For a start, the chosen book for this analysis is “Understanding and Using English Grammar“ (fifth edition) by Betty S. Azar and Stacy A. Hagen. This edition was published on December 22, 2016 by Pearson Education ESL. Indeed, this textbook is targeted for intermediate to advanced learners and it introduces various grammar rules with other skills. The main purpose is to enhance grammar competence with sequenced practice. Specifically, it entails 20 chapters with an appendix, listening script and index. All the rules are introduced very thoroughly with the help of examples and exercises. Obviously, it starts from the explanation of tenses and ends with conditional sentences and wishes. In each chapter there are warm-ups, explanation of the rules, exercises for practice and several interactive tasks. The primary reason of choosing this textbook is that it is considered as one of the most popular grammar textbooks since it is very detailed, well-organized and informative. Besides, it combines other skills as well as teaching grammar. It is also interesting to note that the pictures chosen for exercises, different activities and assignments are appealing. Therefore, in my view it is worth analyzing more thoroughly.
As it is mentioned above there are 20 units overall and each unit holds up to 10 subunits. They are introduced in sequence taking the difficulty level into account. For instance, as tenses are vitally important and core of the grammar it starts from the introduction of tenses and some revision. All the units have revision in the beginning, then explanatory part and exercises for practice. Furthermore, exercises are formed well including writing, reading and listening skills. The pictures given make it more interesting and catching. Clearly, this book firstly gives input and elicits the output through the whole tasks. After the units there are review exercises and some games and role plays. The author provides the context in the case of some case studies, reading passages, writing & listening exercises and some dialogues. What is more, some skills are combined in some tasks such as reading & grammar or speaking & writing.
In fact, this book can be applied in CLT classroom since there are many interactive activities and warm-ups. For example, it has a host of speaking activities and several reading passages for discussion. They are very helpful for practicing the explained rules and acquire better comprehension. It is not only based on theory, but there are also plenty of practical exercises. As it is an updated version it includes grammar charts, pretests, newly-guided writing and speaking activities with an appropriate design. With these words it can be said that it holds both inductive and deductive approaches. When it comes to activities it is evident that they are provided very appropriately belonging to the topic and covering all the essential parts. Easier exercises are given firstly prior to the complicated ones. They include gap-filling, multiple choice, matching, writing and speaking tasks. Importantly, they are based on both form and meaning, because some of the exercises concentrate on more meaning, while some focus on the form. Therefore, it can be said that both meaning and form are included in this textbook. According to Thornbury (1999) the absence of context does not allow to recover the intended meaning of even a word or phrase (p.69), so context is grossly vital for any grammar book. In addition, language teachers must integrate contextualized and meaningful materials in the class (Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000, p. 51). It is considered that this book is not context-sensitive since it holds a number of texts and exercises based on the context, and theories are very relevant on the context as well, but there are some generalizations. For instance, the sequence of the exercises is almost the same in all topics as they begin from some revision, warm up, theory to the practice tasks. Obviously, we can see many noticing activities in it. Gap filling, matching and some reading & speaking activities are the good examples of noticing exercises and via them learners can easily notice the grammar forms and meaning. Warm-ups in the beginning of each unit have also learners notice some grammar points.
Furthermore, it is apparent that learners are well-supported with the help of hints, explanations and clear instructions. Moreover, intriguing pictures can also help them to understand the theme better. However, it does not mean that self-discovery is restricted. They are more likely to guess the grammar points by the exercises. Especially, reading and listening activities may help them to assume and find out some grammar aspects. Hence, this book provides both support and self-discovery.
Since there are all the skills are covered learners are able to practice the language much better. It means that it also emphases on the language use. Even though it is a grammar book it has several communicative activities and they easily facilitate the learning process. They have a great chance to incorporate the learnt grammar rules with the skills and it definitely boosts their language proficiency.
The time is equally divided for each activity if the teacher explains the rules and regulates the class appropriately. For example, examples and the length of each exercise are properly developed, but there is one drawback. If the class is not grammar based, it would take much time to finish one unit, because each one takes roughly 20 pages and everything is up to the teacher in this book. As there is no any instruction regarding time in any task teacher herself/himself has to allocate the time appropriately. The regulation of shared input is carried out with the help of various activities and warm ups, whereas the familiarity with the topic is checked with the revision or pretest. The pretest evaluates whether students are familiar enough with the topic or not and it gives ample data about their existing knowledge to the teacher.
Basically learners are engaged in reflection activities through speaking and writing tasks because they are mostly given in the post stage. That is why, learners should reflect after they obtain sufficient understanding concerning the theme. The listening and reading activities also rely on the grammar points of the unit as they firstly analyze the grammar prompts and then focus on the reading or listening. Hence, the grammar is essential for these tasks in a bid to achieve the ultimate goal.
Indeed, this textbook is satisfactory enough for the level and needs of the learners since it has all the necessary parts and alignment with language skills. However, some role-plays and authentic materials would be added in order to implement more communicative teaching because nowadays’ learners are more eager to be active rather than just learn and do. There are more gap-filling activities than other types. Other alternatives, such as true-false and discussion questions should be added as well. As my learners often confuse the tenses and conditionals I would use this material and destination to explain these topics more specifically. Based on them I would create some role-plays and interactive activities so as to enhance their comprehension. As Thoman (2003) states teachers have to gain media literacy since they are highly effective in CLT classroom (p.1). Here integration of some videos, radio podcasts and television shows eases the grammar classroom and makes it more interactive. In this way they would apply the theory with the practice.
All in all, with all aforementioned statements it can be surely said that this edition is more developed and interactive as opposed to other ones. The combination of the grammar with language skills is of utmost importance for learners’ competence. However, it would be better if some more communicative tasks were added.
References:
- Celce-Murcia, M., (1995). Intercultural Language Use and Language Learning. University of California, USA
- Mart, C., (2013). Teaching Grammar in Context: Why and How?. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, V 3, N 1.
- Yassaei, Sh., (2012). Using Original Video and Sound Effects to Teach English. English Teaching Forum, V50, N 1
