more progress. The Workbook also has lots of interesting texts for you to read, just for pleasure.

A few words of advice:

• When you're talking English, don't worry about making mistakes. And don't expect your teacher to correct all the mistakes you make.
• Use a dictionary -- the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary is best. But when you're reading, don't look up every word you don't know. Concentrate on understanding the information and ideas in the text.
• Ask questions in class. Don't be shy -- teachers like answering questions!

You'll find plenty to interest you in Making Progress to First Certificate -- and plenty to discuss with your partners. Enjoy Making Progress -- and enjoy making progress!

Good luck!

Leo Jones lives and works in Bournemouth in the UK, where he taught EFL for many years. He is a freelance writer and teacher-trainer and has led workshops in many countries. Among his best-known books, all published by Cambridge University Press, are: Functions of English, New International Business English, New Progress to First Certificate, Let's Talk, Welcome!, New Cambridge Advanced English, and Working in English.