My approach to grammar is ...

[luke]

When it comes to foreign language learning...

I read a short overview grammar.
I read a comprehensive grammar.
I do a grammar workbook.
I pick up grammar without studying it directly.
I focus on grammar early.
I focus on grammar throughout my study.
I turn to grammar to "finish" my studies.

It's always helpful when people write something about their answers. Do you use more than one grammar resource or workbook? Where does grammar fit in your language learning?

[galaxyrocker]

First, I want to give a little caveat. I love grammar study. I've studied up on the grammar of languages I never was learning and never intended to learn simply because I find morphosyntax extremely interesting. It's probably my favourite or second favourite branch of linguistics (historical linguistics being the other). I read academic works about grammar for fun. So it's a huge caveat there.

But,

I do tend to use a grammar workbook, if it exists (it doesn't for Irish, really). I like this as it helps me get started and gives me guided steps to improving my grammar. I also do eventually read a full comprehensive grammar, or at least consistently use one as a reference once I get to a good enough level. This is what I do with Irish nowadays, though I'm still at the grammar workbook stage of French (and all the others I'm half-learning).

I also put that I focus heavily on grammar early on, as well as throughout my studies. Grammar early means I can start reading earlier, and a wider range of things (assuming I also do the vocab study to keep up with it). I focus on the tenses/moods/aspects so that I can understand them and recognise conjugations, etc. But I've also found grammar adds more polish to your language use, making it sound more natural, so I continue to focus on it throughout my studies as well. It's not as important as proper pronunciation for making native speakers accept you, but it's up there, and is something most people (at least in my experience with Irish, which, admittedly, is an outlier from many languages) really struggle with.

That said, if I don't turn to an old language or Breton as my next one, I intend to try a little bit of a different path focusing more on immersion. I'll still do the grammar workbooks, but I won't go as gung-ho into grammar study as I normally do. Maybe that'll change how I approach grammar with future languages, but for now it's what interests me the most so it's what I go with.

[Ogrim]

When I started learning languages as a kid in school more than 40 years ago understanding grammar was considered just as important as learning vocabulary and I have stuck to the "old-fashioned" method" my German teacher used ever since: lots of grammar drills and memorising grammar rules and patterns. So when I start on a new language that has verb conjugation I want tables and lists to understand how verbs are conjugated, both regular and irregular. Same for languages with a case system, I want a full overview of the declensions from the very beginning. I guess I actually spend more time on grammar than on acquiring vocabulary in the first few months of studying a new language, because personally I find that once I understand the grammatical structure of the language, then the rest is about repetition and expanding vocabulary.

So I answered that I need a comprehensive grammar, I focus on grammar early and throughout my studies..

[BeaP]

When I learn any subject I like structure, system, reasoning. So I learn grammar throughout my study. I imagine language learning like going around in concentric circles that always get bigger. In the case of those languages that I started to learn as an adult I missed a smaller first circle, that I needed to show me the whole system of the language. A bird's eye view so to say, or a roadmap that tells me what I'll have to learn in the future. The Michel Thomas course was the only one that came close.

I also like grammar workbooks, however, a lot of CEFR textbooks include sufficient grammar exercises, so I often find them unnecessary. Workbooks have always been important for me, because they provide an active way of studying at home. I always write down the answers and even say them out loud. If the exercises are well-made, and not just the typical 'connect the halves' tasks for dummies, they can give a real training in vocabulary and active recall as well.

On the C levels I can't always infer the nuances of certain structures (register, emotion conveyed), so a good grammar is essential for me.

[Iversen]

I want a general overview at a very early stage, and during that phase I pick out the things I think are essential and have to be learnt ASAP and write them in a concise form on green paper (because white paper tends to get lost). Later on I may read one or more full grammars to learn about the finer details, or I choose to investigate a certain problem on the basis of my grammars and examples from the internet - after all I have an education in French where grammar was my main interest, and it is hard not to hark back to those days...

On the other hand I have also read full grammars or language guides to languages which I didn't intend to study. Grammar is fun when you start to see the patterns.

And I HATE grammatical exercises! I want lots of examples which I can study myself, I don't want to be interrogated by a book.

[rdearman]

None of the above. I don't read grammar books.

[Le Baron]

None of the above. I don't read grammar books.

Do you not even look at them to check anything?

[rdearman]

None of the above. I don't read grammar books.

Do you not even look at them to check anything?

Not that I can remember. This time around with Korean is my first time with a grammar book. Although to be honest I put it on the shelf when I got a teacher.

[Le Baron]

Like quite a lot of people I'm not super keen on grammar study. However there's no denying that it solves a lot of problems and speeds things up if you know what's going on in the grammar, even the skeleton grammar. On that basis I think it's worth looking at.

There are two approaches: to go for the quick start manual or the full user manual. I'm more inclined to the first option and then dipping in and out of the full manual when I hit grammar blocks.

[desafiar]

As a late learner of another language, I think studying grammar has been useful.

For my first year studying Spanish, I used several grammar books as references looking up rules when felt I needed to understand them better. I'm sure doing so has saved me from unnecessary cycles of trying to intuit or guess, by providing useful explanations as needed without much delay.

Now after a year, I discovered Kwiziq and found out I enjoyed it enough to work from bottom to top. It's filled in holes from my prior pick and choose method. I like the active quizzing approach versus just reading rules. It seems to make the knowledge stick. Once I finish all levels, I'll drop my subscription and then at a later date sign up again to do some quizzes and see what I retained from it.

I feel grammar study has been a good use of my time. It's kind of like porridge in a way. Porridge is best served not too hot, and not too cold. Grammar study is best when it's balanced by other activities.