Grammar books and dictionaries – which are your favourites?

By Berni | June 29, 2012

ELTMentor News

 

In this edition:

  • A Message from Berni
  • The last session
  • The next session
  • Teacher workshop in August
  • Grammar books and dictionaries – which are your favourites?

A Message from Berni:

 

I am so excited about a project that I have been asked to do in Switzerland! I am working with a school there to set up and EFL department. Phase one is over and they have made great strides in putting in place all their assessments, new staff and a brand new curriculum – it’s been wonderful to start something from the ground up!

 

In the second phase I’ll be training the EFL staff in ideas and techniques that they can use in the classroom.

 

I hope that phase three will be a policy for on-going CPD and I hope to be involved in that too.

 

The importance of ongoing learning cannot be understated and this is something we touched on in our session on course books on Tuesday of this week. It always worries me when I see teachers using course books that are very, very old (although you will see in my article here on choosing dictionaries that I also cling to some ‘old’ things!!) They sometimes become like tatty, old slippers that really should be thrown away!

 

I’m not saying don’t use what works well and is also familiar but you know the saying ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ and I wonder sometimes if we cling on to old ways and old books out of fear of the new and the change of approach that they are likely to bring.

 

Certainly use the extracts that the new books cannot better as supplementary but ask yourself how the book will appear to your students – will it look, seem out of date? Can you get one that is more in tune with where they are today. If this isn’t possible then make sure you add in supplementary materials from today’s world (newspapers etc.. can do this very well).

 

Quite frankly there isn’t much of an excuse any more with the internet!!

 

Keep up to date we owe it to our students and I’ll certainly be doing my course book ‘homework’ before I set out for Switzerland in September!

 

Last Session:

 

This was held on Tuesday June 26th

 

Blanca and I discussed course books and how to select and use these. We covered a few ideas as an hour isn’t enough time to go into ALL the ways you can use course books with students.

 

I hope that you will be able to watch the recording.

 

I’ll get the most recent recordings including this one uploaded on to the Gapfillers site in the next week.

 

Here, as promised, are the links on the final slide:

 

Course Books links:

 

To use or not to use coursebooks – Eva Buyuksimkesyan

Is Using a coursebook really a bad thing? – Shaun Wilden

Not Unit 5! – Luke Meddings

Teaching Unplugged – Scott Thornbury

Research Journey into Dogme – Phil Wade

Those Greedy Publishers – Sue Jones

 

What’s happening next?

Don’t forget to check out the new schedule:

http://www.gapfillers.co.uk/?atk=7229

 

Our next session will be on July 5th and will be the first of our new Q&A sessions. These are designed to see where you are and where you want to be and to get support and advice from me but also from the other teachers.

 

Note this session will be at 8.00 p.m. UK time

 

Our next webinar will be at 12.00 pm on July 30th and we’ll be talking about pronunciation – I do hope you can all come to what is another ‘difficult’ area in ELT.

 

Please check the schedule and let me know if there are any topics you would like to see featured

CPD Workshop in August

students around a table

 

There are still places available for this workshop (3) so please come if you can or, if you can, pass the information to your colleagues. I only run 2 per year so it is an opportunity to have a whole week of CPD and have some fun too.

 

The date is August 5th to 12th.

 

http://www.language-tuition.co.uk/cpd-workshops-for-practising-efl-teachers

 

These sessions are not ‘taught’ although I do prepare something by way of introduction and then we all bring our own experiences and ideas to the table.

 

One day is devoted to the Brontes. The Bronte museum and moors where the books are set are not too far from me so we can really try and get into the atmosphere of the stories by going there. The books are also well-known and often feature as texts for EFL/ESL students. I ask everybody who comes to read one of the books before arriving and then we discuss them, watch the movies and have a day out.

 

Previous workshops have been great fun as well as a valuable source of information and ideas.

 

The investment is £175 to cover food, the day trip and other local transport. I provide full-board accommodation and I will collect you all from the nearest train station (Northallerton).

 

It would be marvellous to see some of you here. Please also let colleagues know as there are still a few places left.

Grammar books and dictionaries – which are your favourites?

 

All dictionaries are equal but some are more equal than others – comparing them can be interesting!

 

All my students have to have an English to English dictionary and a good grammar book and, if possible, a thesaurus. I insist on it! These are the basic tools of a serious student along with a notebook and er, of course, a pen (you’d be surprised!). I’m often asked which are the best and I feel that, like cars, food and mobile phones there is an element of personal preference here and you should see which ones you are most comfortable using.

 

My beloved grammar book is the Thomson and Martinet (I’ve even created a noun out of it!). This was my bible when I began teaching and I still have my battered old copy (probably very out of date now). An other old favourite in my armoury is a book called Meaning and the English Verb by Geoffrey N. Leech (it is particularly good on Future tense usage) this along with the T & M grammar has trotted across the world with me ). My dictionary of choice is the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.

Grammar Book Thomson and Martinet

 

For serious grammar contemplation I consult A Comprehensive Grammar of English Quirk and Greenbaum (my cherished copy of the University Grammar of English was given away to a German boyfriend in a fit of amour many years ago!) or the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English which is a new friend but becoming a firm one! I also have the large two-volume Oxford Dictionary but you really have to have a good breakfast before attempting to consult it!

 

Lomgman Dictionary

 

Collins Cobuild English Usage is a great quick fix and a copy of Longmans Advanced Learner’s Grammar Mark Foley & Diane Hall, obtained at an IATEFL conference is now well-thumbed! This last book I do recommend to advanced students; the diagnostic tests at the beginning really help to highlight areas for further study. Finally, I know I have to mention Murphy (Essential Grammar in Use Raymond Murphy) – the global grammar of choice. I have a copy and I recommend it to students . I think it has the clearest explanations but I’ve just never really got on with it especially.

 

I expect many of you are saying ‘Oh no, how can you use that book!’ Macmillan (I like this too) is much better, easier, smaller etc.. -I rest my case – it is a matter of personal choice – however there are some things I think you should look for when making your choice.

 

A few years ago I was working with Blanca (do you remember this Blanca) we were doing a vocabulary exercise and Blanca complained to me that the dictionary she was using did not have all the words. I assumed that she had written them down wrongly (sorry :-0) but when we checked they were indeed missing from her advanced dictionary yet contained in mine (the Longman). We also discovered that my dictionary gave many more definitions and explanations so it’s definitely worth checking before you buy!

 

My top tips

 

  • Don’t rely on a bilingual dictionary unless it is a VERY large tome

  • Be realistic – will you need to carry the book around with you? The very best could become a burden if it’s too big or heavy

  • CD Rom and on-line dictionaries are great – are you going to have access when you need it – use the same criteria to choose

  • See how detailed the dictionary definitions are and get one with as much information as possible

  • With grammar books – can you follow the explanations, is everything well laid out, for advanced level work does it push you a bit further

  • Check any exercises, sometimes they can be very repetitive and so not very challenging

  • Make sure they’re all up to date (I keep my old grammar for reasons of nostalgia) dictionaries and grammars change quite frequently

  • If you can’t decide then borrow from the library first and ‘test drive’ them!

 

Note

 

My choices may be a little old fashioned. Let me know if you think I should check out something newer and whizzier – I’d be more than happy to ‘test drive’ too!

Need help with anything?

 

If anybody else needs help with anything just post in the forum, or on twitter or email me or send a message in Gapfillers. I am really pleased that you are using the forum – let’s get more things posted to discuss.

 

Don’t forget to put any suggestions in the forum, this is your space to share ideas or experiences and to ask questions.

 

You can always email me too berni.wall@language-tuition.co.uk about anything that you are concerned about or if you want to ask a question.

Until next time!

Berni

 

 

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