The best self-study English books for learners and teachers
- Jun 25, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 13
Here are my favourite grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and reference self-study English books for learners and teachers.
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It may surpise you to learn that when I was first starting out as an English teacher, I had no idea about English grammar.
The English school system doesn't teach tenses explicitly, so when I first heard about the present perfect tense, my mind was blown. I've never been so confused in my life!
During my first year of teaching, lesson planning took me hours. I had to teach myself the grammar before I was able to go into the classroom and confidently teach it to my students.
Below are the self-study English books that helped me the most, along with my own Concise Guide to the English Verb Tenses (I wish I'd had a handy guide like this, with ready-to-use examples back then).
In my first few years of English teaching, these books were invaluable to me. I still use them in my classes today and recommend them to my students.
English Grammar in Use, Raymond Murphy
This is a self-study reference and practice book for INTERMEDIATE (B1, B2) learners. It has well over 100 units and covers just about every grammar topic you could imagine, including verb tenses, prepositions, modal verbs, phrasal verbs, relative clauses…
I love this book because each topic gives both a page of clear explanations and a page of exercises.
The answers are in the back of the book, and it even includes extra review exercises.
Of all the books suggested here, this one helped me the most.
This also has books for elementary and advanced learners:
Essential Grammar in Use, Raymond Murphy
This book is for ELEMENTARY (A1, A2) learners.
Advanced Grammar in Use, Martin Hewings
This book is for ADVANCED (C1, C2) learners.
An A-Z of English Grammar and Usage, Geoffrey Leach, Susan Conrad, Benita Cruickshank, Roz Ivanic
This book is great for both teachers and learners. It has a dictionary-style layout making it super easy to find what you are looking for.
When I first started teaching, I found many grammar books confusing, but this one was clear as day!
A Concise Guide to the English Verb Tenses, Emma Snipe
For years, my students have been asking me to create a guide to the English tenses, so here it is! I cover the structure and use of each of the 12 tenses, including comparisons of some of the most confusing ones.
The English Vocabulary in Use range, Michael McCarthy & Felicity O’Dell
This range is also very good. There are books for elementary, pre-intermediate and intermediate, upper-intermediate, and advanced. Each unit has a page of clear explanations and a page of exercises. You can check your answers with the key in the back of the back. As well as numerous vocabulary topics, these books also cover aspects of grammar and style.
English Collocations in Use, Michael McCarthy
Collocations are an important part of English fluency. They are combinations of words that often appear together. Learning them is essential if you are studying for exams such as IELTS, or the Cambridge FCE or CAE. This book is for INTERMEDIATE (B1, B2) learners.
Examples of collocations: ‘throw a party’, not ‘make a party’; ‘deeply offended’, not ‘highly offended’; ‘strong interest’, not ‘heavy interest’; ‘close relative’, not ‘near relative’.
For pronunciation, Ship or Sheep by Ann Baker
is a little gem (both intermediate and elementary are available), and the English Pronunciation in Use range with downloadable audio is a must!
I hope you've found this post useful, and that these books help you achieve your language learning goals. As a learner myself, Spanish in my case, I know how difficult it can be. The important thing is not to give up!