English Grammar for Students of Spanish [Paperback]

Emily Spinelli (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Olivia & Hill Pr; 6 Blg edition (July 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0934034362
• ISBN-13: 978-0934034364
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Spanish
  • #24 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Spanish
  • #24 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Spanish

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anna Rivera's Review of English Grammar for Students of Spanish, December 13, 2009

By 

A. Rivera "LearningSpanishProductsReviews.com" (Orlando, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: English Grammar for Students of Spanish (Paperback)

This is Anna Rivera editor of the Learning Spanish Products Reviews site and author of Anna Rivera's 1000 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Words (Spanish Edition) and Anna Rivera's 800 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Phrases (Spanish Edition).

This is very valuable tool for learning Spanish. Unfortunately, very few students and instructors know about this resource. Not only does this book do a wonderful job of teaching Spanish grammar, it also gives the student valuable tips and information to help accelerate the student's learning. Here is some of the advice that you will find in this book:

1. Practice in Sequence: This is a very important tip. Many students jump around from topic to topic when learning Spanish. But as this book tells the learner "language-learning is like building a house; each brick is only as secure as its foundation."

2. Practice Daily - Set aside a block of time to study everyday. It takes time to develop the skills that it takes to speak and comprehend a language.

3. Learn New Vocabulary - Some instructors and authors of Spanish courses will tell you that you only need to learn a few hundred words to communicate in Spanish or any other language. Well I guess that all depends on the level of communication that you are seeking. If you want to be fluent then you will need to know lots of vocabulary words in order to express yourself in a variety of situations and to be able understand native speakers in a variety of situations.

4. Learn New Grammar forms - In order to communicate in Spanish, not only will you need to know lots of words, but you will also need to know how to conjugate verbs; how to use the proper endings on nouns and adjectives; as well as form other grammatical terms.

5. Learn to Communicate: This book reminds the reader that her ultimate goal is not to master Spanish grammar but to be able to effectively communicate with native Spanish speakers. Learning vocabulary and grammar is not the final goal. It's just a means of accomplishing your goal.

This is a book that I have highly recommend to both my private students and readers of my learning-Spanish newsletter. And I also highly recommend it to all Spanish instructors and students of Spanish. And I recommend it not only because of the effective manner that it teaches Spanish grammar by relating it to English grammar concepts, but I also recommend it because it gives the learner very valuable advice and tips for learning Spanish.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars zorra1, January 14, 2008

By 

joy "KjB" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: English Grammar for Students of Spanish (Paperback)

This book is the Holy Grail of grammar for students studying and learning Spanish. Spinelli has an outstanding presentation that will bring the average student to an understanding of how to transfer structures from the L1 to the L2, this is an outstanding review for students that are not passionate about grammar. It is easy to follow and well written.

28 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, November 22, 2008

By 

Kenneth A. Siev - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: English Grammar for Students of Spanish (Paperback)

In its defense, this book is intended to be a quick reference, not a replacement for a full Spanish textbook. But this is no excuse for its sloppiness, which complicates much as it clarifies.

Each chapter starts with a question, such as "What is the past tense?", and is followed by a short answer, such as "The PAST TENSE is used to express actions that occurred in the past." The concept is explained in more detail as it pertains to English, then as it pertains to Spanish.

Even I-just-wanna-know-the-answer students will quickly be frustrated by this approach. I don't understand why a book whose purpose is to compare English to Spanish doesn't bother to use side by side comparisons. Simple tables could have replaced many a paragraph. This failure undermines the whole purpose of the book, both as a quick reference and as a comparative guide.

The sloppiness is even more frustrating. Compare the explanation of the past tense above to the one provided for the perfect tenses: "The PERFECT TENSES are compound verbs made up of the auxiliary verb to have + the past participle of the main verb." That's how perfect tenses are CONSTRUCTED, not what they ARE. The pages that follow aren't much help, relying mostly on examples alone rather than explanations followed by examples.

In the section on moods, the three English moods are identified: the indicative, the subjunctive and the imperative. In Spanish, the section continues, there are only two moods: the indicative and the subjunctive. Doesn't Spanish also have an imperative? Of course it does. A sentence to explain this apparent omission and direct to the reader to the section on imperatives would have been helpful.

The section on progressive tenses discusses the present and past progressive in English, but completely ignores the past progressive in Spanish (and the imperfect, which certainly deserves at least a mention here).

The section on the present tense contains this curious sentence: "Unlike English, there is only one verb form [in Spanish] to indicate the present tense." I know that the present progressive isn't used as often as it is in English, but that doesn't justify saying that it doesn't exist!

Another pet peeve of mine is the inconsistent use of terms that refer to same concept. I don't expect the grammarians of the world to get together and settle this once and for all, but I do expect books to be internally consistent. I know it's a pain to say "past perfect or pluperfect" every time, but alternating between those two terms makes an already complicated subject even more confusing. In the section on tenses, the book lists all of the tenses, including the "imperfect" and "past progressive." Ten pages later it introduces, without explanation, something it calls the "imperfect progressive tense." That's not very helpful.