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Michael Swan is a writer of English language teaching and reference materials. Major publications include Practical English Usage and Basic English Usage (Oxford University Press). His most recent 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 How English Works and The Good Grammar Book (both with Oxford University Press), and the New Cambridge English Course series (with Cambridge University Press).

His interests include pedagogic grammar, mother-tongue influence in second language acquisition, 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, some serious, some funny, all written in deceptively accessible language, have been published in several poetry magazines such as Acumen and The Frogmore Papers as well as in more unexpected places like the BBC Wildlife Magazine. His collection When They Come For You was published by the Frogmore Press in 2003. In 2005 he won the prestigious Times Stephen Spender Prize for poetry translation with his translation from the German of a section of Rilke's 'Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.'

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