Focus on Grammar, A BASIC Course for Reference and Practice, Second Edition [Paperback]

Irene E. Schoenberg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201346761 | ISBN-13: 978-0201346763 | Publication Date: December 15, 1999 | Edition: 2nd

Focus on Grammar, Second Edition, is a four-level grammar series written by practicing professionals. The series focuses on English grammar through lively listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities. In order to learn the formal rules of a language, students need to practice new structures in a variety of contexts to help them internalize and master them. To This end, Focus On Grammar provides an abundance of both controlled and communicative exercises so students can bridge the gap between knowing grammatical structures and using them. The many communicative activities in each unit enable students to personalize what they have learned.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Clear, communicative, and teachable, Focus on Grammar: A Basic Course for Reference and Practice provides enough context, practice, and interaction to make any classroom come alive.

Focus on Grammar features:

• Clear visual presentation of grammar
• Concise grammar explanations
• Fully contextualized grammar presentation and practice in all four skills
• Controlled and communicative practice
• Comprehensive review tests including TOEFL¿ Test-style questions
• From Grammar to Writing sections included in all levels
• New information gap activities throughout each book

The Focus on Grammar series is a five-level course, Introductory through Advanced.

Product Details

• Paperback: 455 pages
• Publisher: Pearson ESL; 2nd edition (December 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201346761
• ISBN-13: 978-0201346763
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #768,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Content-based and with lots communicative tasks, May 1, 2000

By 

"musicalfan" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Focus on Grammar: A Basic Course for Reference and Practice (Complete Student Book) (Paperback)

This series provides well-designed grammar books in real Communicative-language-teaching approach. This course book has both clear and user-friendly grammar reference and a lot of interesting skill-building practices. It helps learners to practice grammar in controlled exercises and communicative tasks. The tasks are similar to what learners may encounters in real life, and some of them require oral negotiation during the problem-solving process. Thus, this material help learners to use English in carrying out tasks in real life. Unlike traditional structural-based and drill-focused grammar books, this material allows learners to practice and use grammar in a social context, so it is very suitable for EFL or ESL classrooms, but not for individual learning. The outstanding features of this grammar series are as follows: 1. The methodological emphasis on retrospective approach to grammar. For example, learners encounter the focused grammar structure (usually highlighted) in a reading passage or a dialogue in the first section. Then, they will read the explanation of that grammar usage in the second section. Examples are always included in the explanation, so it is easy to understand and remeber the grammar usage. 2. Instruction-friendly design: model dialogues or passage, explicit explanation of grammar, and ready-for-use tasks are provided 3.A good grammar companion to any other course book: units are arranged according to grammar categories, so learners can practice what they need. 4.Well-designed and interesting skill-building exercises. Some are task-based exercises and allow learners to practice grammar in real communication. 5. Focus on content. Wide-range of interesting subject matters in the presentation and practices. Usually, all ofthe exercises/tasks within one unit deal with the same grammar structure (e.g. passive voices)through the same content topic (e.g.naming) Sometimes, the topics of several units are related when these units deal with related grammar structures.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressed, August 16, 2000

By 

Mario Dominguez (Chihuahua, Chihuahua MEXICO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Focus on Grammar: A Basic Course for Reference and Practice (Complete Student Book) (Paperback)

Well, what more can I say. I teach English in Mexico and bought this book here. It's a bit more expensive here, but it was well worth the wait. In addition to the book, I bought the workbook, the teacher's manual and the cassettes. The level of the book itself is about 4th to 7th grade. It is a very impressive book and intend on buying the newest series, when or if they become available. I would recommend this series to anyone who would be interested in teaching ESL or EFL.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overall but more than a few errors, February 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Focus on Grammar: A Basic Course for Reference and Practice (Complete Workbook) (Paperback)

I am writing about the 2000 edition: This series and text is good overall but considering this is the 2nd or 3rd edition, I am disappointed that there are so many mistakes between the questions, correct answers and answer key. It's hard enough for people to learn English as it is without them beating their heads trying to find why an answer is such-and-such only to learn that the given answer is wrong or that the question itself doesn't give all needed information.