The ELT Grammar Book: A Teacher-Friendly Reference Guide (Alta Teacher Resource Series) Review

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The ELT Grammar Book: A Teacher-Friendly Reference Guide (Alta Teacher Resource Series) ReviewThe ELT Grammar Book is a reference guide for
teachers of English to speakers of other languages.
Readers may recognize the author's name as the
columnist of "Grammatically Speaking" in TESOL
Matters and "The Grammar Guy" in ESL Magazine.
Richard Firsten has taken his grammatical expertise
and produced a reference tool that focuses on topics
both difficult to understand and explain. The style is
casual and relaxed, which is a pleasant deviation
from typical pedantic grammar reference materials.
Though extensive and in-depth (22 chapters
and 8 appendices totaling over 550 pages), the text is
not intended to be exhaustive. Topics were restricted
to include only high frequency areas typically most
troublesome to teachers and L2 learners alike.
Eighteen of the chapters focus on grammar-exclusive
themes that include such topics as adjectives, articles,
modal auxiliaries, passives, prepositions,
subjunctives, verb tenses, and word order. Three
chapters are primarily discourse related.
Autosegmentals are analyzed in chapters 15 and 18;
the former chapter covers word and phrase stress
while the latter focuses on sentence-level intonation.
Chapter 21 is entitled "ELT 'Waifs'" and deals with
relaxed pronunciation, intensifiers, and common
phrases seldom included in instructional texts.
Phrases that add so much to the flow of conversational
English such as "a great deal of" or the frequent use
of the suffix "-ish" (childish, pinkish, late-ish, around
eight-ish) can assist the L2 student in understanding
common discourse. In the final chapter, the author
notes the changing nature of the English language
and predicts upcoming transformations that are likely
to occur.
Each of the 21 instructional chapters
concludes with "Teaching Tips," which supply
instructors with resources that allow students to
flesh out the content material through numerous
activities designed for pairwork and/or small groups.
These activities alone make the text a valuable
resource. Scattered throughout many of the chapters
is an aside called "Troubleshooter." This
informational box interrupts instructional sections
with pertinent explanations in anticipation of
students' questions. Another strength of the text is
the salient feature of the inductive method of
instruction. For example, situations are often
presented in the form of dialogs so that readers can
observe the grammar point contextually. By
highlighting selected portions of the dialog and
through provocative questioning, the writer models
a lesson requiring the reader to elicit a rule or to
figure out why a certain construction is used.
Employing this critical thinking strategy leads to
discovery, and ideally, to student ownership of that
specific grammar point. At a minimum, adding this
method to one's teaching repertoire will supply
diversity to classroom instruction.
Finally, the eight appendices cover a range
of subject matter that includes strategies, games,
pronunciation, spelling, and further elaboration on
previously covered material. For instance, the author
has provided an excellent outline in the second
appendix that uses the mechanical, meaningful/
manipulative, and communication approach in
relaying content material. Examples abound using
cloze procedures, slot substitutions, and incomplete
dialogs.
Many ESL professionals rely upon college
composition reference manuals for consultation.
Often these tools provide ESL-specific material only
in the form of an appendix or sub-section. The
detailed instruction found in The ELT Grammar Book,
however, is designed exclusively with the L2 learner
in mind. Its primary limitation is found in the
authors' intentionally selective subject matter which
may leave instructors searching elsewhere for
particular topics not addressed. Regardless, whether
an instructor's method of infusing grammar is
comprised primarily of explicit discrete-point
instruction or incidentally through a more
communicative approach, the information, activities,
and strategies offered in this text will provide a
handy reference tool for teachers of L2 students in
various levels and contexts.
Tom Bellomo taught EFL in Spain for five years,
ESOL in New York for five years, and has been
teaching EAP coursework in Florida since 1997. He
presently teaches at the English Language Institute,
Daytona Beach CommunityThe ELT Grammar Book: A Teacher-Friendly Reference Guide (Alta Teacher Resource Series) OverviewAt long last English language teachers have what they've been waiting for—a "professional friend" to give a helping hand at all times! A great deal more than a grammar book, this new resource explores areas of the language that teachers have found troublesome to understand, hard to explain, and challenging to demonstrate to students. Its down-to-earth, reader-friendly format gives a fresh, new way of looking at complex material, in turn preparing teachers to communicate better and give more effective examples to students. The 22 chapters explore word order, articles, present, past, and future tenses, the overlooked uses of some and any, modal auxiliaries, prepositions, genitives, compound nouns and adjectives, passives and causatives, direct object companions, two-and three-word verbs, subjunctives, conditional sentences, the role of stress and intonation to convey meaning, and more! You'll find valuable information that you've never seen in other grammar reference books! Each chapter:• encourages readers to observe, think about, and make conclusions about grammar points;• features special Troubleshooter boxes with helpful insights on points that often bring problems to the teaching and learning of English because of language interference or other causes; and• concludes with a section of Teaching Tips to help you create an atmosphere of fun and enjoyment in your classroom with a generous amount of activities and games to teach or reinforce the discrete points covered in the chapter. When your mind goes blank and you're trying to remember exactly what native speakers of English say or why they say this or why they don't say that . . . The ELT Grammar Book comes to the rescue! It's a professional friend that you'll consult often over the entire course of your career.

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