Michael Swan is a writer of English language teaching and reference materials. He graduated from University of Oxford with a bachelor's degree in modern foreign languages and has later gone for a postgraduate research degree. He is the founder of Swan School of English.

Biography

Major publications include '' Practical English Usage'' and ''Basic English Usage'' (Oxford University Press). Other books are ''Grammar'', an introductory book on why languages need grammar and what they do with it and, with David Baker, ''Grammar Scan'' (Oxford University Press), a collection of diagnostic language tests. Michael Swan is also the co-author, with Catherine Walter, of ''The Oxford English Grammar Course'', of ''How English Works'' and ''The Good Grammar Book'' (all with Oxford University Press), and the ''New Cambridge English Course'' series (with Cambridge University Press). In 2012 the Advanced level of the ''Oxford English Grammar Course'' won the newly established Award in English Language Teaching (ELT) Writing, conferred by the British Council in collaboration with The (UK) Society of Authors. Michael Swan's interests include pedagogic grammar, mother-tongue influence in

second language acquisition Second-language acquisition (SLA), sometimes called second-language learning — otherwise referred to as L2 (language 2) acquisition, is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition is also the scientific dis ...

, and the relationship between applied linguistic theory and classroom language-teaching practice. He has written articles on all these topics, and is known for influential articles on the communicative approach and on task-based learning. Michael Swan is also a widely published poet. His poems have been published in several poetry magazines such as ''Acumen'' and ''

The Frogmore Papers ''The Frogmore Papers'' is a quarterly literary magazine published in the United Kingdom. The magazine is published by The Frogmore Press, founded by Andre Evans and Jeremy Page at the Frogmore tea-rooms in Folkestone (once a favourite haunt of H ...

'', as well as in the '' BBC Wildlife'' magazine. His collection ''When They Come For You'' was published by

The Frogmore Press ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

in 2003, and his second collection ''The Shapes of Things'' was published by Oversteps Books in 2011. In 2005 he won '' The Times

Stephen Spender Prize Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the ...

for poetry translation with his translation from the German of a section of

Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

's "Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes". He won The Poetry Society's 2010 Stanza Poetry Competition, with his poem "I Wasn't There".

References

External links

Michael Swan's home page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swan, Michael Linguists of English Living people English male poets Year of birth missing (living people)