Global English: The Grammar of Spoken English

Gr 10 Up—This 13-disc set teaches solid English grammar and usage, even going into tenses with which most native speakers are unfamiliar. Host Patricia Anghelescu speaks distinctly as she presents information on why it is important to speak well, and she encourages viewers to practice with the sounds of the 26 letters of the alphabet, accompanied by words and pictures or video. This might lead viewers to assume this will be a step-by-step introduction to English. Not so. Soon the program delves into pronouns, rules for vowel sounds, tenses, sentence construction, and more. The vocabulary used in teaching these skills is at a university level, and some of the words are far from common. Caliphate? Deprave? Imbibe? Viewers are encouraged to repeat words, but no time is given for such repetition. After the first couple of lessons, visuals are no longer employed and only words appear on the screen during the instructions. Explanations are precise, wordy, and rely on viewers already having a solid foundation in English. In short, this is a detailed overview of the rules and grammar, but it is clearly not designed for non-English speakers. Instead, it would be best used by business people who wish to hone their skills. The episodes are 30 minutes long, and each can be viewed as one unit or divided into separate sections.