Spanish Grammar for Independent Learners is a book that will appeal to those language students who are more independent in their study habits. This is the book for students who like to discover and learn things on their own or perhaps those who work well in small groups.
From the very beginning the book starts off by providing very detailed information about what the book will offer and what it will help students achieve. The foreword is lengthy and detailed and as students continue working with the book, they will discover that each chapter follows this same structure. Every chapter focuses on a specific topic, covering it in a very in-depth manner, for example, there is an entire chapter dedicated to adjectives and another ten-page long chapter which talks about nouns. At first this may seem a bit excessive, but the book goes into such great detail in order to help students clear up any doubts they may have starting from the most basic concepts.
Each chapter takes on a specific topic and through the use of charts, illustrations and written examples different aspects of Spanish grammar are explained. Students will go over topics like verb conjugation, vocabulary, sentence structure, and prepositions - just to name a few. At the end of the book there is a verb conjugation list and a list of verbs with prepositions that can be used with them. This book is basically a very in-depth grammar manual, but as I personally worked with this book I began to feel like it was lacking something
"Each chapter takes on a specific topic and through the use of charts, illustrations and written examples different aspects of Spanish grammar are explained."
One of the things that I feel this book needs is some worksheets or exercises for students to work on. The explanations and detailed information are presented in a very practical way, but there doesn’t seem to be anything in this book that allows the student to apply and practice what they have learned. Another thing that this book could have provided is some “Survival Spanish” or in other words, phrases or words to help students communicate while travelling to a Spanish- speaking country. Finally the indexing can be a bit confusing and trying to find what you want can be difficult at times. Certain topics seem to be missing and some things are indexed under their Spanish names and not their English ones.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is preparing themselves for an international exam or anyone who wants to improve their Spanish writing skills. However, I would not recommend this book to people who are looking to practice their speaking skills or want to review the language to prepare for a trip abroad. I also have to mention that those who will get the most benefit from this book are teachers, simply because the explanations in each chapter are so detailed and well put together that it will help teachers in their lesson planning and lecturing.
