Grammar and Beyond.(2012). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
When choosing a textbook, instructors seek a good fit between
the text, the curriculum, the students and the teachers. The format,
content, explanations, examples, exercises, and tasks need to meet the
needs and goals of the students and teachers using the book (Byrd,
2001). Additionally, the textbook should be informed by current research
in second language acquisition which emphasizes helping students notice
how language is formed and used, develop vocabulary, negotiate meaning,
and use language appropriately and meaningfully (Richards, 2006). In
selecting a grammar textbook, I also consider the following
questions.
Does the Textbook Integrate Form, Meaning, and Use of Grammar Structures?
Grammar isn’t simply a set of rules that focuses solely on
form. Grammar occurs in a context. Native speakers make choices about
how they are going to say something based on context. There are many
ways to say the same thing, but not all of them are appropriate in every
circumstance. Grammar needs to be taught in a context in order for
students to be able to make sense of when and why a particular structure
is used (Larsen-Freeman, 2003). Grammar and Beyond,
like most grammar textbooks today, recognizes the need for this
three-part focus on form, meaning, and use by providing a natural
context through which to emphasize and practice a given structure. What
makes Grammar and Beyond different is that the
authors have researched in which contexts certain structures are used
most frequently and use this data to inform all aspects of their grammar
series.
Will the Topics Be of Interest to My Students?
Grammar and Beyond introduces grammar
structures through a variety of topics, most of which are geared to
university students, such as college life, study habits, and making
connections through the use of technology. The intended audience for
this series is clearly young adults in academic English programs. The
readings are up to date and appealing to this age group, their
lifestyle, and their focus on matriculating into a university or finding
the perfect career.
Closely related to the question of topic is the vocabulary used
in the textbook. Grammar and Beyond introduces the
grammar through a reading or a written dialogue or interview in which
the structure being focused on is boldfaced. There is a prereading
question to get students focused on the topic, and some potentially
troublesome words are glossed. The authors of Grammar and
Beyond carefully integrate vocabulary and concepts from the
reading into subsequent exercises, so students get the needed repetition
and practice with key vocabulary related to the topic (including words
from the Academic Word List), but don’t have to struggle with entirely
new vocabulary while working with a grammar structure.
Is the Grammar Presentation Inductive or Deductive?
Grammar and Beyond includes an exercise
labeled Notice, which poses questions to students about target
structures in the opening reading. This leads students to discover rules
about form, meaning, and use through an inductive process. This is
followed by charts that describe form, meaning, and use based on corpus
research. I appreciate this balance of an inductive and deductive
presentation for consciousness-raising and the fact that the work of
designing inductive questions has been done for me.
Is There a Focus on Developing Both Accuracy and Fluency?
“The ultimate goal of learning is to be able to use the new
language both accurately and fluently” (Richards,
2006, p. 23). An effective textbook provides structured,
semistructured, and communicative practice. Grammar and
Beyond includes all three types of practice exercises. What it
does differently from some grammar texts is that it intersperses
communicative tasks, those that require authentic communication, among
more structured exercises, so students don’t have to wait until the end
of the unit to use the target structure in meaningful ways or, as my
students say, “do the fun stuff.” In Grammar and
Beyond these exercises are usually labeled Pair Work, Group
Work, or Over to You. There are also more communicative activities
available online for each unit.
How Long Are the Exercises?
Sometimes it feels like grammar books beat the proverbial dead
horse with overly long exercises. In Grammar and
Beyond, fill-in-the-blank exercises are shorter than in many
other grammar books I’ve used. There is a wide variety of exercise
types, and each of those is kept to a reasonable length while allowing
for sufficient practice. There is plenty of supplemental material
available for additional practice, including a workbook, a CD-ROM for
teachers, and online activities and resources for students and teachers.
Is Grammar Practiced Through Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking?
Most current grammar textbooks include exercises in all skills
areas. This book is no different. There are appropriate listening,
speaking, reading, and writing tasks. Grammar and
Beyond is particularly strong in developing grammar through
writing. Each unit has an Avoid Common Mistakes section followed by an
editing task. These are based on data from the Cambridge Learner Corpus.
This saves me from having to create my own “Fix the Mistakes” exercises
using thinly disguised examples from my students’ papers. And (no
surprise) the mistakes focused on in the book are the same ones my
students make.
This exercise is followed by information on how to use the
target structures in writing, a prewriting task in which students
analyze a piece of writing, and finally a writing task and self-edit
check. The writing tasks are at paragraph level. Grammar and
Beyond also includes an online component called Writing Skills
Interactive for developing writing skills such as writing effective
topic and supporting sentences. This is a fantastic resource. For many
lower level writing courses and for programs in which students are not
planning to matriculate into university, I would consider using Grammar and Beyond with its online writing component
as my writing skills textbook. The Level 4 book focuses specifically on
the structure of an academic essay.
Does the Textbook Incorporate Findings From Corpus Linguistics Analysis?
With the surge in corpus linguistics research, I have added
this question to the list. This is where Grammar and
Beyond is unique. Biber, Conrad, and Reppen (1998) suggest
that corpora studies on frequency distribution, association patterns,
and choice between variants be used in informing and designing ESL
texts. Because at least one of the authors of this series is also a lead
researcher in the use of corpus linguistics, that’s exactly what this
series does. The information in the charts has been tested against
real-world data from the Cambridge International Corpus to reflect
authentic language use. Additionally, there are sections in each unit
labeled Data From the Real World. These brief sections are among my
favorite parts of this series. I have neither the time nor the expertise
to check the various corpora to find out which structure is used most
frequently in spoken discourse and which in written discourse, or which
of two expressions is used more frequently in academics, or which are
the most commonly used noncount nouns, and so on. Now I can make
informed decisions on what to emphasize in my teaching and testing based
on information from this data. No more guess work.
Liu and Jiang (2009) call for a grammar teaching approach that
is based on functional grammar, (i.e., grammar in discourse context with
attention to form, meaning, and use of structures), considers
lexical-grammatical patterns of structures and vocabulary, and
integrates research from corpus linguistic analysis. Grammar
and Beyond meets all three criteria in a user-friendly,
colorful, attractive format. I am impressed with this series and would
choose it over others for English for academic purposes programs.
References
Biber, D., Conrad, S, & Reppen, R. (1998). Corpus linguistics: Investigating language structure and
use. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Byrd, P. (2001). Textbooks: Evaluation for selection and
analysis for implementation. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching
English as a second or foreign language (3rd ed., pp.
415–427). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching language: From
grammar to grammaring. Boston, MA: Heinle &
Heinle.
Liu, D., & Jiang, P. (2009). Using a corpus-based
lexicogrammatical approach to grammar instruction in EFL and ESL
contexts. Modern Language Journal, 93,
61–78.
Richards, J. (2006). Communicative language teaching
today. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Melinda Sayavedra has been teaching English language
learners and teachers for more than 30 years in a variety of settings.
Grammar is one of her favorite things to teach. |