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Running head: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF GRAMMAR REFERENCE 1

A Critical Review of English-Language Learners’ Grammar Reference:

Understanding and Using English Grammar

Jee Eun Park

Colorado State University

A CRITICAL REVIEW OF GRAMMAR REFERENCE 2

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to provide a detailed critique of an English grammar reference intended for

non-native English speakers (NNES). The grammar reference under review is Understanding and Using

English Grammar (2009) written by Azar and Hagen and it is commonly used at Intensive English

Program (IEP) at Colorado State University (CSU). In this paper, I examine the appropriateness for the

stated learners, features of its contents and its methodological approaches to teaching grammar included

in this grammar reference, and also choose and review one specific grammatical topic, genitives in terms

of its accuracy, completeness, and appropriateness for the students for whom the reference is intended.

Based on these criteria, I conclude that although this textbook does not always provide the accurate

grammatical term, it is still both valuable and appropriate for its stated use.

Keywords: grammar textbook, grammatical competence, communicative competence, genitive


A Critical Review of English-Language Learners’ Grammar Reference:

Understanding and Using English Grammar

No grammar reference can be perfect for any use, and therefore ESL/EFL teachers need to have

professional expertise to evaluate the usefulness of a certain grammar reference according to the

appropriate criteria. In other words, in choosing a grammar reference for ESL/EFL students, teachers

need to know what aspects to look for and how they should be evaluated.

The purpose of this review is to provide a detailed critique of an English grammar reference

intended for non-native English speakers (NNES). The grammar reference under review is

Understanding and Using English Grammar (2009) written by Azar and Hagen and it is commonly used

at Intensive English Program (IEP) at Colorado State University (CSU). In this paper, I examine the

appropriateness for the stated learners, features of its contents and its methodological approaches to

teaching grammar included in this grammar reference, and also choose and review one specific

grammatical topic, genitives in terms of its accuracy, completeness, and appropriateness for the students

for whom the reference is intended.

Author, Title, Edition, Date of Publication, and Publisher of the Textbook

Understanding and Using English Grammar (4th

Ed.) by Betty S. Azar and Stacy A. Hagen and

published by Pearson Education in New York in 2009.

Student Profile

In the preface of the textbook, the writer claims that this book is designed for intermediate to

advanced English learners who are learning in the classroom and this textbook also serves as a

comprehensive reference text for students and teachers.


Is the textbook appropriate for the learners’ language ability?

This textbook is appropriate for the students who have already studied the basic grammar. The

writer also advises the learners at the beginner level to use Fundamentals of English Grammar or Basic

English Grammar. The students at the Intensive English Program at Colorado State University, who are

using this grammar textbook, have already learned the grammar with a basic grammar book for the

beginner students and they are improving their English for college admission. Therefore, their English

proficiency levels are viewed as some point between intermediate and advanced, and it is assumed that

this textbook is appropriate for them.

Is the textbook appropriate for the learners regardless of the learner’s sex, age, race, ethnicity,

first language?

It is assumed that this textbook is appropriate for the learners who are learning English at an

institution because the main topics in the textbook are related with the student’s lives such as study,

homework, exams, teachers, and vacations. The textbook are appropriate for the learners who are at

college students age or adults, because the contents that are related with adult lives such as shopping,

party, and traveling would not be less interesting to the young age learners. The pictures, graphics, and

the font size are also appropriate for the adult learners. No evidence are found that this textbook is

biased to a certain sex, race ethnicity, or first language.

Content of the Textbook

This textbook consists of twenty chapters. The grammatical point of the first five chapters is tenses

and aspects. Two chapters of the book are allocated to modals, and another two chapters to gerunds and

infinitives. The remaining chapters are allocated to nouns, pronouns, the passive, noun clauses, adjective

clauses, coordinated conjunctions, adverb clauses, reduction of adverb clauses to modifying adverbial

phrases, connectives, and conditional sentences, each chapter for each topic.


Each chapter consists of three sub-categories: warm-up exercises, a target grammar chart, listening/

speaking/ reading/writing exercises with the target grammar topic. Warm-up exercises precede the target

grammar chart and introduce the grammatical topic(s) to be taught. While progressing through each

warm-up exercise, the learners discover the target grammar. Target grammar charts provide forms and

meanings of the target grammar and the grammar rules are explained explicitly with the example

sentences. Each target grammar chart is followed by three to five exercises with various kinds of

activities that help the learners practice using the target grammar topic in meaningful contexts.

Does the textbook take into account the cultural diversity of the learner population?

Yes but not enough. Usually the main audience of the grammar textbook is EFL/ESL learners,

whose first languages are not English and whose cultures are not English speaking countries’.

Accordingly, whether the grammar textbook takes into account the cultural diversity of the learner

population is one of the most important criteria with which the textbook is evaluated. This textbook

provides some evidence to take into account the cultural diversity of the learners. First, the textbook uses

names from other cultural groups as well as English names (e.g., Ahmed, Wan-Ning, Ali, Mr. Kwan,

Mustafa, Mr. Chang, or Hassen). Additionally, the textbook relates the grammatical points with the

cultural diversity. In the following exercise, the writer relates personal pronouns with the cultural

difference in naming:

Describe these topics. Listen for pronouns.

1. In many cultures, first names have special meanings. For example, in Japanese, Akira means

“intelligent.’ In Spanish, Amanda means “loveable.” In Chinese, Lian means “kindhearted.

2. Does your name have a special meaning? What kind of names do people in your culture give pets?

(Azar & Hagen, 2009, p. 135)


However, there are not much consideration about the cultural diversity of the learners in this

textbook. First, this book uses many proper nouns of America (e.g., California, George Washington,

Colorado, New York City, Earnest Hemingway, Chicago, Phoenix) but not many proper nouns of other

countries. Second, there is not enough explanation about what might be a unique in American culture.

For example, some culture group might have a totally different cultural norm from the American culture

about buying medicine at a pharmacy with a prescription, having pets, or security problems. The

following example sentences might need explanations about the American culture or should be cautious

in using as an example sentence:

I went to the pharmacy for having my prescription to be filled. (Azar & Hagen, 2009, p. 346)

Is having the responsibility for taking care of pets good for young children? (Azar & Hagen, 2009,

p. 88)

When I was in my country, I am afraid to come to the United States. I thought I couldn’t walk

outside at night because of the terrible crime. (Azar & Hagen, 2009, p. 83)

Does the textbook allow learners to self-evaluate the performance of objectives?

Not really. This textbook does not provide the answers to the numerous exercises. Unless the

teacher provides exact answers to the exercises and adds detailed explanation, the learners do not have

any tool for self-evaluation.

The Approaches to Teaching Grammar Adopted in the Textbook

The writer claims that this textbook “uses a grammar-based approach integrated with

communicative methodologies to promote the development of all language skills in a variety of ways,”

which can be interpreted that some parts of the book are using grammar-based approach and other parts

of the book are using communicative methodologies. If Richards’ terms (2006) are being borrowed, the

goal of this textbook could be to teach grammatical competence and communicative competence at the


same time. I fully agree that a grammatical approach is well mixed with communicative methodologies

in this textbook. It is common that a grammar textbook uses a grammar-based approach because

improving grammar competence is the main purpose of grammar textbooks. However, acquiring

grammar competence is not enough for English learners to use or apply the grammar rules in real

contexts and to vary language for a range of different purposes and functions. By communicative

methods integrated with the grammatical approach in this textbook will be more useful to the ESL/EFL

learners.

Understanding and Using English Grammar Fourth Edition has many features that show that

this textbook is aimed to improve English learners’ grammatical competence. Richards (2006) defines

the grammatical competence as “the knowledge we have of a language that accounts for our ability to

produce sentences in a language” (p. 2-3). In other words, the grammatical competence means the ability

to build a sentence with the knowledge of part of speech, tenses, phrases, clauses, and sentence patterns.

That is what many grammar practice books do. In the typical grammar practice books, a grammar rule is

presented on one page, and then exercises are followed in order to give a chance to practice the target

rule.

It is not difficult to find evidence that shows this textbook is aimed to improve the learner’s

grammatical competence. The grammar chart, which is the most prominent feature of the textbook, is a

way to improve grammatical competence. Each unit has a grammar chart, which is followed by warm-

up exercises. The grammar chart provides the grammatical terminology, and a target grammar rule, and

a few sample sentences, which show the application of the target grammar rule. The sentences are not

connected with each other and there are no contexts in them. The grammar chart is followed by various

kinds of exercises such as cloze test, multiple choice test, error correction, sentence-completion with the

right grammar forms. Here are some examples from the book:


Lecture (is, are) good for you. (p. 87, Exercise8) [cloze test]

As soon as Martina saw the fire, she ________ the fire department.

a. was telephoning b. telephoned c. has telephoned d. had telephoned

(p.370, Exercise 8) [multiple choice]

I am studying here since last January. (p.76, Exercise 1) [error correction]

The thief tried to pry open the (lock) ________ cabinet. (Azar & Hagen, 2009, p.238)

[sentence-completion]

These activities give opportunities to recognize and practice the target grammar form.

Although this textbook shows many features with the aim of grammatical competence

improvement, it is clearly not all that is involved in learning a language, because English learners can

master the rules of sentence formation in a language and still not be very successful at being able to use

the language for meaningful communication. That is why this textbook uses many communicative

methods. The purpose of communicative methods is to teach communicative competence. According to

Richards (2006), communicative competence includes the following aspects of language knowledge:

• Knowing how to use language for a range of different purposes and functions

• Knowing how to vary our use of language according to the setting and the participants

• Knowing how to produce and understand different types of text (e.g., narratives, reports,

interviews, conversations)

• Knowing how to maintain communication despite having limitations in one’s language

knowledge (Richards,2006, p.3)

Understanding and Using English Grammar Fourth Edition is providing a variety of exercises that

reflect these principles of a communicative methodology. The activities are information-gap activities,

role plays, opinion-sharing activities, information gathering activities, task-completion activities. In role-


plays, learners are assigned roles and improvise a scene or exchange meanings based on given

information or clues:

Ask and answer polite questions. Speaker A presents the situation to Speaker B. Speaker B makes a

polite request using Would/Could you, and Speaker A gives a typical response. Work in pairs.

(Azar & Hagen, 2009, p. 159)

In opinion-sharing activities, learners compare values, opinions, and beliefs such as a ranking task in

which learners list six qualities in order of importance which they might consider in choosing a date or

spouse:

• These flowers smell good. Vs. James is smelling the flowers.

• I think Roberto is a kind man. Vs. I am thinking about this exercise.

• I see a butterfly. Vs. Alex is seeing a doctor about his headaches. Vs. Jack and Ann are seeing

each other. They go out together every weekend. (Azar & Hagen, 2009, p.17)

In information gathering activities, learners conduct surveys, interviews and searches in which

learners are required to use their linguistic resources to collect information:

Conduct a poll among your classmates and report your findings. Prepare five yes/no questions

that ask for opinions or information about your classmates’ likes, dislikes, habits, or experiences.

Record their responses. Report your findings to the class using expressions of quantity to make

generalizations about what you learned. (Azar & Hagen, 2009,p.132)

In task-completion activities such as puzzles, games, and map-reading, learners are encouraged to use

their linguistic resources to complete a task:


Work in teams with your books closed. Your teacher will say a sentence. Change it to passive if

possible. Use the by-phrase only if necessary. Your team wins one point for each correct

sentence. (Azar & Hagen, 2009, p. 216)

As communicative language teaching puts focus on pair work or group work, Understanding and

Using English Grammar Fourth Edition is also providing many activities which can be conducted in

pair or group work. Learners who learn with this textbook will get many benefits: they can learn from

hearing the language used by other members of the group; they will produce a greater amount of

language than they would use in teacher-fronted activities; their motivation level is likely to increase;

they will have the chance to develop fluency.

Another useful characteristic that some advocates of communicative language teaching proposed

is the distinction between three different kinds of practice: mechanic, meaningful, and communicative.

This textbook contains more meaningful and communicative practice than mechanic practice. Richards

(2006) defines mechanical practice as “a controlled practice activity which learners can successfully

carry out without necessarily understanding the language they are using” (p. 16). Examples of this kind

of activity would be repetition drills and substitution drills designed to practice use of particular

grammatical items. This textbook does not use many mechanical practices, because this book is using

communicative method for practicing the grammar points. Communicative method uses more

meaningful practice than mechanical practice. Richards (2006) says that “meaningful practice refers to

an activity where language control is still provided but where learners are required to make meaningful

choices when carrying out practice” (p. 16). For example, in order to practice the use of present

progressive, this textbook has the learners choose the verb form in a given context:

Kristin can’t come to the phone because she (wash) _________ her hair.

(Azar & Hagen, 2009, p. 15)


In addition to the meaningful practices, communicative method also uses many communicative

practices. According to Richards (2006), communicative practice refers to “activities where practice in

using language within a real communicative context is the focus, where real information is exchanged,

and where the language uses are not totally predictable” (p. 16). Here is a good example from the book:

Go to a place where there are many people (such as a zoo, a hotel lobby, or a street corner) or

imagine yourself to be there. Describe what you see. Let your reader “see” what you see by

drawing a picture in words. Use present tense. Write one paragraph. Begin with a description of

what you are doing. (Azar & Hagen, 2009, p. 19)

The exercise makes the learner use the present progressive forms in a real context (i.e. the learner is

watching and describing the animals at the zoo). It can be a meaningful practice of the present

progressive.

To sum up, this textbook focus on real communication in language teaching and learning, providing

opportunities for learners to experiment and try out what they know, and opportunities for learners to

develop both accuracy and fluency.

Unique or Especially Interesting or Useful Characteristic

One of unique and useful characteristics of this textbook is that the book links four skills of English

(i.e., listening, speaking, reading, and writing) to give the learners chances to use the target grammatical

topics. This enables learners to learn grammar points effectively because those skills are not occur

separately but usually occur together in real communication contexts.

The warm-up activities of this book usually link listening skill with other skills. The following

exercise links listening, reading, and writing skills:

Listen to the sentences. Practice saying them aloud. Write the pronunciations of the –ed endings you

hear.


1. Olga blinked / t /, yawned / /, and stretched / /.

2. Mrs. Olsen mopped / / the kitchen floor, vacuumed / / the carpet, and dusted / / the

furniture. (Azar & Hagen, 2009, p. 27)

There are many activities, which link speaking skills with writing skills in this book. Here is one

example from the book:

On a piece of paper, write an action that a classmate can demonstrate (e.g., stand up, smile, open

the door, sneeze, or write on the board). Give your paper to the teacher, who will redistribute the

papers at random to the class. Everyone will take turns performing these actions for the entire class.

Describe the actions using the present progressive. (Azar & Hagen, 2009, p. 15)

The learners should using writing skills when they write imperative sentences on the paper, and they

have to use speaking skills when they describe the actions that the other students are performing.

The following exercise links reading skill with writing skill in order to give the learners a chance to

practice how to connect two clauses by using connectives:

Read the passage and complete the sentences with information from the reading.

Have you ever heard the expression that a glass is half full or half empty? If not, imagine that you

are looking at a glass that ….

1. Optimists think positively about life, while ____________________________________.

2. An optimist may do poorly on a test; nevertheless_______________________________ .

(Azar & Hagen, 2009, p. 413)

Evaluation of Grammatical Topic: the Genitive

This grammar textbook is addressing the genitive of nouns on page 105 to page 106. To evaluate

this grammatical topic, there are some mistakes and something to be improved.


First, this textbook is using the term possessive nouns instead of the genitive, but according to Quirk,

Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik (1985), “the label possessive is not an adequate term; because

possession is one of the numerous meanings of the genitives” (p. 319). Thus, the term possessive nouns

in this textbook would be better changed into the term, the genitive. Quirk et al. (1985) provides seven

different meanings of the genitive:

my wife’s father [POSSESSIVE GENITIVE: My wife has a father]

the boy’s application [SUBJECTIVE GENITIVE: the boy applied for something]

the family’s support [OBJECTIVE GENITIVE: someone supports the family]

the girl’s story [GENITIVE OF ORIGIN: the girl told a story]

a women’s college [DESCRIPTIVE GENITIVE: a college for women]

ten day’s absence [GENITIVE OF MEASURE: absence lasted ten days]

the victim’s courage [GENITIVE OF ATTRIBUTE: the victim was courageous]

the boy’s blue eyes [PARTITIVE GENITIVE: the boy has blue eyes]

(Quirk et al., 1985, p. 319)

According to Quirk (1985), the exercises on Understanding and Using English Grammar Fourth

Edition show some mistakes. Some of the examples cannot be categorized as the genitive of POSSESSION.

Here are some mistakes:

today’s world [GENITIVE OF MEASURE]

the astronaut’s safe return [SUBJECTIVE GENITIVE]

a diplomat’s work [SUBJECTIVE GENITIVE]

the world’s largest areas [PARTITIVE]

heroes’ encounter [SUBJECTIVE GENITIVE]

(Azar & Hagen, 2009, pp. 105-106)


Conclusion

In order to provide a detailed critique of an English grammar reference, Understanding and

Using English Grammar, I examined the reference with the criteria including the appropriateness for the

stated learners, features of its contents and its methodological approaches to teaching grammar. Also I

reviewed one specific grammatical topic, genitives in terms of its accuracy, completeness, and

appropriateness for the students for whom the reference is intended.

In conclusion, Understanding and Using English Grammar is considered to be appropriate for

ESL/EFL students at IEP at CSU mainly in terms of its target proficiency level of the students and its

grammar-based approach integrated with communicative methodologies. However, this reference does

not always provide the accurate grammatical terms.


References

Azar, B., and Hagen, S. (2009). Understanding and Using English Grammar (4th ed.). New York:

Longman

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive grammar of the English

language. New York: Longman.

Richards, J. (2006). Communicative language teaching today. New York: Cambridge University Press.

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