Real English Grammar: the new intermediate grammar

By Hester Lott
Marshall Cavendish ELT
(298 pages /CD/45page answer key.
2005
ISBN: 0-462-00744-8
Its always a tense moment for teachers who deal in the finer points of grammar (grammarians) to
get hold of the latest title in that area. As they slip into their armchair, What else, they ask
themselves, and probably anyone at hand in the staffroom, is there to add to more recent and
thoroughly noble efforts from other major publishers that are based on the latest corpus? And why,
their train of thought continues, should they or the people they teach invest time, energy and money in
such a book? Well, for those grammarians, here are the answers.
Real English Grammar is, like most of its current genre, fairly portable, presents information in short
units and can easily be used for both self-study and classroom mode. It also has a concise, detachable
answer key thats tucked in tidily at the back, alongside the nowadays obligatory audio CD that
contains recordings of native speakers in various accents acting out fifty-nine of the scripted dialogues
that begin each of the seventy-one units. So theres plenty of listening, but if its authentic listening
youre in need of then this one fails on that score, although I suppose it depends what one calls
authentic.
So what else is there, then? I can almost hear the avid grammar reviews reader exclaim. Read on
please! Thankfully, this title doesnt start with a thirty page introduction on how to make best use of
the book. Theres just a simple half page message to the teacher; and the same for the learner. Rather
curiously, considering the amount of time and effort it probably took to produce Real English
Grammar, it perhaps has the shortest acknowledgements list in the history of ELT, tucked right where
no-one is likely to see it. (See if you can find it).What did catch my eye very early on in this title was
the attractive use of coloured photos, drawings and illustrations that made the text seem, well, more
appealing to the general browser who might be looking for something a bit less drab than certain
grammar course books Ive seen of late (but wont be naming here).
Real English Grammar is easy to use as its organised according to grammatical categories such as
nouns, articles and.. (I wonder how many reading this can list the remaining categories!). Basic
grammar issues are dealt with in early units, as one might normally expect, which enables any
energetic, unsuspecting language learner to work through the book from one end to the other without
too much trouble, checking answers in the nifty key along the way of course.
And how else is this one different?, our grammarian asks. I searched high and low but found no
reference to a new corpus (large amounts of language that are open to computer analysis for certain
patterns) that might have been used to extract grammar points or to provide sentences and phrases that
reveal enlightening and often surprising details of use. I got the impression that Real English
Grammar doesnt suffer too much because of this, though. What the reader will get is a large variety
of good, solid, grammar activities with few frills attached, that can keep individuals or classes very
usefully occupied and interested for hours. Surely thats enough and more to satisfy our critical
grammarians.
Wayne Trotman, never much of a grammarian, is more at home with teaching EAP writing in Izmir,
Turkey. Email: wayne@egenet.com.tr