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

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The 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 Community

First of all, do not be put off by the title. This is not a traditional, dry grammar book, filled with every rule of correct English usage. Those of you who know Richard Firsten's publications, such as "Troublesome English" and the "Real Life Grammar" series, will not be surprised that "The ELT Grammar Book" is really a teacher's guide to the most common, and most difficult to explain, points of English grammar.
The book devotes a chapter to 20 of the most common areas of grammatical difficulty, such as word order, articles, subjunctives, and direct object companions. Each area is dealt with in the following three ways:
The Socratic Approach - whereby readers are encouraged to observe, think about, and make conclusions about the point. This technique enables exploration of the grammar in a way which is much more meaningful in the long run. Instead of committing rules to memory without really understanding why they exist, this method helps you understand the point so that you can more easily explain it to your students.
"Troubleshooters" - These are helpful insights that occur in most chapters, which focus on the points which are likely to cause problems for students because of language interference or other reasons.
"Teaching Tips" - These are activities, exercises, and games designed to help teachers make the teaching of grammar more enjoyable.
Towards the end of the book there are a couple of interesting chapters which you would not expect to find in a grammar book. The first of these deals with "ELT Waifs," words or phrases or phenomena which occur in casual language usage, but are not usually explained or codified, such as the use of words like "over," "that," and "quite." Even more surprising is the final chapter, which attempts to predict how we might expect English grammar to develop in the future based on its past development. I may not happen to agree with some of the predictions, but their inclusion displays the Mr. Firsten's obvious interest in the life of languages.
In addition to the chapters, there are very useful appendices that explain points in more depth and even cover helpful rules for spelling and pronunciation.
Although I have been teaching English for over 15 years, I discovered a new way of understanding complex grammatical points in nearly every chapter, and more importantly, I found ways of explaining these points in simple terms without having to resort to academic language. If, like me, you dread being asked why English grammar adheres to its own peculiarities, and have been searching for simple explanations, you will love this book.

I just finished a class on English Structure using this as our textbook. The authors bring you through reasoning about grammar principles/rules/nuances via examples and short exercises. I found it to be an extremely useful review of basic to advanced grammar points, with helpful hints on activities and common gotchas for ESL/EFL students. I give this 5 stars for the native english speaking teacher (However, I would give 4 stars as a resource for teachers who have english as a second language themselves, as much of the book's exercises assume you inductively learned many of the rules, and I could see this being lost on the non native speaker. However, they do explain the subtle nuances in most cases, so it is still a good guide).

This book should not only be used by ESL/ESOL/VESOL teachers, but by anyone who teaches grammar. Every detail is explained, the exercises and are easy to follow.

Teachers will never use another book once they see how complex material is made easy to explain.