This Grammar Practice Book features study tips to help with common grammatical problems. It also includes Exam style exercises and progress tests to keep students focused on the demands of the CAE exam.
Practice makes perfect when you’re learning a new language and with Focus on Advanced English C.A.E. - Grammar Practice you’ve got no excuse for slacking. This Grammar Practice book is designed to help advanced students understand the more complicated grammar forms in English, in order to prepare for the CAE exam. The Certificate in Advanced English exam is a tough test and many students may feel they are lacking in grammar confidence. Working through this book may take some time but at the end of the task the students’ grammar skills will be fortified and you’ll be better able to tackle the test.
If you’re not on the CAE track you can still use the book as additional grammar practice. Teachers can also benefit from using the book as a standalone text for extra practice in lessons on grammar. Many of the activities work well on their own when explaining certain grammatical structures, or they can be taken from the book and given as homework.
Focus on Advanced English C.A.E. - Grammar Practice is divided into 14 chapters concentrating on different topics like "Severe Weather," "The Ages of Man," "Mind and Body," "State of the Union" and "Globe Trotting." As you can tell from titles such as "Mind Your Manners" and "Testing Times" you are going to be learning about idiomatic expressions as well as the proper use of grammar structures.
The "State of the Union," for example, is about relationships. The first section reviews -ing forms and infinitives, using examples related to relationships such as "Living alone is becoming more common nowadays." The following section is about cleft sentences, followed by a section on collocations with do/make/have/get, phrasal verbs and dependent propositions, then a section on writing.
"The writing sections encourage students to get creative and write, for example, an eye-catching information leaflet about the dangers of household poisons to children, or a letter of invitation to a friend."
The bulk of the book is made up of exercises and activities designed to give you practice to work with grammar rules. Each exercise provides spaces for you to fill in the answers, and there are also longer written activities to complement the short-form questions. The writing sections encourage students to get creative and write, for example, an eye-catching information leaflet about the dangers of household poisons to children, or a letter of invitation to a friend.
There are answers to the exercises in the back, and model answers for the written activities, so students can use the book without a teacher. However, it benefits students to have their written exercises checked by a teacher so they can be sure that they are on the right track.
Study Tip boxes crop up in the text highlighting grammar items to watch out for - both and all, for example, or negative prefixes. The sections end with "fill-in-the-blanks" passages about everything from Gender on Screen to Economic Theory. Many of the sections also contain a word check section where you complete sentences using vocabulary connected to the topic in the chapter. For example in the relationships chapter you fill in the blank activities with sentences such as, "On their wedding day, the woman is the b.... and the man is the g...."
There are four Progress Tests which are in-depth exam-style tests that cover significant aspects of what you should have learned so far. The tests take longer to complete and could be used on their own in a grammar lesson. A pull-out answer section completes the package.
While Focus on Advanced English C.A.E. - Grammar Practice doesn’t come with any additional learning materials such as cassettes or CDs, the Focus on Advanced English CAE series contains a students' book, cassettes, a teacher's book, a set of practice tests with guidance, and two practice test cassettes. There are crosslinks in Focus on Advanced English C.A.E. - Grammar Practice to pages in the Focus on Grammar Student Book where you will find explanations of the grammar form in question, and further examples.
This is not the most eye-catching book on the market but it is unlikely you’d buy it for the entertainment value. A few cartoons liven-up the layout but the text is king. The benefit of this book is the unusual and interesting way of putting grammar rules in context using a variety of examples and activities. This gives this book the edge over many other grammar practice course books. The examples are varied and the language is up to date. The different themes are interesting, on the whole, as a general overview of modern English usage. If you want to focus on, for example, business English or English for travel, other texts are more specific but this is a comprehensive and expansive overview of grammar forms. Completing the exercises gives you a good vocabulary workout as well as an intense focus on grammar forms.
