Jan Frodesen and J. Eyring (2000)

Grammar Dimensions Book Four: Form, Meaning, and Use

Platinum edition. Boston: Heinle & Heinle 

Reviewed by Nancy Mayer

Grammar Dimensions Book Four, like the other books in this series, focuses on explaining not only the form, but the meaning and use of grammatical structures, and provides communicative tasks and activities for practice. The text is advanced and supplies academic-level communicative practices and assignments. For example, Unit 3 “Subject-Verb Agreement” begins with an opening task that requires students to take a poll of the class’s reading habits by taking turns asking and answering questions used in a Gallup Poll. The students summarize the results and report back to the class. Not only does this activity involve each student in using subject-verb agreement in speaking and writing, this task is also similar to what many of the students need to do in academic courses.  

In addition to providing academic-level activities and exercises for advanced students, the readings in many of the units are authentic texts. For example, Unit 1 includes passages from Richard Rodriguez’s autobiography, The Hunger of Memory, and oral interviews from Studs Terkel’s The Great Divide for students to identify the “time frame” and “moment of focus” of verbs. Unit 2 includes passages from Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard as examples of discourse using progressive tenses. By using authentic contexts that students may encounter in their academic classes, these exercises offer students the opportunity to integrate critical thinking and communicative language skills. 

The supplementary materials for Grammar Dimensions Book Four provide the students and instructor with a great deal of support. The Teacher’s Edition offers suggestions for presenting the grammar points and activities and includes short unit tests. The series also includes a workbook, which has exercises that correspond to the Focus grammar points in the book and TOEFL-style practices. There are an audiocassette for listening activities and the CD Grammar Dimensions, which includes some exercises at the advanced level.

The appropriate level and variety of activities of Grammar Dimensions Book Four make it relevant and appealing for advanced learners who are studying in an academic setting. I have worked with undergraduate and graduate students in university settings who have said that listening and speaking, for example in a seminar class, is the most challenging aspect of attending an American university. One of my students this semester said, “It’s a nightmare for me to take a seminar class. Every time I think about something, I have to translate it into English. When I finish the translation and am ready to talk, somebody has said it before me, or the professor has already jumped to the next topic.” Using a grammar text that focuses on communicative skills and offers a variety of practices that include the skill areas of reading, speaking, listening, and writing can help students feel more secure and competent. 

Nancy Mayer is a lecturer of English as a Second Language at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and adjunct faculty of English as a Second Language at Washington University in St. Louis. She may be contacted at nmayer@umsl.edu.

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