Clear Grammar 2: Keys to Grammar for English Language Learners

By Keith S. Folse and Barbara Smith-Palinkas

Book Overview

Clear Grammaris a four-level grammar series that features a unique combination of useful grammar information written in clear language with activities that promote more accurate and fluent vocabulary usage, writing, speaking, and reading.

Important features of all four new editions of Clear Grammarinclude:

More user-friendly charts to accompany grammar explanations

High-frequency, corpus-based vocabulary related to each grammar point

Grammar discovery tasks using students' inductive learning skills

A greater variety and increased number of activities, including more practice online

Many more activities at the longer discourse level

The addition of reading practice at the end of the unit, as well a critical-reading task More writing practice, including one on editing student writing and another for original student writing

Two vocabulary practice activities, including a focus on collocations, in each unit, as well as many one-minute mini lessons showing the connection between grammar and vocabulary

More speaking practice, with activities that require students to speak and listen to each other while using the target grammar

Support for teachers in the form of indicators that reference how to teach the grammar points in the Clear Grammar series from Keys to Teaching Grammar for English Language Learners by Keith S. Folse (978-0-472-03220-4).

Clear Grammar 2offers students and teachers a solid introduction to low-intermediate grammar.
Clear Grammar 2, 2nd Ed., includes

* Articles

* Past tense of irregular verbs

* Present perfect tense

* Adverbs of frequency

* Nouns used as adjectives

* Object pronouns

* Past progressive tense

* One and Other

* Possessives
*Comparatives and superlatives
*Modals

The book's companion website includes the additional grammar/vocabulary activities that are referenced in the textbook.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0472032429
• ISBN13: 9780472032426
• Release Date: January 2012
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press ELT
• Length: 376 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.4" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

A great grammar book with tricky exercises

What makes this book so good is that the exercises are deliberately 'tricky'. By that I mean the exercises force students to pay attention to what they are doing; if they go too fast because they think they know everything, they make frequent mistakes. I've used a lot of grammar books with cookie-cutter exercises, and the students can rapidly figure out how to answer without thinking about it. Not so with this book. Students have to pay attention to EVERY response. On top of the good exercises, the book's topics indicate that the author thought a great deal about what items should be included in level 1. I have a quibble here or there, but overall I think Folse made the right choices.

Language development for Second Language students

I found this text originally in our library, and tried it out with several of my ESL students. Testing (included in the back of the book for placement purposes) showed gaps in their skills which had not been evident through our daily materials. I went back and re-taught lessons that had 2 of 2 missed questions, and did an oral review of units with a score of 1 out of 2. Students vocab and overall expressive skills have improved a LOT in the last 2 months! One drawback, I think, is the test. I have added a 3rd set of questions as I feel it's quite possible to guess correctly twice, but rare to guess correctly 3 times! I love being able to skip or skim areas that don't require direct teaching, because my students have very limited time to spend on their studies. I also like the fact that there are other support materials available. I feel much more effective as a teacher than peviously. Although this could not be used as a single text, it's a wonderful addition to our Program!

Great for older learners

I use this book with my adult ESL students. It is clearly written and extremely effective in reinforcing English grammar in an intelligent fashion. The content level is perfect for Non-English speaking older students. It addresses issues that a more mature student can relate to such as Geography or Current Events to cement a grammar concept rather than using balloons or puppies. It,also, employs different techniques and examples to do the same thing. I feel that my students are more interested in learning by using this book and that often the content encourages other English speaking activities.

CLEAR GRAMMAR!!!

I RATE THIS BOOK 5 STARS BECAUSE IT IS A GREAT BOOK FOR BOTH THE BEGINNER AND THE ADVANCED ESL LEARNER OR STUDENT. AS AN ENGLISH MAJOR, I LIKE READING AND SKIMMING THROUGH THE PAGES OF GRAMMAR BOOKS AND WHAT NOT THAT I COULD GET MY MIND TO ABSORB INFO, AND THIS BOOK DOES EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO GET OUT OF A GREAT TEXT---LEARN AND LET IT STAY THERE IN THE PERSON'S BRAIN. THIS DEFINITELY IS A GREAT TEXT.