Section 2. Grammar workout

Your best chance for refreshing your grammar in a short time is to skip through potential errors, and therefore pull up your total level. Although a wide range of grammar points are potentially vulnerable in EFL communication, there are certain points that appear again and again, and you can master these points with the information and practice this Manual provides. Grammar Section may seem less stressful for you because it is easier to do all the items if you have learned how to.

Grammar sentences are generally about academic subjects: linguistics or the social sciences. Any cultural references in the sentences are to the culture of nransnational interaction. Some sentences contain references to people, places, and institutions that you will not be familiar with. It's not necessary to know these references; you should simply concentrate on the grammar structure of the sentences. It's also not necessary to understand all the vocabulary in a sentence; you can often determine a grammar structure or form correctly without a complete understanding of that sentence.

There are two possible approaches to grammar problems: an analytical approach and an intuitive approach. A non-native speaker who uses the analytical approach quickly analyzes the grammar of a sentence to see what element is missing or which element is incorrect. Someone who uses the second approach simply chooses the answer that "sounds right" or the one that "sounds wrong". Although the first approach is recommended to graduate students, the second can be useful too, especially for ESP learners. If you aren't sure which approach works best for you, keep in mind that you can combine the two approaches: if you get "stuck" using one method, you switch to another.

A Tip: An excellent way to refresh your grammar is to write your own grammar pattern items. Write several items for each of the units in this part of the book. There's no better way to start thinking like a proficient EFL speaker.