Understanding and Using English Grammar is a developmental skills text for intermediate to advanced students of English as a second or foreign language. While focusing on grammar, it promotes the development of all language skills in a variety of ways. It functions principally as a classroom teaching text but also serves as a comprehensive reference text for students and teachers

The eclectic approach and abundant variety of exercise material remain the same as in the earlier editions, but each new edition incorporates new ways and means. In particular:

• The communicative aspects of Understanding and Using English Grammar are more fully developed and explicit in the third edition. There are numerous "real communication" opportunities for the teacher to exploit. The text often uses the students' own life experiences as context and regularly introduces topics of interest to stimulate the free expression of ideas in structured as well as open discussions. The text supports the view of many experienced teachers that grammar-based and communicative approaches are not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually supportive and can co-exist in the same language program, even in the same class, even in the same lesson.
   
• Similarly, the interactive aspects of the text receive greater emphasis in the third edition. Many of the exercises formerly designated "oral" or "oral (books closed)" are now reformatted to be used for pair work or group work, in addition to still being viable as class work led by a teacher. This edition encourages interactivity but leaves it open for the users to decide what degree of interactivity best suits their needs.
   
• There is now an even wider variety of exercise types. This new edition has added more free-response exercises and open-ended communicative tasks, while still providing ample controlled-response exercises to aid initial understanding of the form, meaning, and usage of the target structures. It also includes more writing topics, more speaking activities, expanded error-analysis exercises, and additional extended-context exercises.
   
• Long chapters have been broken into shorter units, and certain grammar units have been reorganized.