EPISODE 1
The Podcast on Spotify at: A Language Learning Tale
Find this episode on YouTube at: Is Grammar Just for Nerds?
Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome.
Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on a journey through my language learning process, in real time, and learn my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the ALLT Podcast, which stands for A Language Learning Tale. Today I’m talking about…
Is Grammar Just for Nerds, or, alternatively, Do You Need to Know Everything About Grammar to Learn a Language?
Well, that’s a controversial question to start with, if ever I heard one and there will be many who have different and probably strong feelings on this subject. I come at this from an unusual perspective and for that we first need to go back to when I started Secondary School and was but a mere nascent language learner.
During my time at Secondary School, back in the year dot -- before the advent of all the modern Year numbering, when we just said we were in the first year, rather than Year 7 -- it was a time for experimentation for those teaching English and we, the poor students, were the subjects. Why? Who knows? Someone thought it would be a good idea. Probably the politicians.
Anyway, it had been decided not to explicitly teach students English grammar in our English Language lessons. Yes, that’s right. I wasn’t formally taught English grammar. Ever. I can’t for the life of me remember what we did do in those lessons, but it wasn’t picking apart sentences and naming all the bits until it was drilled into my youthful brain without a rawlplug to keep things in place.
The result is that, even now, if you asked me to analyse a sentence, I’d have a hard time doing it. I don’t know all the names for those parts and I don’t have a lot of interest in learning them. I know, shock horror. I’m supposed to be a language lover. How can I possibly not know every detail about the grammar for my own language if I want to learn others? Just hold on a minute before you condemn me.
So, am I worse off for not knowing all the nuts and bolts? Well, I guess you can be the judge of that. Am I unintelligible? If you’re not sure on that, I do have some evidence to give you. I did, ten or so years ago, take a professional proofreading qualification, which quite stringently tested my ability to construct and correct sentences, and suggest changes, using my grammar-deficient brain, and I gained a Merit in the subject. So, I guess it doesn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things. I could still tell when things were and weren’t correct, even without knowing what they were called. You see, just because I didn’t formally learn these things in English, doesn’t mean I don’t know how they work.
So, how did I learn any grammar that I know? Well, there’s the most ridiculous part. I largely learnt that by learning foreign languages, because grammar was held in high esteem by all the language teachers. Boy, did they love it. Was this confusing for mini me? I seem to remember it was, but I survived. I got by with a vague understanding of the nitty gritty and that was it.
Now, you might think, by recounting this tale, that I’m saying grammar isn’t important. I’m absolutely not doing that. I’m also not saying that you shouldn’t learn the grammar rules off by heart, if you feel that’s a good use of your time. Is it, though? Is it really?
Grammar is the basis for any language. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to communicate. What I am saying is that you don’t need to know the names for everything. You don’t necessarily need to know why everything goes where it does, from a technical perspective. You just need to understand that that’s how it is.
So, how do you learn grammar in a foreign language, without actually learning the grammar? Use a Duolingo path that has no grammar explanations, at all, not even skeletal ones? Yes, that’s a snarky dig, Duolingo. Get your act together. We do need some kind of guidance.
In all seriousness, though, the best way to get a feel for the way words should be arranged in a language are the same old things you’ll hear me talk about again and again. Listen extensively to the language. Videos, TV, Radio, Podcasts, people in the street, if you’re lucky enough to live in the country, are all useful. If you listen to native speakers, the patterns will become obvious to you over time, like they did in your own language, when you were too young to learn grammar rules. I promise you that happened, even though you don’t remember it.
Read as much as you can, for exactly the same reason. You’ll begin to recognise how the sentences are put together. But, a word of warning. For this to work best, you need to read things that were intended for a native-speaking audience. Something translated from your own language will, inevitably, be more based around how your language is structured. I don’t mean the sentences will be in the wrong order, that would be a very bad translation, but the way things are spoken about often won’t be true to the language you’re learning. Native speakers just wouldn’t have said it that way, if they’d written the book from scratch themselves. I’m also not saying you should avoid translated works completely, or that you shouldn’t use them when you start reading, but to get a true feel for the language, you need to read things written by native speakers for native speakers, once you have enough vocabulary to do so.
Finally, you can use your app of preference to drill you in constructing sentences correctly. They’re pretty good at this and can even make it fun, if you like the gaming aspect of language learning. But you shouldn’t spend all your time doing this. If some of the English sentences I have to write, or translate, in Duolingo, are anything to go by -- as in they’re things that we would never say -- then I suspect the same is true of all languages on there, and on any other app.
The thing is, don’t stress over grammar. Even if you do get the adjective in the wrong place, a native speaker is generally going to understand what you’re trying to say. Unless, of course, you hit upon an adjective that means something different, depending upon where you place it in the sentence. Yes, that can be a thing, unfortunately. Let’s just ignore that fact for the moment.
Grammar is merely a washing line on which to hang words, not something to berate yourself about. Check the rules when you need to, but know that there are much better things you can do, for most people, than digesting and repeating back every single word of a mighty grammar tome.
That’s all for today’s episode. Don’t forget to join me again next time, for more language learning tips, tricks and tales and in the meantime, check out the A Language Learning Tale YouTube channel for additional, non-podcast content.
Ciao, salut, hwyl and bye for now.