Understanding and Using English Grammar 3rd edition Chartbook

This is a reference grammar for students of English as a second or foreign language. With a minimum of terminology and a broad table of contents. It seeks make grammar to essential understandable and easily accessible. The charts are concise presentations of information that second/foreign language learners want and need to know in  order to use English clearly, accurately, and communicatively. Intended as a useful tool for students and teachers alike, the Chartbook can be used alone as a desk reference or in conjunction with the Workbook.
The practices in the Workbook are keyed to the charts in the Chartbook. In the Workbook, given practices. The answers are to all the The Chartbookl Workbook combination allows learners to study independently.
Upper-level students can work through  much of the grammar on their own.
They can investigate and correct their usage problems, as well as expand their usage repertoire, by doing selfstudy practices in the Workbook; they can find answers to most of their grammar questions in the charts in the Chartbook.
Writing classes (or other courses, tutorials, or rapid reviews in which grammar is not the main focus but needs attention) may find  the Chartbook/Workbook combination especially useful.
Differences in structure usage between American and British English are noted throughout the text. The differences are few and relatively insignificant. The Teacher's Guide for Understanding and Using English Grammar contains additional notes on many grammar points each chart is discussed and amplified in some way.

Review:

I've been teaching ESL for 16 years and developmental writing and reading, college level, for 10 years, and I strongly recommend Betty Azar's Chartbook as a reference book. It is written for the ESL audience, but I also use it in my writing instruction for native speakers.
I recommend it highly for ESL speakers who have finished their formal ESL instruction or who are in an advanced level. They should use it the same way they do a dictionary or thesaurus - as a reference book. There are numerous grammar explanations that are easy to understand. Azar provides several lists that students can use as a reference if the grammar rule/pattern is an obscure or difficult one. It has a series of charts for students to visualize the actual time that the different English verb tenses cover. Azar covers a great deal of material, but the book is only 140 pages total - small and thin. That makes it convenient to carry.
I also recommend it highly as a teaching aid when instructing native speakers in reading and writing so that teachers can more fully understand English grammar from the ESL perspective. When I teach developmental writing to college students, I find that I am oftentimes dealing with native speaker dialect issues, so an ESL explanation can be more appropriate. In addition, there are many ESL students in Freshman Composition courses, so the instructor needs to know how to help those students.

The Chartbook is a reference book. If you want the exercises, get the regular text or the workbooks. Azar has been criticized for presenting grammar out of context. I believe that is a valid, although not a shattering, criticism of her main texts. However, this is not supposed to be that sort of book. It is supposed to be a reference book, and the grammar will be out of context.
I recommend this book unreservedly.

Karen Keyworth