Re: Why is learning ABOUT grammar so prevalent in today’s language classes?
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 4:06 pm
I don't know where you're from, or what the native language of your classmates is, but grammar teaching is usually pretty lacking in the part of the UK I'm from, which would explain why so many people don't get it.
Yes, it is possible to learn a language without knowing the terminology. My cousin is a pretty competent native speaker of English without having a clue what a 'verb' was.* But it does get a bit difficult to explain, for example, why Swedes use hennes/hans (hers/his) in some sentences and sin/sitt/sina (hers/his) in others if you don't know how a sentence is built, what a clause is, and the difference between object and subject. You can get a feel for it without understanding the terms, with ample input. After five years of exposing myself to Swedish, I was developing a feel for it, but I was still getting it wrong more often than not. One lesson with a teacher and a few exercises means that I'm now getting it right pretty much every time. Having learnt French previously meant I wasn't completely lost when my teacher started whipping out the grammar terms. Another Brit taking the course hadn't studied any other languages previously and found the concepts we were learning in our grammar sessions harder to get to grips with. Not knowing the terms was part of the reason she was having more trouble than me.
Of course, as reineke and Cavesa have pointed out, learning the grammar in isolation isn't really helpful. I floundered in French grammar classes, and I never became particularly confident while speaking French. I had no idea what an indirect object was, let alone how it would like to be complemented. I didn't have a mental picture of the language, I had not read or listened to enough of it to have a mental picture of it. There was nothing for me to attach all these grammar concepts to. What was the subjunctive? Something I spat out in one set phrase to pass exams. When was it used, and why? Hell if I knew to the first, to confuse poor little anglophone me to the second.
I actually dislike grammar. I've spent years mostly avoiding explicit grammar study and focussing on input. But if you actually know how to study grammar, you'll get to grips with how the language works and how to use it yourself a lot quicker.**
*I'm pretty sure she knows now. Probably.
**Disclaimer: I have absolutely no idea how to study grammar. That's why I still speak German like Yoda.
Yes, it is possible to learn a language without knowing the terminology. My cousin is a pretty competent native speaker of English without having a clue what a 'verb' was.* But it does get a bit difficult to explain, for example, why Swedes use hennes/hans (hers/his) in some sentences and sin/sitt/sina (hers/his) in others if you don't know how a sentence is built, what a clause is, and the difference between object and subject. You can get a feel for it without understanding the terms, with ample input. After five years of exposing myself to Swedish, I was developing a feel for it, but I was still getting it wrong more often than not. One lesson with a teacher and a few exercises means that I'm now getting it right pretty much every time. Having learnt French previously meant I wasn't completely lost when my teacher started whipping out the grammar terms. Another Brit taking the course hadn't studied any other languages previously and found the concepts we were learning in our grammar sessions harder to get to grips with. Not knowing the terms was part of the reason she was having more trouble than me.
Of course, as reineke and Cavesa have pointed out, learning the grammar in isolation isn't really helpful. I floundered in French grammar classes, and I never became particularly confident while speaking French. I had no idea what an indirect object was, let alone how it would like to be complemented. I didn't have a mental picture of the language, I had not read or listened to enough of it to have a mental picture of it. There was nothing for me to attach all these grammar concepts to. What was the subjunctive? Something I spat out in one set phrase to pass exams. When was it used, and why? Hell if I knew to the first, to confuse poor little anglophone me to the second.
I actually dislike grammar. I've spent years mostly avoiding explicit grammar study and focussing on input. But if you actually know how to study grammar, you'll get to grips with how the language works and how to use it yourself a lot quicker.**
*I'm pretty sure she knows now. Probably.
**Disclaimer: I have absolutely no idea how to study grammar. That's why I still speak German like Yoda.