You have to ponder too what the EFL world would have been like without his contribution to grammar with his accompanying pictures and neat, concise examples? Surely one cannot seriously call oneself a true chalkie without having at least once pressed a copy of English Grammar in Use onto the platen of a Japanese photocopier and pressed return! Just like an aborigine needs to go out into the bush on walkabout to prove his manhood, so one is not IMHO, a real TEFL teacher without having thumbed the pages of a Murphy's English Grammar in Use!
Twenty seven years after writing a grammar textbook that has since been used by over 100 million learners of English, the university that publishes the work has awarded its author an honorary degree. Raymond Murphy, 65, above on the left, whose book English Grammar in Use and follow up, Essential English Grammar in Use, have become staples of classrooms around the world, received an honorary MA from Cambridge University last month.
Murphy had been working as a teacher for more than a decade when he decided to collect the simple grammar explanations and practice activities he had written for his students into a book, but initial response from publishers was not encouraging.Cambridge University Press eventually took on the book, which quickly established itself as a “bible” for both teachers and learners.
The success of English Grammar in Use took Murphy by surprise. “My main fear in writing the first book was that nobody would buy it anywhere. So when a few thousand copies were sold, I was very relieved.
“They were the only books I ever wanted to write,” Murphy said.
And as they say, the rest is history!
More here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/feb/14/elt-diary-february-2012
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