A concise grammar for english teachers pdf

A Concise Grammar for English Language Teachers excels at actually making grammar easy; easy to understand, easy to master, easy to apply in the classroom. Its underlying aim is to help teachers become au fait with the terminology used in modern ELT materials and to build confidence in their ability to explain grammar rules, both structural and functional, but without losing sight of the communicative and enjoyable aspects of teaching a foreign language.

The innovations of the first edition have been maintained, namely the A4 size, which readily accommodates the plentiful and highly commended tables of grammar items. It is also the first English teacher’s grammar to use ‘tree diagrams’ to show sentence constituents in full clarity. Other strengths include the excerpts from printed and online ELT materials, plus the many practical tips throughout.

Reference book and coursebook

A Concise Grammar for English Language Teachers may be used as a ‘dip in’ reference book, and its excellent user-friendly index helps immensely with that, but the real strength of this book is that it can be read from start to finish as a coursebook, where no prior knowledge of grammar rules or terminology is presumed. However, a high level of English is presumed, dispensing with the need to include grammar exercises, the like of which already fill many books.

Activities

In the second edition we have added many activities which need no preparation and only the whiteboard. Many teachers are under pressure to invent or search for activities that follow on from a coursebook or standard grammar lesson. Most of the activities in the book can be done from scratch, hardly requiring a preparatory read-through, and they hold the learners’ attention from the moment the marker/chalk is put to the board. Quite a novelty in any teacher’s book.

Teaching Notes

The many Teaching Notes are also quite helpful. These ‘to-the-point’ pieces of advice serve as reminders to the reader who may have come across similar ones before, or as valuable tips to the novice.

Here’s one Teaching Note that seems common-sense enough but many novice teachers would be unaware of the pitfalls of ignoring it:

What’s so different about this grammar book?

A Concise Grammar for English Language Teachers is the only grammar book of its type with:

1. A concise example of using CONTEXT, VISUALS and COLLOCATION, essential for modern communicative teaching (p 10)
2. An actual visual of the perfect continuous tenses (p 31)
3. A list of all verb tenses with their uses and examples on one page (p 48)
4. A visual explanation of the adverbs quite, pretty and so (p 84)
5. A comprehensive list of irregular verbs including American variations, and a comparison with confusable regular verbs (and it does include shit) (pp 108-109)
6. Data from corpora to back up statements, e.g. that burnt and dreamt are not the preferred British English past tense forms of burn and dream (p 110)
7. An example of using an X’s and O’s game for revising phrasal verbs (pp 119-120)
8. A note on the American if I would know vying with if I knew (p 142)
9. An explanation of Kim’s Game embedding article usage (p 153)
10. Error analysis with correction on the whiteboard (p 162)
11. Sixty tasks, based on rapid acquisition of grammatical and teaching knowledge, with a key which uniquely replicates relevant tables to help with explanation.
12. A list of learner levels according to grammatical indicators (p 165)
13. An index that is really user-friendly, taking nothing for granted (pp 182-184)

Anything Else?

As a matter of fact, there is: Penston’s authorial style, so distinctive in all his books. Penston makes the subject matter so pleasantly readable by using a great deal of humour and candid teacher-to-teacher talk.

One example of the sometimes hidden humour can be seen here:

This is not to say the book is in any way lacking in its provision and explanation of all grammar points necessary for confident teaching. On the contrary, the many authentic, glowing references prove its strength and reliability. It is indeed a remarkable work!

Extracts from the book’s Introduction

I am cognizant of the value of coursebooks and recommend their use. However, there is a growing use of authentic materials, language games, downloadable one-off lessons, etc. so the teacher now has to operate with more unpredictable language in the classroom. Today’s language learner is sophisticated and demands both communicative activities and competent grammar explanation.

It must be stressed that the activities in this book are designed for teachers, not for language learners. The extracts from published materials and the Teaching Notes are intended to show the difference between what the teacher should know and what and how they should teach.

I would here like to include a few points on what I believe an English language teacher should know about grammar and its teaching:

1. The teacher should know the terminology, because it is very difficult to explain a grammar rule without knowing the names of the items governed by that rule.
2. The teacher should know the structure rules, simply because most learners are comparing those of English with their own while they learn, and clear explanation should be available to the learner on request.
3. The teacher should know how to fit the semantic (meaning) with the grammatical, i.e. we don't just explain the what of the structure, but also the why, the use/function of the structure. The good teacher knows how to teach the ‘feeling’ for the language besides the structure of it.
4. The teacher should know when to teach grammar, better said, exploit grammar to aid the learning of the language. This involves knowing whether their students are the type who use grammar as a ‘mental framework’ for language acquisition (this sounds abstract but this type is evidenced by constant questioning about grammatical points, often consequently drawing accusations of testing the teacher). It also involves waiting till learners become curious about a grammar point before teaching it comprehensively.
5. The teacher should know when not to teach grammar, that is, not to present grammar for grammar’s sake. Primarily the teacher is a teacher of English communication, not of English grammar, and these in effect are two different subjects. Native speakers never had to learn (consciously) the grammar of their own language in order to communicate.

Reviews

". concise definitions and explanations, the book contains much teacher-friendly material. clearly laid out, ideal for the teacher who requires a quick reference and some useful teaching tips. For the trainee teacher particularly on pre-experience courses such as CELTA… it provides an easy to use learning aid. "IATEFL Issues

". a useful reference and resource for practicing teachers and ELT trainers. Of particular interest to trainee teachers will be the three chapters at the start of the book dealing with the form and function of verb tenses."International House Journal

". visually appealing. very accessible. imparts wisdom not only on grammar but also on teaching methods and differences between language learners. a valuable asset to your library."TESOL Ontario