giving a review

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

This was the final class, and the teacher was giving a review before the final exam.
(page 138, Writing with Pictures, by Hong Hongling)
Is the expression “giving a review” acceptable to native speakers?

2

Judging by the following, I’d say yes:

“2 report on a film, restaurant, etc.
ADJ. ……
VERB + REVIEW do, write I’m doing a review for the local paper. | give sth | get, have, receive, win | open to Their new musical opened to glowing reviews. | read, see Did you see the review in ‘The Times’?” oxforddictionary.so8848.com/search?word=review

3

I think this is the wrong word to use in this context. I presume the teacher is going back over the work that the class has already done in previous lessons as this is the final class before the exam. The teacher is ‘revising’ what the students have covered so far. A student will usually do ‘revision’ before the exam.

Alan

4

I was considering ‘revision’ too, and saying the teacher was revising [edited] his course before the final exam would be 100% correct.
But “to review means to look back over something for evaluation or memory” as well, and in the context, the two seem to kind of overlap, no?

5

Not really. I think I’ll stick to my preference for ‘revise’ ‘Review’ in your use suggests some sort of appraisal. The question is whether the teacher is indulging in some kind of self-appraisal, which seems unlikely as surely it would the students doing the appraisal?

Alan

6

Hi. I think this is another instance of UK/US usage differences. In the US, “do a review”, “give a review”, or “review for the test” would all be correct. As Eugene stated, the idea is to look back over past information- maybe similar to the “Year In Review” articles that always fill up the slow news time between Christmas and New Years. “Revision” is not used in this context in the US, it only means to change or edit something, like a paper or report.