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Title: Understanding and Using English Grammar (Blue), Third Edition (Student Book Full without Answer Key) by Betty Schrampfer Azar ISBN: 0-13-958661-X Publisher: Pearson ESL Pub. Date: 30 July, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $42.60

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Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (18 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: My first grammar book
Comment: I am an educationist from Malaysia. I would like to share with you my experience in using this book.

My first ever contact with this book was when I was doing my English intensive preparatory course in the College of Preparatory Studies in Shah Alam Malaysia. The book was our grammar textbook for the whole six month we were there. It was given to us FOC by our sponsor, The Public Services Department. I felt that I really improved my knowledge on English grammar then. Thank you Azar for giving us this excellent book.

Now that I am an English, I am using this book as a textbook, too. I hope my students will gain a lot from it and improve their grammar as well.

Rating: 5
Summary: My Wonderfull Book
Comment: Even thought, this has been my second grammar book, it has been helpful in many ways. But most of all with verb tenses. Since, I am not a native English Speaker, I keep it with me every time. It explain verb tenses perfectly. No other book, in 1 1/2 year studying English, has been so explicit. Now, I am buying another for my nephew. He studies ESOL, but he is not using this book. He feels he need more explanation. He likes the practices in this book; they are very complete and enough. When one finish doing those practices, one really now how to apply any rule in ones life, and the next step is practice talking.

Rating: 4
Summary: For those who crave grammar
Comment: This book is a comprehensive reference grammar/workbook for non-native speakers of English. If you are trying to choose between Azar's grammar books, the "Blue" book is intended for intermediate to advanced students, while the "Black" book is for beginning to intermediate and the "Red" for raw beginners. A grammar outline from the "Blue" book is also available without exercises.

The book is divided into chapters covering notorious grammar points, including: verb tenses, modals, passive voice, gerunds and infinitives, singular and plural, adjective clauses, noun clauses, connecting expressions, and conditional sentences. There are also appendices covering terminology, question formation, negation, articles, phrasal verbs, and error correction. On average, each chapter has 15-20 articles covering a single grammar point or contrast in detail. Atypical article starts with a grammar description, which is usually presented in the form of a diagram or chart, supported with several examples and explanations. Then follow several exercises, which mostly require the reader to write in the correct form of the word, although oral exercises are common, and there are occasional editing exercises.

The book's strength is the clarity of its grammatical explanations, and Azar's simplified diagrams of verb tenses are now standard in many ESL classrooms. Students who crave grammar instruction will adore this book. They like to read the grammatical descriptions, and they get a sense of accomplishment from filling in all the blanks. But will this really improve their grammar? If a student is completely unaware of how a grammatical rule works, then this book will go a long way towards making the rule clear. The exercises help reinforce each topic, but it takes a lot more implementation of a rule than the 20-50 sentences found in each set of follow-up exercises in this book to make a rule automatic. Does doing exercises improve grammar at all? The jury is still out on that one, but from my own classroom experience, even students who zealously complete every exercise in the book correctly show little consequent progress in their written or spoken grammar. My own personal belief is that students improve their grammar mostly through extensive exposure to grammatically correct language, either spoken or written, and what little exercise they get from this book won't make that much of a difference (as long as they understand the rules they should be watching out for).

Nevertheless, many students enjoy working with this book because they think they are spending their study time on a worthwhile topic. That leaves the way open for hidden collateral gains. Azar uses a wide range of vocabulary in her examples and exercises, and most students will develop their active vocabulary by using this book, especially if they are encouraged to pay attention to new words. Many of the dialogs that Azar uses are inane classroom dialogs- -if they could only cover real information worth learning about, then she could maintain the readers' interest more, as well as expose students to real world information. In any case, if grammar is what you want, it would be hard to beat this book, due to its clarity, accuracy, and exercises.

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