Modern English Structures 3 [antikvár]

Preface This is the third of four books which, taken together, constitute a complete course of English and a complete reference book of English at the same time. The teaching system on which the course is based is that loosely known as the 'structural method This means that the main emphasis is not placed on the purely mechanical learning of vocabulary (which will never enable the student to master the language) nor yet on grammatical rules (which often present the student with quite unnecessary difficulties) but on the programmed learning of the natural patterns of speech which are really the essence of any language, and particularly of English. When we learn our mother tongue, it is by hearing, and later practising, complete phrases and sentences which embody the patterns of speech just mentioned. These phrases and sentences are understood as a whole, and are then applied by the child, in a widening rangé of variations, to similar situations encountered in his or her own experience. The learning of a language in this way is a comparatively slow process, chiefly because the structures inherent in phrases and sentences are learnt at random. In the present course, the same natural method of learning is employed, but the structures are carefully ordered so as to make progress both easier and faster. Since this book will sometimes be used in parallel with others, whether readers or workbooks, it seemed desirable to keep to an established and approved programme for the presentation of the structures. The programme used in A. S. Hornby's The Teaching of Structural Words and Sentence Patterns (Book Three) has therefore been followed, with certain minor exceptions where divergences seemed desirable or necessary. Each structure or pattern is briefly formulated in the heading at the top of each left-hand page. This heading is followed by an explanation which at the outset will have to be transmitted by the teacher but which the student will later on be able to go back to and read himself. The explanations have been kept as simple as possible, iii