Practice Makes Perfect: English Grammar for ESL Learners (Practice Makes Perfect Series) [Paperback]

Ed Swick (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0071441328 | ISBN-13: 978-0071441322 | Publication Date: December 7, 2004 | Edition: 1

Continuing the success of the bestselling Practice Makes Perfect series, Practice Makes Perfect English Grammar for ESL Learners features well-organized presentations, skill-building exercises, and a focus on practical conversational skills. Here you will find clear explanations accompanied by highlighted examples and boxed summaries of key points. You also get numerous exercises in a variety of formats, including fill-inthe-blank sentences and passages, translations, multiple-choice questions, sentence rewriting, and creative writing exercises. Answers to all questions are provided in the back of the book.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A complete overview of English grammar with hands-on exercises for the beginning ESL student

Practice Makes Perfect: English Grammar for ESL Learners helps you build a solid foundation in English grammar to help you communicate effectively. This clearly written guide leads you through the entire system of English grammar using concise, easy-to-understand language. The book features clear explanations, skill-building exercises, and a focus on practical conversational skills.

The book’s numerous exercises include a variety of formats, such as fill-in-the-blank sentences, sentence rewriting, writing original sentences, and more. Answers to all questions are provided in the back of the book.

This comprehensive workbook provides thorough coverage of every grammatical topic you need to know about, including:

• Nouns--from common to proper to predicate
• Punctuation, capitalization, articles, and pronouns
• Modifiers such as adjectives and adverbs
• The passive voice and subjunctive mood
• All types of verbs in their various tenses

Practice Makes Perfect: English Grammar for ESL Learners guides you through the most difficult parts of English and helps you develop your grammar skills so you can communicate confidently in your new language.

About the Author

Ed Swick has taught ESL for more than thirty years and has written numerous books on the subject.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (December 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071441328
• ISBN-13: 978-0071441322
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > English as a Foreign Language

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good practice book for grammar; not a comprehensive course, October 24, 2007

By 

C. C. S. Ryan "English instructor and eclecti... (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Practice Makes Perfect: English Grammar for ESL Learners (Practice Makes Perfect Series) (Paperback)

If you have/are a student who needs focused practice with the basics of English grammar, this book is a good choice. It doesn't really focus on usage, context, etc. That's fine, though--its purpose is practice and review. It's particularly useful for beginner/false beginner students who never learned or have forgotten basic grammar terms (transitive verb, etc.). Of course,these terms and rules should NOT be the focus of any modern ESL/EFL course. (Why? Because that's not how people actually learn to use language.) Nonetheless, the rules and terms are useful for discussing grammar problems, explaining the differences between a student's home languages and English, etc. Get this book as a supplement for a comprehensive, communicative textbook such as _Interchange_ or _Out and About_.

In terms of design and planning, it has lots of white space and a good balance of questions and explanations. Most other grammar-focused books use explanations that are too wordy and hard to understand, and present text-filled pages that are overwhelming to beginners.

As an example, I have a client who is an adult from Japan. He studied English for a year or two in junior high and at a conversation school. Because he had a fair amount of vocabulary and could handle basic conversations ("How are you?" etc.), we started off using an Interchange book. However, I eventually realized that he didn't know terms such as "adjective," which sometimes made it hard for me to explain why a sentence he had written needed to be changed. I picked up this book, and he's really appreciated adding some focused grammar work to our otherwise functional/conversational sessions. We've been following up the grammar work with Mad Libs so that things don't get too boring. He loves the book and uses its nice amount of questions in each section as self-guided homework.

As a bonus, this book is quite inexpensive and thus good for private teaching situations or for self-study.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ESL helper, November 8, 2007

By 

James Kellum (Boulder Creek, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Practice Makes Perfect: English Grammar for ESL Learners (Practice Makes Perfect Series) (Paperback)

English grammar is tough even for native speakers. If a person is doing it himself,this is one of the best ways to work through the info necessary to reach a working level. By that I mean communicating and understanding what comes back at you. The reason adults have a harder time picking up a language is that they (the adults) are afraid of being embarrassed. Children are fearless. This book, if worked through to the end, will install confidence, and that is 90% of the game.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Keeps You On the Path, January 28, 2010

By 

Sandy (Oregon) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Practice Makes Perfect: English Grammar for ESL Learners (Practice Makes Perfect Series) (Paperback)

I'm tutoring two adults from countries with very different languages. They have been speaking English for many years, but have never had formal classes. Although the students are probably between intermediate and advanced levels, I started with this beginning workbook to pinpoint grammar and pronunciation issues. I supplement with conversation, writing assignments, and various texts and recordings. This may seem a bit backward, as workbooks normally supplement texts and classroom exercises, but it seems to be working. My students can only meet one night a week and have very little time for homework. The compact chapters have just enough explanations, examples, and exercises to determine whether or not more study is needed in a specific area. The organization of the book also helps us focus and follow a path.