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Teach yourself English Grammar - as a Foreign/Second Language | |
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton.
Author: John Shepheard
282 pages, 54 chapters
Price £8 (in England)
ISBN 0-340-78019-3
At English for Everybody, we know that many of our visitors are learning English without help from a teacher. So when we saw a book called Teach yourself English we were interested. Especially as it says that it "makes learning easy and fun."
The book starts with the present simple. And it goes on with the present simple. In fact ten of the 54 chapters in this book are on the present simple. For comparison, only four chapters are on the present perfect, which some people think is more difficult.
There is not a lot of grammar explanation. This is rather strange because the book says it "gives you tips ("tips" are good suggestions) for learning the rules of English", so maybe it should tell you what these rules are. The author prefers that you should learn by doing the exercises. There are a lot of exercises for you to do. Sometimes it is rather hard to understand what you must do in the exercises. But most exercises are the usual kind - "Is this sentence correct or not?" "How can you write this sentence differently?"
Our reviewer had another problem doing the exercises - this book is only a little bit bigger than a normal paperback, and it is quite thick. So it is hard to open the book completely flat, and when you write in it, the book keeps trying to close. The book is too big to carry in your pocket, so we do not understand why the publishers did not make the pages bigger, so that the book could be flatter.
There are some pictures. These are small black and white cartoons that are used to explain some of the grammar (sometimes they are the only explanation of the grammar).
The answers to the exercises are at the back of the book, so you can check your work. There is also a good index that lets you turn quickly to the page that you need. Another thing that many students will find useful is the grammar summaries at the back - these are easy to understand, and will help you to revise.
The book does not say what level it is for. Complete beginners will not be able to use the book. Advanced students will think many of the exercises are very easy, but it will be useful for practicing English they already know. The book is definitely not a complete English course.
How do you teach yourself grammar as a second language, anyway? (Look at the title again!)
Verdict - We say this book has a lot of exercises that are useful for practicing grammar, but it will be hard to learn new things using it. Though they are more expensive, the excellent books by Raymond Murphy (Essential Grammar in Use) are a better way to spend your money.
Assessment 4/10