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Title: Basic English Grammar, Full Text by Betty Schrampfer Azar ISBN: 0-13-368317-6 Publisher: Pearson ESL Pub. Date: 16 January, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $42.60 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An Excellent, Useful Supplement
Comment: This is a well-organized, easy-to-understand tool for teachers and students that will serve as a helpful supplement to broad-based classroom instruction. (This evaluation of Azar's work is from the perspective of teaching EFL.)
For learning and teaching language, linguists now largely agree that "research has failed to crown any single method as superior." At the same time, researchers assert that a multi-entry program is best, one that uses as many different and varied means as possible. Therefore, if we assume that each method and tool used inside or outside the classroom for learning language is just one small piece of a large collage of methods, we will find that nearly every kind of material and method has its place.
To shrug off Azar's 'Basic English Grammar' by claiming that "It doesn't work" is to misunderstand its place in the classroom. For teaching conversation skills, it ought not in any way to be the bread and butter of a teacher's instruction; rather, interaction and dialogue that involve the five senses and (where appropriate) the whole body ought to have foremost priority. A heavy emphasis should be first placed on raw listening comprehension alone, afterwards on speaking; after that reading and finally writing. Once basic language skills have been developed in this way, teachers can introduce more formal instruction in grammar, using various exercises to practice new concepts.
And that is the place for a volume such as Azar's. The exercises are varied (from cloze passages to fill-in-the-blanks to identifying errors to oral conversation to open-ended essays and more), and the book is thick with page after page of exercises that are extensive and repetitive - exactly as language learning should be.
Because most of the exercises are written, in my case I do save this material for use only once or twice a week, or as supplementary homework for students to practice what they have already covered and practiced orally in class. In that case Azar is an excellent reinforcement for what students already know, and need be little more.
Teachers of introductory English will need to be aware that the vocabulary in the exercises may be broader than their students are presently familiar with. Also, those teaching in non-English-speaking countries should be aware that some aspects of American culture found in the exercises may be difficult for their students to understand, and therefore the instructor will need to make adjustments accordingly.
Overall, this is a helpful and enjoyable tool for training in good grammar skills.
Rating: 1
Summary: It doesn't work
Comment: Real language is acquired through comprehensible input (see books by Krashen). All this book will do is help you take grammar tests. It will not improve real spoken or written language.
Rating: 5
Summary: Basic English Grammar
Comment: I have been using Betty Azar's book Basic English Grammar for many years. I find it a perfect supplementary text for other series books that focus on themes and the functional aspect of the language, but do not offer much in the way of drill practice. The fill in the blanks exercises are perfect for homework assignments, especially in the initial stages where practice with the form of the grammar structure needs to be mastered in order to create a foundation for freer expression. The writing assignments are well developed and provide students with a chance to apply on a more personal level the grammar structures they have learned. I also have found that the ORAL:BOOKS CLOSED activities have saved me hours of inventing cues on my own because they allow me to interact with the class as a whole and require that the students process the structures from listening, not the written word. If delivered in a manner that the students don't know who will be responding next, you can engage everyone in using the targeted structures to make a response, even though you call on only a selected number each time. Because drills are necessary, but can become repetitive, I further challenge the students to give their responses to their partners by asking them to "look into their partners eyes" when they respond, instead of speaking while they are reading off the page. I call this "thinking and speaking" because they must use their short term memory instead of their eyes. Hopefully this endeavor will help to move the structures that they are practicing into their long term memory, where it will be available to them outside the classroom. I am especially grateful for all the thought that has been put into the development of this beginning level book in the Azar series, as it has provided me with a strong foundation for teaching the basic structures of grammar. If it were more thematic, however, I would possibly not use it only as a supplementary text.
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Title: Fundamentals of English Grammar, Full Text by Betty Schrampfer Azar ISBN: 0133382788 Publisher: Pearson ESL Pub. Date: 18 February, 1992 List Price(USD): $42.60 |
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Title: Understanding and Using English Grammar (Blue), Third Edition (Student Book Full without Answer Key) by Betty Scrampfer Azar ISBN: 013958661X Publisher: Pearson ESL Pub. Date: 30 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $42.60 |
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Title: Fundamentals of English Grammar: Workbook Volume A by Betty Schrampfer Azar, Donald A. Azar ISBN: 0133470717 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 01 March, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.67 |
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Title: Understanding and Using English Grammar: Workbook by Betty Schrampfer Azar ISBN: 0139587608 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.67 |
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Title: Fundamentals of English Grammar: Workbook B by Betty Schrampfer Azar, Donald A. Azar ISBN: 013347089X Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 01 January, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.67 |
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