Living English Structure/Key to the Exercises [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONThe common problems of English language structure have tobe overcome by all students, and the difficulties they find aresimilar in all parts of the world. Regional differences canalways be dealt with by the teacher, who should be aware ofthe particular problems of his students. The following generalprinciples are self-evident:1.All students want to speak, write and read the normalaccepted English of today.2.This can only be achieved by constant practice ofexisting forms, with some rational explanation of the gram-matical devices employed, wherever this is possible.The exercises in this book have been devised over a periodof eight years, and are the results of practical experience withclasses of foreign adults, including students of Latin, Teutonic,Slavonic, and Arabic origin. All the exercises have been triedout and found practicable, and I hope they will prove usefuland valuable to many other teachers of English.How the book should be usedThis book is an attempt to answer the foreign student'sgrammatical problems empirically, and to give him a largenumber of appropriate exercises to practise them. An Englishschoolboy does " grammar" as an analytical exercise, but theforeign student needs to learn the mechanics of the language.Most existing grammar books are designed for the Englishschoolboy, and even a large number of those that are intendedfor foreigners have not managed to free themselves entirelyfrom the purely analytical point of view.Teachers will find in this book a great deal that is unconven-tional, perhaps even revolutionary, for it does not pretend totell the student what he Ought to Say in English, but tries toshow him what Is Actually Said. Many of the exercises arebased on the results of personal "structure-counts"invii