Introduction

Dear honored students,

We wrote this grammar textbook for YOU! We weren’t happy with the lower-level grammar textbooks, so we decided to make one ourselves. We sincerely hope you like it and find it helpful for learning English.  If you have any suggestions, PLEASE let us know.

The textbook has four chapters. Each chapter covers a grammatical point/component/element. Chapter 1 is a review of the BE verb. The BE is special and has it’s own rules (different from other verbs).  Chapter 2 is the Present Progressive tense. This is the tense we use when we are talking about things happening now or near now. Chapter 3 is the Simple Present Tense. We use the Simple Present Tense to talk about facts, routines, and habitual activities. Chapter 4 is a comparison of chapter 3 and 4.

Each chapter has the same “layout” (arrangement, presentation, design, organization). First there is a section to “activate”, or prepare your mind for learning. It includes a discussion with your classmates. Next you read a story about some ESOL students whose lives may be similar to yours.  Then we break verb learning into many smaller sections for ease of learning, such as;

• affirmative
• negative
• yes/no questions
• information questions
• (other important things to know)

Each section has a table or chart to visually show you how the verb works or operates. It is followed by progressively more independent practice activities. Every activity is named by a number (e.g. Activity 3.13), so you can find it easily in this digital format. You can also download this digital book to a PDF (and other forms), and then print it out for yourself.

Each one of these sections has an icon (= a simple picture) that tells you what to expect in the activity. For example, there is a picture of person reaching the top of a mountain. This icon represents the goals you will reach by the end of the chapter. Another icon is a picture of a person’s head and brain. This icon means you need to prepare yourself for learning. When it’s time to read a story (featuring the grammatical elements we are learning), you will see an icon of a book. There are also “discover”, “explore”, “affirmative”, “negative”, “question”, “game”, “review”, “snapshot”, “write”, and “self-assessment” icons.

Again, we wrote this textbook for YOU. Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions to make the book better. We welcome your input.

Susan Caisse, Kristee Emens-Hesslink, and Jennifer Rueda