Best English Grammar Course for Non-Native Speakers
The question of where and how to learn or improve English grammar for non-native speakers has come up a lot in WA over the years, and good grammar is becoming more and more important to Google, as well as for the professionalism of your site and sales.
I picked up certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language when I was at uni the first time round and used it to pay for some of my world travels back in the day - teaching mainly in the Middle East and Greece, including Turkish Navy officers [whose full white uniform just has to win a prize for best dressed class ever, in my book ;) ]
The best book in my experience is:
For beginners, the red book:
--> Essential Grammar in Use, by Raymond Murphy, Cambridge University Press<--
For intermediate students, the blue book:
--> English Grammar in Use, by Raymond Murphy, Cambridge University Press<---
I was impressed at the time how quickly it brought students up from beginners to advanced, and it was laid out in a simple way [no theory or bs] just lots of examples and practice exercises. These days it is also available as an interactive ebook and a mobile app, apparently.
You can see from the photo below that there are 3 levels, red is beginners and called 'Essential Grammar in Use', blue is intermediate called 'English Grammar in Use', and green is advanced.
These are all available at bookdepository and I've shown you the affiliate program for that in a previous blog.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.co...
Recent Comments
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Puzzled with the cat's picture, I think the cat is descending the stairs. Focus on the stairs, those are vertical segments that we see now; horizontal surfaces where we put foot would be completely flat.
I've seen some people try to explain it as going down, I still see it as going up because of the triangles' position, like they are supporting under the steps - but it's tough to call it - I'm going to have to think about what you said!
Whether it's up or down it's sort of perfect for WA rank either way and I love the way the brain can actually see it both ways :D
you are probably right, for the simple reason all those things are usually the opposite of what they appear to be, just to get our brains to do a somersault...I looked at the original and it could well be going down...
Good Morning Mary,
The times when I was learning languages is a long time back. There was a time where I thought to have a try with Tagalog, Russian but did not like their alphabet and then around 2005 I tried with Danish. When I found out their grammar is worse than German I gave up.
Now I am making websites and that will be it. Ah, by the way, can I have your cat?
Greetings from the south of Spain, Taetske
LOL! This cat comes with a mystery stairs, is it walking up or down those stairs? Symbolic of our rank vs success in here! :D
If you'd like a really logical language I'd suggest Turkish, which is almost identical to Japanese, if you don't mind the 3 alphabets that go with that! Then there's ancient Hebrew, my favorite. I'd stay away from others like Greek though, that seemed to me like a bunch of exceptions to the rules that all had to be learned off by heart! I've never tried Danish or Russian, German is on my to-do list alright!
Greetings from sunny Ireland [on one of our very rare sunny days :D ]
You have an interesting past Mary, should tell more about it. So you were teaching at military schools? It must be an experience for a girl in such an environment.
I think in my native we use this to describe cats (or was it 12), so you chose the right picture.
...you might laugh, but in one life I taught Physics to princesses in a school with a princess wing in UAE! Now that I think of it 12 lives may be closer to the real number :D
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That's good news. We used to recommend a really simple grammar, called A Living Grammar by Watson and Nolte. It went way back (originally published in 1938). My wife and I had a copy, but loaned it out somewhere along the way and never recovered it. I don't think it has been reprinted in recent years, but you can still get used copies for a few bucks from Amazon. It worked really well on many of the semi-literate people we have come across.