Italian Grammar Drills

This is a rather apologetic book: it sympathises with students having "to clear the bothersome hurdle of grammar" (back cover) and is more defeatist than helpful in its not very extensive grammatical explanations (which are often qualified by "generally", "usually", "some"). The emphasis is on the repeated practice of grammatical structures, but since more complex issues are also included one wonders whether students might not come away feeling that they have been automatically writing things without having gained much insight. Many exercises are based on grammatical translation which, although not a bad thing in itself, contradicts the "drill" aspect in that questions such as lexical choice may distract the student's attention from the practice of the specific morphological point.

Who is it for? Those who, as far as the teaching and learning of grammar is concerned, are resigned to a damage-limitation approach.

Presentation - A4-size book. Lots of blank space. Answers provided.

Would you recommend it? It won't do any harm. But there is more forceful stuff out there.