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English Grammar: Step by Step

Gramática del inglés: Paso a paso

Teaching English Grammar: Step by Step

by Elizabeth Weal

illustrated by Amy Zhang and Anastasia Ionkin

This series is written to help middle school to adult Spanish-speaking students learn English grammar in a simple, straightforward, and supportive manner. There are two levels. The student texts at each level are available in Spanish and in English. They are appropriate for classroom or tutorial use and for independent study by students working at home or in mixed language classes.

The Gramática del inglés: Paso a paso/English Grammar: Step by Step series is specifically designed for Spanish-speaking students; it assumes little or no knowledge of Spanish or English grammar. The Spanish versions of these books, Gramática del inglés: Paso a paso, are especially useful because they explain grammar concepts in the students' native language. The English versions use Spanish primarily to introduce vocabulary and to illustrate the similarities and differences between Spanish and English grammar.

The level 1 books teach the following:

* basic punctuation and capitalization in English
* the verbs to be and to have
* affirmative and negative sentences
* contractions with to be
* a, an, and the
* possessive adjectives (my, his, her, etc.)

The level 2 books teach the following:

* simple present tense verbs
* present progressive verbs
* asking and answering questions with do and does
* prepositions
* there is/there are

In addition, these books contain more than a thousand exercises that let students practice what they have learned, plus English/Spanish and Spanish/English dictionaries, with pronunciation, that contain all the words used in that book.

The two levels of Teaching English: Step by Step give teachers or tutors practical speaking and listening activities to use with the grammar books, either the Spanish or the English versions. The activities give students fun contexts in which to apply the grammar concepts they have learned in their text. The activities also provide reading and writing practice and vocabulary development.

Each teacher's book begins with Elizabeth Weal's personal perspective on teaching English as a Second Language, an explanation of her bilingual approach to teaching Spanish speakers (the method behind the book), and some suggestions on classroom management and the use of the activities and photocopyable handouts in the teacher's books. The remaining chapters in each book follow lockstep with the chapters in the corresponding text, whether Spanish or English. This makes class preparation very easy.