Literacy News

This book is exhaustive but it gets the job done for any student on a plateau. It should be used after a simpler book like Side by Side 3. The goal is to reinforce and consolidate the skills learned in the simpler communicative learning books. TESL/TEFL apologists for ESL students obviously have not integrated this book because their students are not ready for it yet. It is a social matter of lower-educated working adults or a motivated language learner. It is for immediate students and will polish their skills in general. Spoken language is not very directly correlated with reading and writing. If you can not speak well, then do a simpler book. Then practice, practice, practice…and do this book as you practice speaking only. You will move off the plateau in a few weeks to a couple of months. When you are finished, my experience with private students is profound. You are ready for advanced ESL classes in community college or local university. Advanced-level English is not for academic students, it is a bare minimum for the functional English literacy in this society. You’ll still need spell check and grammar assistance, but you’ll be so much more confident. You’ll distinguish your language skills in spoken, reading and in your general everyday writing. You can’t skip to near-native speaker with this book, and slang books alone are not a short cut. This is a time saver.
Rating: 5 / 5

This “classic” ESL text, recently updated with green headlines and green tinted pages in the appendix, remains a favorite among English grammar fundamentalists. This thick book offers the drill and kill approach to learning languages with far too much time spent on minor differences of more interest to linguists than to ESL students wanting to read, write, and speak English. What is the goal, anyway?

Yet even if one believes in dwelling on the smallest details of some idealized use of the English language, I’d hestitate to recommend to either the second or third versions. Why?

“Fundmentals” costs far too much, weighs too much, and contains far too many impractical exercises of limited practicality. Teachers may find the grammar puzzles fascinating, but students usually want to learn grammar so they can use the language.

In comparision, Raymond Murphy’s “Grammar in Use” series (Cambridge University Press) provides far clearer examples, a simpler format, and a more logical format. It’s also ideal for self-study since lesson’s answers can be found in the back.

Plus, the “Grammar in Use” books cost far less. Administrators and teachers, especially ones working with immigrants and refugees, should consider price and practicality when choosing texts.

Granted, this “classic” text makes more sense in elite, private programs where wealthy studdnts are preparing for the TOEFL test outside of the United States. Yet immigrants and refugees, however, don’t need, want, or have the time to master these often silly distinctions without a difference. They need practical readings and compelling conversation exercises that help them get better jobs, make smarter consumer choices, and fully participate in the society. Ms. Azar’s book provides almost no assistance to immigrants as they struggle to create new lives in an often confusing, strange land.

Finally, I must confess that I don’t like fundamentalists in religion or language study. The same excessive zeal and narrow-mindedness that can distort and pervert rich religious traditions can be detected in the Fundamentals of English Grammar. Ms. Azar wants new English readers to write – and speak – far “better” and more “correct” than the vast majority of native English speakers. She advocates a fossilized view of the English language where innovation, slang, and change are all “corruptions” and “wrong.” Let’s just throw away the last century of art, film, and literature!

How can we, as English teachers, ask our immigrant students to write and speak better than of the President of the United States?
Rating: 3 / 5