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Practice in German Grammar - 2nd edition (Practice in Grammar) by Jones Alan Griffith Lawlor Gudrun (2014-11-01) Paperback
Practice in German 2nd Edition introduces students to the more formal grammatical knowledge required for advanced examinations in German. Starting from notions that are already familiar, it leads gradually towards a higher level of competence in both spoken and written German. Grammatical structures are introduced by means of dialogues, setting the language in everyday context. Grammatical rules are explained clearly and methodically in English and are then practiced in a series of exercises in which the language is kept relatively simple. "Practice in German" is both a practical workbook and a useful reference book, providing help dealing with individual difficulties and enabling students to check for themselves how a particular structure works.
Unknown Binding
First published December 1, 1994
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December 7, 2008
I really am a big fan of this book. It sounds a bit sad to be saying this about a Grammar guide, but in a field that's usually filled with overcomplication, I found this book a little oasis of plain talking that made concepts with (mainly erroneously) scary reputations easy to learn.
Written for students starting A-level (post 16) courses, it starts by repeating rules that were learnt in GCSE (such as cases and gender) and ends with things such as the subjunctive, which are considered more difficult. Each rule is presented with one or two pages to itself, in which it is explained in plain English, with only the most necessary jargon, a few German examples are given of the rule "in action" (these are also translated to English), and at the end of the page come numerous exercises, mainly to do with restructuring sentences, to test how well you have learnt.
The simplicity of this approach is what I found most useful: although the excercises given are vaguely tied in to the little story about exchange students told throughout the book, they are purely grammatical. The fact that this book is intended to be used for individual study removes the problem encountered in many textbooks in which, in an attempt to appeal to the whole class and not seem dry, really rather obscure exercises are suggested ("Give a presentation about the adjectives used in this text about Goethe" etc.) that I usually find more confusing than educational. The whole book is presented in a clear style, and includes many complete tables of endings, verbs etc. which can be turned to whilst writing or learning from other sources to provide a quick reference, and has had a page explaining most of the grammatical problems I've encountered so far living in Germany speaking and reading the language. I would gladly recommend this to people learning German, individually or as part of a class, of any level.
Written for students starting A-level (post 16) courses, it starts by repeating rules that were learnt in GCSE (such as cases and gender) and ends with things such as the subjunctive, which are considered more difficult. Each rule is presented with one or two pages to itself, in which it is explained in plain English, with only the most necessary jargon, a few German examples are given of the rule "in action" (these are also translated to English), and at the end of the page come numerous exercises, mainly to do with restructuring sentences, to test how well you have learnt.
The simplicity of this approach is what I found most useful: although the excercises given are vaguely tied in to the little story about exchange students told throughout the book, they are purely grammatical. The fact that this book is intended to be used for individual study removes the problem encountered in many textbooks in which, in an attempt to appeal to the whole class and not seem dry, really rather obscure exercises are suggested ("Give a presentation about the adjectives used in this text about Goethe" etc.) that I usually find more confusing than educational. The whole book is presented in a clear style, and includes many complete tables of endings, verbs etc. which can be turned to whilst writing or learning from other sources to provide a quick reference, and has had a page explaining most of the grammatical problems I've encountered so far living in Germany speaking and reading the language. I would gladly recommend this to people learning German, individually or as part of a class, of any level.
Displaying 1 of 1 review