ABOUT THIS BOOK:

This series of four books is designed to help all those who wish or need to deepen their knowledge of English grammar. It presents English grammar through numerous living examples drawn from the various contexts of contemporary Nigerian life. A major part of its purpose is to supplement the teaching of English language in Nigerian schools. Its handling of topics is therefore progressive: Book 1 is elementary, and primary-school pupils ought to be able to use it, with teachers providing suitable guidance, while each successive book builds upon what has gone before and there is plenty of revision of earlier points. By the end of Book 4, the Nigerian learner has been exposed to all the aspects of English grammar that are tested in the School Certificate examination. At every stage, the books offer clear explanations and a variety of practical exercises. Although teachers of English (including the author) should be wary of linguistic jargon, some use of it is unavoidable; and although a teacher has a natural desire to simplify for the benefit of readers, not everything in life, and certainly not everything in grammar, is simple. The series is contemporary in its assumptions about how English grammar ought to be described; it therefore abandons certain hallowed, but misleading ‘traditional’ ideas. It does not, for example, tell the reader that a noun is the name of a person, place, or thing — an incantation which generations of pupils have recited, but which ignores the fact that, after all, a place is a thing. Its list of parts of speech virtually omits the very marginal interjections, but gives due prominence to determiners.