This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript of the programme. Группа Learning English. Продолжение транскрипта: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/readinggroup_prog2.pdf
ANNOUNCER: You’re listening to “The Reading Group” from the BBC World Service. In this series we bring together listeners, students of English, literature teachers and other contributors from the world of books to share their enthusiasm for reading. We hope that following this series will encourage your own interest in reading books in English as a foreign language. Insert 1 – presenter Gary Stevens outside Bush House Hello. I’m standing a short distance away from Bush House - home of the BBC World Service - and I’ve come to see the statue of a famous man, described here as a critic, essayist, biographer, wit, poet, dramatist and talker. But Dr Samuel Johnson’s greatest achievement was perhaps as a 'lexicographer' – he was the creator of the first comprehensive English dictionary, published in 1755. Dr Johnson spent much of his life in this part of London, and he once said “when a man’s tired of London, he’s tired of life”! He worshipped in the church across the road and he lived in a house about ten minutes’ walk from here. Later in the programme, a Reading Group reporter visits this house – now a museum open to the public - to see the place where Dr Johnson wrote his dictionary, and to find out how he compiled it. Gary: Now here we are – and I’m joined in the studio by two students and a teacher. Annemarit: Hello, I'm Annemarit. I'm from the Netherlands. I started learning English at school when I was 12. As I was not very good at languages, I spent a few summers as au pair in England. It was here that I started to read English books for pleasure as well. Adrian: Hello, I’m Adrian Sack, I’m a journalist from Argentina and I’m reading a play byWilliam Shakespeare, King Lear. Jeremy: Hello. I’m Jeremy Page, Director of Studies at International House, a language school in London. I read and write a lot of poetry and short stories. Gary: You’re all welcome! Now, Adrian and Annemarit, you’ve joined the Reading Group because you love reading books in English, but I wonder, where do you like to read? Annemarit: Everywhere. I'm easily carried away by books so I take the book to the tube or the train, even when I have a bath I'll read a book. It's very difficult to put it aside. Gary: Do you read in the bath Adrian? Adrian: On the bus, in the train I can’t, because I lose my concentration. Maybe in my house, waiting room, and when I was a student at university I felt tempted to read when I had to study. Gary: Do you use a dictionary when you read in English? Annemarit: I do, sometimes. If I can figure out what the word more or less means I won't look it up in the dictionary, but I think it's better because if you do look it up you'll remember them more easily. Adrian: I only use a dictionary when I finish reading, I take note of the words and after that I do it. Sometimes I have to give up because I can't understand the meaning of a paragraph, and I go to the dictionary and I search the word but I try to avoid it until I finish my reading. Gary: I'd like to turn to Jeremy now, our teacher from International House. How important do you think it is for students to have a dictionary on hand? Jeremy: I think it's important in terms of reader security but it's not a good idea to go to the dictionary too often because it really does destroy the pleasure of reading. Gary: Do you have any tips for listeners on how to maximise their vocabulary learning when they're reading? Jeremy: I think that it's important to be an active reader, not a passive reader. In other words to make a note of any unfamiliar collocations that you may come across within a text, any moments that you think when you're...