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 Sat Jan 06, 2007 14:35 pm What is your favourite grammar book? |
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My favorite English grammar books for teaching foreigners are in the Grammar in Use series from Cambridge. The only problem for me is that the advanced one is British only, and it contains strange British slang words that I have to look up in British dictionaries, such as "pitch" used to mean grass instead of tar. Then I have to tell the students not to use them around here, if they expect to be understood. I'll also have to deal with the fact that there's no word "gotten" anymore in standard British English, so they can no longer make the meaning distinction between, "I have got your letter," and, "I have gotten your letter," or, "I have got to go," and, "I have gotten to go."
My favorite grammar book for my own reference is the Swan book, or a book from Oxford called English Syntax by Roderick A. Jacobs. However, as a native speaker I seldom have to refer to these books, and I wind up referring to various syntax books by Andrew Radford, Liliane Haegeman or other people. These are more science books than traditional grammar reference books, and I use them to get the idea of various underlying grammatical structures and processes, so that I can think of sensible ways to teach them.
I like to use the book English Sentence Structure by Robert Krohn to drill students orally. It's got a lot of sentences to transform in various ways, and students who can do these tasks on paper may have a lot of trouble doing it orally outside the context of a written grammar exercise or general writing practice. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Sat Jan 06, 2007 15:03 pm What is your favourite grammar book? |
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Hi Tom
I can't add much to Jamie's post other than to say I agree with him.
Whenever an ESL student asks me to recommend a grammar book, the Grammar in Use series is usually what I recommend.
I'm not familiar with The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, but the website looks interesting. 
Amy |
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Yankee
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| Sat Jan 06, 2007 15:07 pm What is your favourite grammar book? |
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| Yankee wrote: | | Whenever an ESL student asks me to recommend a grammar book, the Grammar in Use series is usually what I recommend. |
Why do you like Grammar in Use better than, say, the Azar series? |
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Jamie (K)
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| Sat Jan 06, 2007 15:56 pm What is your favourite grammar book? |
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Hi Jamie
In addition to the quality of the material, I like the whole presentation/format of the Grammar in Use series. It's well organized and easy to use and I find the "two-page spread" format very good. The Grammar in Use books are also not overly prescriptive. Like you, I hate the fact that the advanced level is only available in British English.
The Azar books are also very good and I used to use them quite often. I have to admit, though, I'm not as up to date on recent editions of Azar as I am with the Grammar in Use books.
What about you? Why do you like Grammar in Use? Do you also use the Azar books?
Amy |
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Yankee
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| Sat Jan 06, 2007 21:39 pm What is your favourite grammar book? |
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MLA (whatever the title is)
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prezbucky
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| Sat Jan 13, 2007 2:59 am What is your favourite grammar book? |
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I keep grammar books far away from my Japanese students; they've studied too much of it already.
One book I usually find myself reaching for first is Leech and Svartvik's A Communicative Grammar of English, a more user-friendly grammar that is based on and includes section references to Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik's opus, A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language.
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Mister Micawber
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| Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:20 am What is your favourite grammar book? |
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| Yankee wrote: | | In addition to the quality of the material, I like the whole presentation/format of the Grammar in Use series. It's well organized and easy to use and I find the "two-page spread" format very good. The Grammar in Use books are also not overly prescriptive. Like you, I hate the fact that the advanced level is only available in British English. |
I agree with you on all these points. The only beef I have with Grammar in Use is that it is sometimes too functional and in some vital areas doesn't give the theoretical or grammatical term for something. One thing I like about those books a lot is that it makes the student create more of the sentence himself. Another good thing is that it doesn't assume the student is using the book in a classroom, so it doesn't waste page space on communicative activities that don't work anyway. If I had my druthers I'd use it as a workbook for a completely different, more drill-and-fill grammar series I have to use.
| Yankee wrote: | | What about you? Why do you like Grammar in Use? Do you also use the Azar books? |
I stopped using the Azar books when I discovered Grammar in Use, but I pick them up sometimes for students who need more exercises than Grammar in Use contains. When I picked up the Azar book again after a long time, I suddenly had more respect for its thoroughness.
However, I have one guy who cannot learn grammatical structures from that kind of book, and on him I use a reprint of a book containing scores of audio-lingual exercises. This works so well on him that I've begun using it on students who have less trouble. I find that a lot of students can produce correct structures in written grammar exercises, but they can't produce the same structures orally.
The typical ESL instructor today has been taught that the audio-lingual method is evil, but I have learned some languages very effectively with it (in its 1950s-60s form, not with Pimsleur). It doesn't do a worse job of teaching people to talk than the communicative method does, and it definitely produces more accuracy. With the communicative method I wind up inheriting students in advanced classes who still write "these bigs dogs" and things like that. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Wed Jul 02, 2008 16:05 pm What is your favourite grammar book? |
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Hi Alan
we are still waiting for your answer.
Please.
Tom |
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Tom
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| Fri Jul 04, 2008 15:11 pm What is your favourite grammar book? |
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| Quote: | Hi Alan
we are still waiting for your answer |
Blimey! What would Alan need a grammar book for? He's probably writing one 
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daemon99
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| Fri Jul 04, 2008 18:51 pm What is your favourite grammar book? |
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Hi,
Have never opened a grammar book in my life.  |
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 SkiIucK
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| Fri Jul 04, 2008 18:55 pm What is your favourite grammar book? |
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Hi Tom,
I have a big collection of grammar books but couldn't possibly choose a favourite.
Alan
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Alan
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| Fri Jul 04, 2008 18:55 pm What is your favourite grammar book? |
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Hi Dimitar,
Is that true? I mean, you probably learned English at school, didn't you? If so, I'm sure you did quite a number of grammar exercises. Your grammar is pretty good and if you really have never opened an English grammar book in your life, you would be living proof that it is indeed possible to learn English without cramming grammar rules into your head.
Please let me know what you think.
Regards,
Torsten
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