Why I like "Murphy"

 

When I was a teacher and Head of Department, my "go to" grammar book to use with students was Raymond Murphy`s English Grammar in Use. In fact, as a teacher, I had a class set (well, one between two) along with dictionaries, and as Head of Department, I provided a set in each Middle School and Lower High School English classroom.

I used the text in two ways. Firstly and rarely, if I needed to run a whole-class session on a grammatical point, I would use "Murphy" for the illustrative exercises. The left-hand page shows the structure, rule or pattern with examples and then, directly opposite the specific point on the right-hand page are exercises for the students to implement or to explore the structure. The answers in the back allow for self-checking.

More commonly, where I identified a specific weakness in a student or a group of students, I would refer him/her/them to the relevant section in Murphy and individually, in pairs or small groups, he/she/ they would work through the exercises. Sometimes, this would be a homework exercise.

In both cases, I would be free to monitor groups, support individual students or pairs where needed, lead sessions on other topics with other students and so on. Murphy allows for self-directed learning, active learning, formative assessment and targetted feedback.

Using Murphy does not mean that a student will no longer make that error. What it does mean is that when I identified a weakness, the student knew and understood what I was saying, and that s/he knew where to go for help when s/he identified her own error. I still needed to create activities to allow for practice, reinforcement and acquisition of that language point.

I did find that around B1/B2 in an ESL or bilingual programme, or around G8 or G9, Murphy began to become increasingly less useful and so I would use higher level resources. However, I do strongly recommend Murphy for EFL programmes up to B2, even entering C1, and for ESL or bilingual programmes to G8.

You can find copies of Murphy at the Book Depository through this link.

Some of the links I share may lead to a referral payment, at no cost to you.

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