Preface
I still remember, years ago as a second language learner in Sydney, looking for a specific grammar book to assist with punctuation in my academic writing. It turned out that I couldn’t find a copy. Perhaps this not-so-popular grammar book was hidden somewhere in a corner covered with dust. I asked my native-speaker friends, including some language teachers, if students still learned grammar as a subject at school. The answer was, “Not any longer.” Regardless of the situation with first language learners, whether it is necessary for second language learners to study grammar as part of the core content in English learning has long been debated and this book is my attempt to join the conversation.
Years later, still as a second language learner accredited with a new identity as language educator, I observed my students struggling to write and speak English properly. Writing a book to teach them how to apply grammar rules correctly came to my mind. Deep inside, my years of English learning makes me believe memorizing boring grammar rules and participating in loads of grammar drills are not equal to using them accurately in the right context. For example, Chinese students frequently confuse their audience by using the wrong “he” or “she” pronoun while actually intending to refer to the opposite gender. I also believe studying grammar rules is boring, whether you are in primary school or college. Therefore, I had to urge the writers of this book to repeatedly cut Grammar Usage, the first section of each unit, so as not to bore readers with redundant grammar rules.
My primary reason for writing this book is to help students write and speak properly, grammatically and lexically, especially in an academic setting. Therefore, it is comprised of two parts: the first part of this book — Get Ready — introduces Pronunciation Points, eight Parts of Speech and the main skills required for efficient reading; the second part includes ten units, each starting with basic grammar rules written as simply as possible, followed by four nation-themed articles of 400 to 600 words covering all five continents.
Whether to retain the first part of the book has been questioned and debated by fellow teachers, editors and writers. The doubts are raised for the following reasons: Pronunciation points are not very often seen in English textbooks; the eight Parts of Speech do not seem to have anything to do with the second part of the book; reading skills are very often seen embedded in readings instead of being placed in a single section at the beginning of a book. We eventually agreed to keep it because this book intends to integrate comprehensive skills required for efficient reading and listening as well as productive speaking and writing as the name “World English All in One” suggests. The items listed above all help to lay a solid foundation for students, especially weak students and should be introduced and practiced prior to any language study. In fact, the first part of this book has proven to be welcome by both our students and teachers in actual classroom trials and has received positive feedback overall.
The ten units in the second part all start with basic rules referring to a specific grammar point that the four texts which follow exemplify. Unlike traditional grammar books which provide detailed explanation of rules and endless drills, our book features “Analyze Grammar” , an activity in which students are required to recognize the grammar points in the readings which follow and practice them interactively in speaking and writing. Therefore, our Canadian colleagues had to revise the texts, sometimes rewrite the whole texts to emphasize the grammar point in each text, which is carefully chosen from authentic English sources, researched by our Sino-Canada language specialists who clearly know where language students’ reading interests lie. These most updated and informative reading materials focus on education, economy, culture and other aspects of life in one specific nation. The frequently-used vocabulary are also highlighted in each text. In this way students can absorb them in the right context. The rich variety of interactive and student-centered activities embedded in each text, meanwhile, require students to use the vocabulary and grammar and apply integrated skills, including listening, reading, speaking and writing.
This book initially targets intermediate-level students in their first year in international programs for whom English is a prerequisite and foundation course. However, anyone who is interested in learning the language and more about Western culture in general is recommended to use it. We strongly recommend first-year college students, non-English majors, to use this book as their textbook or supplementary readings because the activity-driven methodology and highly interesting readings have proven to be rather effective in engaging students and consequently resulted in efficient learning. In fact, we launched a trial program targeting first year students in Sino-Canada program in 2017 at Anhui Technical College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering even before this book is officially published. So far, first year students enrolled in 2017 and 2018 have used the book as their primary textbook and they spent around twelve hours each week learning from this book. The seemingly endless revision process went on and on as we received feedback and suggestions from our colleagues and students. I’m sorry that they had to bear the dull black-and-white photocopies. Our work was finally rewarded when the good news arrived that nearly 60% of our students in this joint program passed the ESL test assigned by our Canadian partner school, which topped the other Chinese partner schools. Our confidence was booming as the popularity of this book grew.
To lower the difficulty level of the readings, our Canadian proofreaders intentionally shortened and simplified sentences in the original texts. For example, complicated compound and complex sentences are very often rewritten in the first five units and broken down into easy-to-understand short sentences; and technical terms are paraphrased. However, a lot of them are kept unchanged in the following five units after clauses are introduced. Our Chinese team has translated the grammatical terms as well as rare and difficult technical terms into Chinese so as not to interfere with students’ understanding of the main ideas.
As writers, we intend to broaden our students’ vision with interesting stories from around the world — from Singapore in the east to Canada in the west, from Holland in the north to New Zealand in the south. As educators, we believe equipping students with a better understanding of the world helps them to prepare for the fast-changing and ever-growing Global Village.
This book witnessed joint partnerships between Chinese academic institutions and Canadian counterparts and is the product of deep cooperation among fellow teachers. Here I would like to express my gratitude for their comments and advice which made this book better. I also would like to extend my genuine appreciation to Professor Margaret R. Dillon for framing the blueprint of the book, proofreading, and offering suggestions basically on everything to everyone, from the beginning to the end. I am especially grateful to acknowledge the enormous effort and professional work spirit of the writers, who sacrificed a great deal of their personal time despite being full-time college and secondary school English teachers involved in international programs based both in China and Canada. This book was developed from countless hours of discussions and revisions. The writers’ invaluable contribution can be seen as follows:
Mary Huang（黄琦）for Great Ready
Shu Yang（杨姝）for Unit One
Karen Zhu（朱冉月）for Units Two and Three
Lynne Cao（曹琳）for Unit Four
Allen Liu（刘知国）for Unit Five
Bright Zhao（赵建良）for Units Six and Seven
Bright Zhao and Mary Huang jointly for Unit Eight
David Chau for Unit Nine, St. Lawrence College, Canada
Shu Yang（杨姝）for Unit Ten
Special thanks to Ivy Tao（陶珊）and Vanessa Cheng（程思茜）for proofreading the whole manuscript.
My appreciation also goes to my colleagues at Anhui Technical College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and editors at Fudan University Press who provided tremendous help in facilitating the publication of the book.
We genuinely welcome any suggestions on improving the quality of this book.
Yang Shu
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