Hugh Dellar

When you've been teaching English as a foreign language for a year or two, it's good to pause awhile and take stock of what you know, what you don't know, and what you don't think works in your approach to teaching. A lot of what falls under consideration has to do with 'grammar', that bizarre system by which most languages are meant to be understood, and that thus provides the focus around much language teaching takes place.

The problem, Andrew Walkley and Hugh Dellar point out in this important treatise, is that a lot of what we teach as 'grammar' has been artificially made to fit the definition. We don't need to separate reported speech from the grammar of past forms, they say, and I would entirely agree. We don't need to worry about differentiating between 'try to do' and 'try doing' because there is hardly ever a context where the inappropriate usage could lead to miscommunication. The point, made many times and made very well, is that context is key; also, that it is often better for the teacher (and the coursebook) to get out of the way and to allow the student to actually attempt to express themselves, rather than to force them into patterns that may be of little use to them.

If I had any complaints about this book, it would be that it is a little too short - there are many occasions where Walkley (or Dellar, it's hard to say who wrote what) touches on a topic, but moves on too soon, without giving the material the room to breathe. At times you really do feel as though you are reading a print out of a series of blog posts (the fact that some chapters begin with 'In the previous post' doesn't help), and in fact that is more or less what the book is: a compendium of blog posts. While this does not detract from the value of the volume - I would go so far as to say it is required reading for anyone and everyone in the ELT profession - it does detract from its value as a book. The conversational style - and profusion of exclamation marks - will not be to everyone's taste, and I doubt I will be alone in wishing that the book read more like a book than it does.… (mer)