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Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language Learners: A Practical Handbook (Michigan Teacher Training

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Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language A Practical Handbook is not intended to be an exhaustive reference book about ELL grammar. Written for classroom teachers (K-12, ESL, EFL), this book teaches the most common ELL grammar points in an accessible way through real ELL errors with suggested teaching techniques. Relevant grammar terminology is explained where practical.



The four objectives of the book are to help (1) identify common ELL grammar points and understand the details associated with each one; (2) improve their ability to answer any grammar question on the spot (when on the "hot seat"); (3) anticipate common ELL errors by grammar point, by first language, and by proficiency level; and (4) develop more effective grammar/language learning lessons.



The presentation of each of the 15 keys (grammar points) features information on typical ELL errors, an accessible grammar explanation including examples of mistakes, a native language interference chart, and ideas for teaching the grammar point.


The Workbook for Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language Learners provides extra practice in the grammar points studied in the handbook.

368 pages, Paperback

First published November 25, 2008

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Keith S. Folse

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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for Thomas Krause.
144 reviews2 followers
July 6, 2020
This is a great grammar book for ESL teachers. It goes through the “keys” of teaching ESL grammar, which includes descriptions of English grammar issues that evade ESL learners for a variety of reasons and also demonstrates how language-specific interference may be causing problems; it goes through “hot seat” questions that are commonly asked by ESL learners but which native speakers may not even be aware; and it condenses best practices for instructional methods for ESL grammar. This is one college textbook that I’ll actually be keeping and schleping with me to Ecuador.
Profile Image for Haela.
6 reviews
October 4, 2022
Review in English, Español, and 普通话
[English]
This book was a textbook needed for one of my classes during my undergraduate. To be clear, I have three majors: one in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), Linguistics, and Spanish. This book helped me with all three majors, although it originally was for a TESOL class.

The book eases the reader into the topic by giving a refresher on English as a whole before diving into challenging aspects. Folse does a fantastic job explaining how these structures form and manifest in academic and spoken English. Additionally, there is a lot of help with mistakes that English Language Learners make while learning specific English forms.

One thing that stuck out to me, especially while preparing my thesis, was the comparison between languages and English. Folse provides the most common languages in the United States and shows the differences between the languages. For example, Clause reductions are not possible in Arabic but are possible in English, so students whose native language is Arabic may struggle with the aspect of adjective clause reductions.

My favorite aspect of this book was the "Being in the hot seat" questions and telling your students that you don't have an answer right now, but you will find one for them later. Questions like "why is it a big house and not a house big" (pg. 341) are common questions many don't have an answer for right away. The book teaches YOU English and how to answer these difficult questions. Folse also provides Teaching Techniques for the reader to better refine their grammar explanation to students.

I would heavily recommend this book for teachers looking to get ESL Certified or have students that speak other languages in addition to English or are learning English. It is a meaty book with lots of information. It is very dense and is by no means an easy read, but it has saved my life on more than one occasion.

[Español]
Este libro era un libro de texto necesario para una de mis clases durante mi licenciatura/especialidad. Para ser claro, tengo tres especializaciones: Una en TESOL (Enseñando Inglés a Hablantes de Otros Idiomas), Lingüística, y Español. Este libro me ayudó con las tres especializaciones, aunque originalmente fue para una clase de TESOL.

El libro facilita al lector en el tema dando un repaso en inglés como un todo antes de bucear en aspectos desafiantes. Folse hace un trabajo fantástico explicando cómo estas estructuras se forman y se manifiestan en inglés académico y hablado. Además, hay mucha ayuda con los errores que los estudiantes del idioma inglés cometen mientras aprenden formas específicas de inglés.

Una cosa que me pareció, especialmente mientras preparaba mi tesis, fue la comparación entre idiomas e inglés. Folse proporciona los idiomas más comunes en los Estados Unidos y muestra las diferencias entre los idiomas. Por ejemplo, las reducciones de cláusulas no son posbiles en árabe pero sí en inglés, por lo que los estudiantes cuyo idioma nativo es árabe pueden tener dificultades con el aspecto de las reducciones de cláusulas adjetivo.

Mi aspecto preferido de este libro era las pregunatas del "en el banquillo" o "en la línea de fuego" y decir a sus estudiantes que usted no tiene una respuesta ahora, pero usted encontrará una para ellos más adelante. Preguntas como "por qué es una casa grande y no una grande casa" (pág. 341) son preguntas comunes muchas no tienen una respuesta para enseguida. El libro le enseña inglés y cómo responder a estas difíciles pregunatas. Folse también proporciona Técnicas de Enseñanza para que el lector perfeccione mejor su explicación gramatical a los estudiantes.

Recomendaría mucho este libro para los profesores/maestros que buscan obtener la certificación de ESL o tener estudantes que hablan otros idiomas además del inglés o que están aprendiendo inglés. Es un libro "carnoso" con mucha informatión. Es muy denso y no es de ninguna manera fácil de leer, pero me ha salvado la vida en más de una ocación.

[普通话]
*请让我知道这个翻译是怎么回事!我不是母语人士,仍在学习。我感谢任何反馈!谢谢!

这本书是我本科期间一门课所需的教科书。需要明确的是,我有三个专业:一个是TESOL(向其他语言的使用者教授英语),语言学和西班牙文。这本书帮助我完成了所有三个专业,尽管它最初是为TESOL课程准备的。

这本书通过对整个英语进行复习,然后深入探讨具有挑战性的方面,使读者轻松进入主题。Folse在解释这些结构如何形成和操纵方面做得非常出色。此外,对于英语学习者在学习特定英语表格时所犯的错误,还有很多帮助。

有一件事让我印象深刻,特别是在准备论文的时候,是语言和英语之间的比较。Folse提供美国最常见的语言,并显示差异。例如,从句减少在阿拉伯语中是不可能的,但在英语中是可能的,因此母语为阿拉伯语的学生可能会在形容词从句减少方面遇到困难。

这本书我最喜欢的方面是“坐在热门座位上”的问题,并告诉你的学生你现在没有答案,但你稍后会为他们找到答案。诸如“为什么它是一个大房子而不是一个房大子”之类的问题(第1页。341)是许多人没有立即回答的常见问题。这本书教你英语以及如何回答这些困难的问题。Folse还为读者提供了教学技巧,以更好地完善他们对学生的语法解释。

我强烈推荐这本书给希望获得ESL认证的老师,或者有学生除了英语之外还会说其他语言或正在学习英语。这是一本有很多信息的书。它非常密集,绝不是一本容易阅读的书,但它不止一次地挽救了我的生命。
Profile Image for Alissa Quinlan.
102 reviews11 followers
January 2, 2021
A lot of examples and ideas to implement. Helpful for explicit grammar instruction.
Profile Image for Jen.
47 reviews13 followers
February 13, 2015
We use this book in our TEFL Certification program - a great handbook for any English teacher (especially teaching abroad).
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews

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