Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

I've been teaching ESL for over 20; some of my lessons were out of date; this book allowed me to make them current

When i first come to America, my english did cause me problems. In Soviet Russia i was strong teacher, my english i know is the best in all of Petropavlovsk. My brother, Mikhail, he say to me, "Nikolai you go to America, they make you rich like czar, take many woman as lover, kill many bear". My brother, he is very wise, is greatest toymaker in all of Russia. So next day i wake up, sell my house, say goodbye to wife and children, and go to America to become millionaire. Then in America, I go to job interview and they say to me "Nikolai, you are not for the job here, you are not the skills we need, your english is poor like child". I take that man and smash his table, i say "someday i will be greatest man in all of country, your children will wish me their father!". That day my anger is best of me. It is then i know i must learn better english, so i buy book "English Grammer it is for Dummies" by Mr.Woods. Now i am perfect english grammer! I write letter to Mikhail, he write back "Nikolai, your english is like a god, you will be millionaire soon! all of Petropavlovsk is proud for you! good luck brother! please send letter when you are president or maybe even czar! Hahaha! also, your wife is killed by bear". So i say thanks to Mr.Woods for his book! When i am czar your family will be spared! Hahahaha! (is joke).

I know this will be a good book to add to my collection. I am a newly retired teacher and have volunteered at a local literacy council to teach ESL. Thanks!!
cayres

I returned this book because it annoyed me on the very first page. It starts with a discourse about the difference between proper and common nouns. The approach is very rule-oriented rather than real-world-use oriented.

I purchased this book for my ESL learners. I have not used it yet.

It said "the book was used but like new". It took about 5 weeks for me to receive the book and it was in a very bad shape, very dirty with stains. The book was badly taped and glued together and writen all over. All the questions in it were answered and erased but you still could see it.
The owner is not ohonest about his book. I'm very dispointed about this person that who would lie about such a small sale. I would not deal with this one again.