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Grammar Games and Activities 2 | |
Publisher: Penguin English Photocopiables
Diedre Howard-Williams
131 pages
Price £25.00
We know that many EFL teachers visit these reviews, because some of you are kind enough to e-mail us with comments, suggestions and even the occasional correction. Though we usually review books that can be used by both teachers and students, the book this month is for use by EFL class teachers. But if you are a student, keep reading. After you have finished, you may want to ask your teacher to get the book.
This book is one of a series edited by Peter Watcyn-Jones. (You may remember his name from the original Test your vocabulary series.) This book has the same feeling - that English can be fun, and learning does not have to be boring or painful. The drawings are black and white, and are mainly cartoon style. None of the drawings are for decoration - they all have a function in the text. (Though I am not sure why the cover has two non-Britiish polar bears on it!)
Of the 131 pages in the book, 43 are teachers notes. These tell you about the exercise, how to set it up, the grammar points involved, how many people the exercise needs, and how long it will take. (There are also several pages of answers at the end.) The notes seemed clear, and the exercises practical. That is, they will work in a real class environment, unlike the exercises in some books which assume that everyone participating is a well-behaved extrovert. The major advantage is that all the exercises are photocopiable, and the book has a ring-bound back that makes it easy to put flat under a photocopier. (Hands up everybody who is not expert at photocopying from the normal kind of textbook ... I thought so.) Well, with this book, you don't have to worry about breaking the copyright law - you can legally make all the copies you want for classroom use. That's why it costs £25 in the first place.
The 60 exercises in this book cover the standard five levels from beginners to advanced, with twelve exercises for each level. On average each exercise takes about 20 minutes. The exercise types include information gaps, jigsaw reading, questionnaires and find the difference. Among the grammar points covered are imperatives, comparatives, adjectives, verb formation and usage. For example, an exercise tells students to prepare for visitors to their town. One student group must list the local sights, another must prepare a shopping trip, another must describe the local hotels, and a final group the restaurants and night life. Finally the whole class prepares a timetable and itinerary for the visitors.
This book is definitely for teachers, and in fact because it covers so many levels, it is best used as a resource book for a language department. The exercises will give teachers ideas for other exercises of their own, and some of the pictures - for example of a house, or a street scene - can easily be used for other things as well.
Verdict: A useful teacher resource. Not good for self-study.
Assessment 7/10