Elementary Language Practice

Elementary Language Practice presents 77 units of grammar practice and 13 “checkpoint” units that consolidate previous units that have been grouped together. The grammar is presented in good progression, beginning with present simple of be before moving onto present continuous, past simple, past continuous, present perfect and future. With the tenses completed, the units then present topics such as passive, imperatives, gerunds, contractions, modals, plural nouns, prepositions, pronouns, possession, adjective order, adverbs, and much more before ending with some punctuation, spelling, prefixes, suffixes and compound words. In addition to the grammar units, there are 20 units of vocabulary that include useful topics such as personal details, free time, jobs, clothes, weather, the body, transport and in the classroom. Following this are some further pages that include formation rules, irregular verbs, wordlist, grammar index, grammar answers and vocabulary answers, and the book also includes a CD-ROM.

I really like the CD-ROM. Each unit in the book has additional work on the CD-ROM. For example, Unit 1 (Present simple of be), has two additional practice activities. The first is a short text with gap-fill exercises in a drop-down list offering a multiple choice of 4 answers. The second exercise is ten jumbled sentences that require drag and drop to put the words into order. One really useful feature that I use with my students is that I click the “check answer” button before we answer, and this gives us the listening icon and we can listen before answering if we want to.

The CD-ROM also has a feature to make tests. For each unit I can make a test of an additional ten, fifteen or twenty questions. For me, this is a real time saving bonus, and I like to use it projected onto the whiteboard for all the students to actively participate in.

There are one or two things I’m not so keen on. When making tests, there is a function to print the tests. However, they print in a slightly user-unfriendly manner, especially for elementary students who need a spacious page layout. However, using the test projected onto the whiteboard overcomes this problem. The other thing is that I feel the vocabulary section is not challenging enough for this level of student. Each page only teaches eight vocabulary items, which I found a bit too simple compared to the challenge of the grammar in the book.

In summary, this book is a really useful book for any student studying at this level of English. Grammar rules are presented simply and clearly with a page of practice. The CD-ROM then offers additional practice and keeps score of your progress. Excellent resource!