1. Tiffany Akers
0433782
TSL 502 Fall 2013
Azar Assignment
11/09/2013
My current experience in teaching with Betty Azar’s work is with her books Basics in
English Grammar (beginner) and Fundamentals in English Grammar (low intermediate); thus,
the student perceptions and understanding will come from these levels. Wichita State
University’s Intensive English program, the program in which I teach, uses Understanding and
Using English Grammar at the high intermediate level. Azar’s books have similar styles and flow
together as a series, so I feel that my relation between experience and ideas presented in the
article will be parallel.
Overall, I feel that some of the authors’ critiques are fair, others are not, and a few are
moot points. The tone in many places of this article seems condescending which hurts the
interpretation of objectivity by the reader. To adequately answer the question of fairness, each
section critiqued by the article is addressed as a whole, and then each numbered example is
discussed. The discussion of this article objectively considers what is covered and makes clear
points on the issues. I agree with the authors’ conclusions in the discussion and the implications
for ESL teachers. Regardless of skill or level being taught, there will undoubtedly be limitations
in materials used for instruction. These conclusions are fair.

2. Standard A: Though the points the author makes are technically correct, I don’t feel they are
always fair. At lower levels, students easily become confused to the point of poor performance if
they are overwhelmed with explicit, lengthy, and situational information. Therefore, it isn’t
beneficial to put students at a disadvantage for the sake of saying all the rules have been
explicitly explained. The author answers why Azar has taken her specific approach with the very
basic rules, no matter how incomplete, by saying “…since the "rules" -- such as the ones
presented herein -- do suffice in limited contexts, Azar perhaps feels that it’s counterproductive
to load the learner down with more detail.”
#1. The authors are correct by saying that Azar’s definition of use for pronouns is very
simple; it doesn’t address noun phrases, and only noun clauses are mentioned in the book. With
that being said, Azar’s following exercises focus only on replacing a single noun (John) or a
noun with determiner (the students) with a pronoun. She doesn’t use noun phrases in the
exercises after introducing pronouns.
Azar uses a simple and specific focus in which the extra explanations of noun phrases
and practice of noun phrases would be distracting, misleading, and possibly confusing for
weaker students. This simple and specific focus, especially for new learners, is beneficial
because new learners need the practice with one small building block at a time. While the author
is correct that mis-information may be unfavorable, students seem to incorporate the ideas of
noun phrases with supplemented material rather than struggle to unlearn initial rules.
The authors incorrectly state that Azar doesn’t address the pronoun ‘one’. It is addressed
on page 147 in the chapter of pronouns.

3. #2. While technically true in an analytical sense, this argument seems like a moot point.
Students seem to make the connection that plural pronouns refer to ‘noun phrases’ of more than
one thing listed rather than every individual noun in the list. Students’ ability to make this
connection shows their understanding of the concepts of plural and singular without the need of
phrases to be explained (the idea of Universal Grammar at work). Bogging students down with
the explanation of a ‘noun phrase’ seems like it would be more damaging to a student’s
understanding of pronouns if they are not yet ready to successfully master the skill.
#3. The arguments made in this section are all valid points. I have had this trouble with
Azar’s explanation of possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns. Students who have
background knowledge or are intuitive usually ask questions about adjective phrases, sentence
word order, etc. This develops into a long conversation exactly like what is explained in the
article with nearly all of these issues addressed.
The problem that arises from these explanations is that beginning students who are
weaker or not intuitive quickly and easily get lost with explained situational differences. It is
overwhelming and discouraging to a student because they would not know where to start. While
the authors’ argument is valid, I still agree with the idea that simple rules for limited context and
specific practice are best for beginners. Lengthy explanations about situational word order, 2+
adjectives, and differences in pronouns before a student practices anything could present a whole
new can of worms. It is easier to address word order when students can make sentences rather
than before.

4. Standard B: I feel the authors are fair in their assessment of Azar’s presentation of gerunds.
Though Azar’s scope was a brief introduction to gerunds, Azar was not complete in her
explanation. There are better ways to state and explain gerunds. As the rules are presented,
looking at the material with a mastery of gerunds leads one to feel that Azar’s rules conflict with
each other. However, I don’t feel the authors’ wording is fair in their argument. The conflict
leads to clarity issues rather than Azar using incorrect rules.
Standard C: I feel the authors provide an unfair and very narrow view of the
comprehensiveness of Azar’s book without consideration of her preceding books. Also, the
context of the citations presented in the article and the scope of what Azar was addressing are not
taken into consideration. I do agree with the author that many aspects of grammar must be
acquired by the student through comprehensible input, ‘whether explicit grammar instruction is
received or not’.
#1. Azar writes ‘usually’ not ‘always’ in the excerpt provided. This is one sentence taken
from the context of what Azar truly explains. Azar’s focus is not stress, but rather to give a
general explanation on the use of contractions. That is why it is explained in this way.
Furthermore, ‘a student being left to his/her own devices’ is understandable if a student was
given a book and sent home, but students are in a classroom to receive instruction. The teacher
has the ability to guide and explain the uses of items presented in the book, as well as answer
questions.
The authors fail to mention that the excerpt is taken from a table in the appendix. In her
texts, Azar addresses short answers with contractions in both books preceding the one discussed

5. in the article. When explaining contractions and usage, it is explained that positive short answers
are usually three words. By the high intermediate level, students are not making these mistakes;
maybe this is another example of Universal Grammar at work.
#2. This is a moot point. Yes, term derived structure is not explicitly stated, nor is it
addressed in this book. However, the preceding books cover how word order is changed in
questions without explicitly discussing the terms deep structure, surface structure,
transformational grammar, etc. Students’ understanding of transformational grammar, the fact
that word order changes between statement and question form, is more important than bogging
students down with terminology. The terminology is more important for teachers to understand
and bridge the concept gaps as necessary.
The scope of negation is not covered as a whole subject in one chapter, but rather it is
addressed as the issues arise. The beginning of this book is review, thus the students are already
aware of the basic use of negatives. The context surrounding Azar’s point, as it is addressed
explicitly in preceding books, is how to make an affirmative statement negative and where to put
that negative. Again, this is a simple rule. The scope of negation is not necessary when writing
simple sentences like “Bill understood the message’ and ‘Bill did not understand the message’.
None of this is addressed in the chart in the appendix, nor does it need to be. Understanding the
scope of negation is really necissary when writing or understanding more complex sentences,
like the example ‘Bill, not understanding the message, tried to play it back’.
Moreover, Azar addresses this scope as it comes up. For instance, ‘or not’ is addressed
by Azar in chart 12-3 on page 249. To say that ‘the scope of negation and derived structure are
not hinted in Azar’ is a fallacy.

6. Standard D: I agree with the author that the information provided by Azar’s books would be
inadequate for self-editing if the rules are interpreted as end-all-be-all solutions by a student
without instruction, ‘left to their own devices’. A students’ self-editing ability grows with their
understanding of the target language. Once they make a mistake and are corrected, and the
reason for the correction is explained, a student will have the knowledge to make better self-
editing choices.
Standard E: I again agree with the authors on a limited view as before: the information
provided by Azar’s books would be inadequate for self-expression if the rules are interpreted as
end-all-be-all solutions by a student without instruction, ‘left to their own devices’. However,
the authors seem to contradict themselves. I feel that the authors present weak and stretched
arguments. In previous sections, Azar is criticized for being too specific because her rules are not
all encompassing, yet in this section, Azar is criticized for not being specific enough. It seems
the authors’ criticism goes from one extreme or another.
#1. Appendixes are used for reference. The authors’ quote is one sentence taken from one
example in a small quick reference chart in the first appendix. It is unfair to state that the
adverbs are described in great detail when the charts are similar in size and information. The
adverbs chart states “some adverbs may occur in the middle of a sentence” which is similar to
the authors’ quote. The main difference is that the following sentence says “midsentence
adverbs have usual positions”. For example, adverbs always come between a helping verb and a
main verb when helping/main verbs are present. If only a main verb is present, then there are

7. different rules to follow. These rules are clear-cut and unchangeable. For Azar to be more
specific about preposition usage, she would be giving a blanket rule that isn’t always true.
Furthermore, the very basics of prepositions are expressed in the preceding two Azar
books. When looking at the appendix of the book directly preceding Understanding and Using
English Grammar, one can find two pages discussing prepositions and combinations. With this
being said, I wouldn’t consider reference material in an appendix as effective grammatical
information for self-expression.
#2. This critique is unfair because it is taking what Azar said completely out of context. The
article’s authors leave an ellipse which conveniently leaves out Azars example and an
explanation of what kind of prepositional phrase would be used in the middle. The example is:
“In (b): was + in her room + studying = the focus is on Kay’s location.”
Reading this explanation followed by guided practice in which the prepositional phrase is about
the subject and not the object reduces the effectiveness of authors’ argument. The authors give
the example of ‘she was on the wall admiring the pictures’ in which the prepositional phrase is
describing the location of the object. After reading the chart and doing the guided practice, it
should be clear that the prepositional phrase expressing place about a subject can be used in the
middle or at the end of a sentence.
Furthermore, the article claims Azar is restrictive by giving an example with a time
marker after the expression of place. The excerpt from Azar’s book is not addressing time
markers with expressions of place, but rather it is looking at expressions of place with
progressive verbs. Only these two ideas are in consideration and practiced together in this part
of the book. It is unfair to say that Azar is inaccurate simply because time markers are not

8. addressed. It would be inaccurate if time markers were addressed incorrectly. Azar is not
focusing on the addition of time markers to expressions of place, or mastering every possible
grammatically correct situation in using expressions of place. She is focusing on the
combinations of two aspects. At this point, it seems that the article is stretching to provide
opposition to Azar.
#3. I completely agree with the authors on Azar’s distinction between simple past and present
perfect. The extensive detail is very misleading and difficult to understand. I also agree that
Celce-Murcia and Larson-Freeman more accurately distinguish between simple past and present
perfect.
Discussion
I agree with the discussion of this article the most. The idea that complex grammatical
concepts are required in order to state more complex rules completely, and most students
wouldn’t understand them seems obvious. There is no doubt that comprehensible input is a
source of grammatical competence, but to say that it is the ‘true’ source seems bold. I’m not sure
I completely agree with the chosen words of this article.
I feel it is fair to say that clear and precise rules about grammar are necessary for
understanding and that technical terminology and concepts are tools for achieving this. However,
I do not feel the technical terminology is necessary for students. It is a teacher’s job, not the
students, to understand this technical terminology, and then instruct in a comprehensible way.
Therefore, a teacher should be aware of the inadequacies of the grammar textbooks and, as the
authors state, provide “more productive classroom experiences for students.”

9. The first published text is from the website:
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html which, in my opinion, thoroughly
explains the concept of present perfect tense. Present perfect is a difficult concept for students
lacking it in their native language. This website has been well liked by past students and is used
by quite a few teachers as supplement material for better understanding of the tense. I love how
timelines and colors are used. The use of color sets the ideas apart. Also, though it seems wordy,
advanced students are able to understand this website with ease.
Present Perfect
[has/have + past participle]
Examples:
 You have seenthat movie many times.
 Have you seenthat movie many times?
 You have not seenthat movie many times.
USE 1 Unspecified Time Before Now
We use the Present Perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The
exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the Present Perfect with specific time
expressions such as: yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in
Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. We CAN use the Present Perfect with unspecific
expressions such as: ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, etc.
Examples:
 I have seenthat movie twenty times.
 I think I have met him once before.
 There have been many earthquakes in California.
 People have traveled to the Moon.

10.  People have not traveled to Mars.
 Have you read the book yet?
 Nobody has ever climbed that mountain.
 A: Has there ever been a war in the United States?
B: Yes, there has been a war in the United States.
How Do You Actually Use the Present Perfect?
The concept of "unspecified time" can be very confusing to English learners. It is best to
associate Present Perfect with the following topics:
TOPIC 1 Experience
You can use the Present Perfect to describe your experience. It is like saying, "I have the
experience of..." You can also use this tense to say that you have never had a certain experience.
The Present Perfect is NOT used to describe a specific event.
Examples:
 I have been to France.
THIS SENTENCE MEANS THAT YOU HAVE HADTHE EXPERIENCE OF BEING IN FRANCE.MAYBE YOU HAVE BEEN
THERE ONCE,OR SEVERAL TIMES.
 I have been to France three times.
YOU CAN ADD THE NUMBER OF TIMESAT THE END OF THE SENTENCE.
 I have never been to France.
THIS SENTENCE MEANS THAT YOU HAVE NOT HAD THEEXPERIENCE OFGOING TO FRANCE.
 I think I have seenthat movie before.
 He has never traveled by train.
 Joan has studied two foreign languages.
 A: Have you ever met him?
B: No, I have not met him.
TOPIC 2 Change Over Time
We often use the Present Perfect to talk about change that has happened over a period of time.
Examples:
 You have grown since the last time I saw you.
 The government has become more interested in arts education.

11.  Japanese has become one of the most popular courses at the university since the Asian
studies program was established.
 My English has really improved since I moved to Australia.
TOPIC 3 Accomplishments
We often use the Present Perfect to list the accomplishments of individuals and humanity. You
cannot mention a specific time.
Examples:
 Man has walked on the Moon.
 Our son has learned how to read.
 Doctors have cured many deadly diseases.
 Scientists have split the atom.
TOPIC 4 An Uncompleted Action You Are Expecting
We often use the Present Perfect to say that an action which we expected has not happened.
Using the Present Perfect suggests that we are still waiting for the action to happen.
Examples:
 James has not finished his homework yet.
 Susan hasn't mastered Japanese, but she can communicate.
 Bill has still not arrived.
 The rain hasn't stopped.
TOPIC 5 Multiple Actions at Different Times
We also use the Present Perfect to talk about several different actions which have occurred in the
past at different times. Present Perfect suggests the process is not complete and more actions are
possible.
Examples:
 The army has attacked that city five times.
 I have had four quizzes and five tests so far this semester.
 We have had many major problems while working on this project.

12.  She has talked to several specialists about her problem, but nobody knows why she is
sick.
Time Expressions with Present Perfect
When we use the Present Perfect it means that something has happened at some point in our lives
before now. Remember, the exact time the action happened is not important.
Sometimes, we want to limit the time we are looking in for an experience. We can do this with
expressions such as: in the last week, in the last year, this week, this month, so far, up to now, etc.
Examples:
 Have you been to Mexico in the last year?
 I have seenthat movie six times in the last month.
 They have had three tests in the last week.
 She graduated from university less than three years ago. She has worked for three
different companies so far.
 My car has broken down three times this week.
NOTICE
"Last year" and "in the last year" are very different in meaning. "Last year" means the year
before now, and it is considered a specific time which requires Simple Past. "In the last year"
means from 365 days ago until now. It is not considered a specific time, so it requires Present
Perfect.
Examples:
 I went to Mexico last year.
I WENT TO MEXICO IN THE CALENDAR YEARBEFORE THISONE.
 I have been to Mexico in the last year.
I HAVE BEEN TO MEXICO AT LEAST ONCE AT SOME POINT BETWEEN 365DAYS AGOAND NOW.

13. USE 2 Duration From the Past Until Now (Non-Continuous Verbs)
With Non-Continuous Verbs and non-continuous uses of Mixed Verbs, we use the Present
Perfect to show that something started in the past and has continued up until now. "For five
minutes," "for two weeks," and "since Tuesday" are all durations which can be used with the
Present Perfect.
Examples:
 I have had a cold for two weeks.
 She has been in England for six months.
 Mary has loved chocolate since she was a little girl.
Although the above use of Present Perfect is normally limited to Non-Continuous Verbs and
non-continuous uses of Mixed Verbs, the words "live," "work," "teach," and "study" are
sometimes used in this way even though they are NOT Non-Continuous Verbs.

14. The second published text is from Grammar Dimensions by Stephen H. Thewlis. It is a picture
I took of the explanations of articles. I feel this excerpt provides an accurate and well rounded
explanation.

15. Works cited
Azar, B. S., & Hagen, S. A. (2009). Understanding and Using English
Grammar, Fourth Edition. White Plains, New York: Pearson
Education.
(N.D). Present Perfect. Retrieved from
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html
Thewlis, S. H. (2000). Grammar Dimensions 3, Platinum Edition: Form,
Meaning, and Use. Boston, Massachusetts: Thomson/Heinle.