Innovative book on English grammar

Essential Grammar
Author: Parvathi Nagasundaram
Reviewed by Sandun Pathirana

Essential Grammar: A reference book for teachers of English by Parvathi Nagasundaram is undoubtedly a realisation of a long-felt need in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Sri Lanka. The book, which is subtitled A reference book for teachers of English, is an excellent guide to English grammar not only for teachers of English but also for anyone who aspires to learn English.

The book is a guide for teachers of English in the sense that it deals with the grammatical items that have been included in the current secondary school textbooks. They are also the items of grammar that any set of school books necessarily includes. Therefore, the book comes in useful to the currently practising teachers as well as those who aspire to enter the English teaching profession in the future.

A unique feature in this reference grammar book is the inclusion of a separate chapter on the approaches to teaching grammar, which will definitely help teachers or prospective teachers in devising appropriate grammar teaching activities to suit the learners of different proficiency levels and with varying learning strategies.

Experience

As I have observed through my long spell of experience in teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) in Sri Lanka, what most of our English language practitioners lack is an appropriate and effective approach to teach grammar. The author attempts to fill this vacuum by including a comprehensive section on different approaches to grammar teaching and by detailing the stages of a grammar lesson which is followed by a series of grammar practice activities.

Thus, the book has carefully addressed the practical needs of the teachers of English as a Second Language. The author's precise understanding of the way in which grammar should be taught is reflected in her words in the preface to the book, which highlight the importance of helping the learners to internalise the grammar points taught through the grammar practice activities.

“One of the complaints made by many teachers is that students perform well in grammar exercises based on a grammar point taught but make errors when they use the very same grammar point in speech or writing. This is because they have gained only explicit knowledge of the grammar point taught. They will be able to use it spontaneously in speech and writing only if the grammar point is internalised. And it will be internalised only if students are put into situations where they have to use the grammatical item for a variety of purposes. It is in this context that grammar practice activities come in useful.”

Theory

Thus, the chapter on Teaching Grammar enlightens the teachers on how to link the theory of using “grammar in context” with practical instructional strategies and shows how to construct effective grammar practice activities that can best support language learning. Although the book is dedicated to teachers of English, any learner interested in enhancing his or her accuracy in language will find the book a useful guide as it clearly explains the grammar rules in simple language with examples from a Sri Lankan context.

Therefore, the book is a smart guide for students of English and also of linguistics at university level. A salient feature in the book is its simple, user-friendly and accessible language which poses no difficulty even for a student with limited English proficiency. Among the features that I, as a grammar teacher, admire most is the sensible order in which the grammar lessons are presented in the book.

I personally believe there is a distinct sensible order in which grammar lessons should be arranged to facilitate the learner's internalisation process. The book satisfactorily achieves this order of importance of teaching the grammatical points. Another outstanding feature of the book is the inclusion of three appendices on spelling rules, punctuation and discourse markers. This is justified because, students, even after learning English for years, make constant mistakes in spelling, in the use of punctuation marks and appropriate discourse markers.

The appendix on discourse markers, while encouraging teachers to sensitise second language learners to the elements of text organisation, is an obvious indication of where grammar teaching should be directed to. The book provides a comprehensive elaboration of word-phrase-clause-sentence level organisation of grammatical elements in very simple language.

Unlike most of the traditional grammar books which directly begin with nouns, this book in its first chapter provides fundamental concepts of clause elements required for understanding the core of grammatical system. The subsequent chapters are devoted to elaborate open class words, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and closed class words, conjunctions, determiners, pronouns, proforms and prepositions , giving details of characteristics, structural properties, semantic classifications and functions of these words.

Presenting discussions on verb-related topics such as tenses, gerund and infinitive, passive voice, and reported speech immediately after the fourth chapter on verbs is a logical sequencing of topics though unconventional. The chapters on phrases, clauses, types of sentences provide a wealth of information on each topic.

Key elements

At the end of most of the chapters is a diagram which summarises the key elements presented in that chapter. The book, which is a practical blend of the most useful elements of both traditional and new linguistic grammar, on the whole, emphasises both use and usage of language.

The success of the book stems from the professional background of the author who is currently a consultant to several universities in curriculum designing. She was the former Head of the Department of English at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura for over eight years. She took the initiative in introducing the BA in ELT external degree which is a felt requirement in the country.

She has over 50 years of experience in second language teaching. She has taught at school, university, teacher training college and a trainer training institute, which makes her the most experienced of English teachers at all relevant levels. While she worked in such institutions, they were all at their best, providing innovative and excellent courses for their students.

The writer is Head/ELTU Rajarata University of Sri Lanka.