| Book of the Month | ||
| The Good Grammar Book | |
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Authors: Michael Swan and Catherine Walter
324 pages
Price £10.95
ISBN 0-19-431519-3
Are you going abroad on holiday this summer? If you are, maybe you need to improve your English. In every country in the world, you can always find someone who speaks English, and sometimes it can be very important to communicate. Or are you a teacher looking at course books for next year? If your answer is 'yes' to any of these questions, it is a good idea to look at this book.
Catherine Walter is an experienced English Teacher, and Michael Swan has written several English language textbooks. One of these is Practical English Usage, which many English teachers have on their bookshelves. The names of the writers can help you when you want to buy a grammar book, because there are very many grammar books that you can buy, and some are much better than others.
The first thing I liked about this book is that it tells you that it will not make your English perfect. (But it will help you a lot.) English is more than just grammar. You also have to be good at listening and speaking, and to have a good vocabulary.
There are 21 sections in the book. There are also six appendices, and an index. The first ten sections are about verbs and tenses. The others are on things like comparatives and demonstrative adjectives (this, that, those). The book tries not to use too many technical words to describe English grammar, but in case you are confused by them, there is a list of these words and their meanings at the start of the book. The appendices are things like the different constructions of active and passive verbs, and examples of types of preposition, but what English learners will want to know about are the sections and the exercises.
If you are studying on your own, you should not start this book at the beginning. Instead, look at the different sections, and choose the one you think is most important for you. At the start of the section, there is a test. You should do the test, because it will helkp you to decide if you need to do the section. At the end of the section there is another test, so you can see how much you have learned.
There are many pictures, and many of them are a part of the exercises. (The others are cartoons, which are not really necessary, but good fun.) The pictures are a mixture. Some are photographs, and others are drawings. Most of them are in colour. But this book is not like some books that use really big colour pictures on the page instead of something useful. Every page has two or three exercises, and these have five or eight questions each. There are also parts of the page in yellow that tell you about common mistakes, or correct usage.
This is a good book for students who want to learn on their own, but it can also be used as a class book, though this will depend on each teacher's style. There is a version of the book without answers for classes.
Verdict Hundreds of pages of good exercises, thoughtfully illustrated, with useful information about grammar and language usage. This book is excellent value. We recommend it, especially for people studying on their own.
Assessment 10/10