Designed for ESL and ELT pedagogy courses around the world, this text describes English grammar from a World Englishes perspective. It is distinguished by its focus on the social setting for English as a global language, the latest thinking about grammatical theory, and new theories of how first and second languages are learned and taught. The fundamental premise is that teaching and learning grammar cannot be isolated from the local, regional, and global sociocultural contexts in which the teaching and learning take place. Part I presents different attitudes toward English as a global language and some challenges that learners of English share no matter where they are in the world. Part II is about the features of English that educated speakers consider the most likely and probable in Academic English. Part III describes the flexible and fluid features of English that might be susceptible to change or modification over time. Each chapter includes engaging Study, Discussion, and Essay Questions and Activities.
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part I. Global Trends in English Grammar Pedagogy
1. Global Perspectives on English
2. New Trends in Grammatical Theory
3. New Trends in Second Language Acquisition
4. New Trends in Post-method Grammar Pedagogy
Part II. Consensus Grammatical Features
5. Morphemes
6. Words
7. Major Phrases
8. Noun Phrases
9. Modifiers
10. Verbal Constructions
11. Sentences
12. Complex Sentences
13. Discourse
Part III. Unstable Grammatical Features
14. Unstable System Elements
15. Collocations and the Idiomatic Paradox
Biography
Barbara M. Birch is Professor in the Department of Linguistics at California State University, Fresno.
"This book is a good guide for pedagogical purposes on teaching grammar. Bringing a different perspective to the world of grammarians, Birch fills important gaps for those of us who want to teach grammar not only by looking at the stable forms but also by considering the regional and dialectal versions. Overall, Birch has written a valuable book that addresses important issues in teaching grammar with a new perspective." —Teaching English as a Second Language Electronic Journal
