conversation. What is needed is to develop the right natural reflexes. Thus it takes time and a lot of exposure for Chinese people to stop say ing 'he' for 'she' even though they understand the 'why'.
The study of grammar and the frequent (and unavoidable) mistakes on tests can create negative feelings towards the language, which are referred to as 'affective filters'. This makes the learner nervous, uptight, and reluctant to leave the safety of the native language. But to learn wel you need to let yourself go, imitate and have fun. I have found a more holistic approach to be more successful in the long run. I do not believe that people who learn to be genuinely fluent in a second language do so in the classroom.
There is a Sufi proverb that says 'You can only learn what you already know.' I agree. Once you are familiar with a subject you can start to learn about it. Can you imagine teaching someone how to swim based on theory, if that person has never been in the water?
Russian is the most grammar-heavy language I have come across. The grammar explanations in al of the books and tapes I have bought just make my head spin. I took a simple story I wrote for our English learners at The Linguist. I had a friend translate it into Russian and asked some Russians to record it. I listened to it and read it more than 30 times in order to get some familiarity with Russian.
Once I know Russian, I will look at the grammar to see a summary of what I have already come to know.
I am more and more convinced that much of language instruction, TESL certificates and the rest of the industry are one big scam. The only thing I do not know is whether it is intentional or unintentional. I suspect it is unintentional.
I met a gentleman today who is original y from China. He has lived in Canada for three years. He studied English in China. In my opinion his English level is upper intermediate. He recently spent $1,100 to take a one week course in TESL and got a certificate for teaching ESL.
He felt that he did not learn anything useful. I suspect he is correct.
Alexandre claims that English is grammar easy. Perhaps so. But it is my exposure to Russian that has increased my sense that grammar instruction is at best a luxury to be enjoyed (for those who enjoy it) after the language has been massively absorbed. Korean is also a complex language and I had a similar reaction. Give me the language and spare me the complicated explanations at least until after I have a sense for the language. When I see sentences tel ing me about the 'infinitive of the imperfect aspect and the perfective infinitive or infinitive of the imperfective aspect' I just flip the page.
There are concepts of grammar that are explainable and easy to reproduce, like the use of three different words for 'year' in Russian, depending on whether the number is one, two to four, or five and more.
There are concepts that are easy to explain, like the use of ?he? and ?she? in spoken English. Yet producing this accurately remains difficult for Chinese speakers, because the distinction does not exist in spoken Chinese.
There are the explanations that are difficult to understand if the phenomenon does not exist in one's own language, like articles in English, or verb aspects in Russian verbs, or 'ser' and 'estar' in Spanish etc.
There are the explanations where the exceptions exceed the rules.
Then there are the rules which are so complex, like the use of cases in Russian, where the accusative depends on whether the noun is animate or inanimate etc. and where the same ending can be used for different cases, numbers and genders...that the whole package is just too complex.
So every few months I used to leaf through a Russian grammar book, occasionally reminding myself of something. I have stopped doing that now. I now know roughly what the rules are supposed to be, in most cases, or at least I know what the overall game is, but I cannot remember them or refer to them when speaking,
On the other hand I am getting better at 'feeling' what the case, or aspect, should be, and even expecting it when I listen.
CHAPTER V: WORDS
Languages consist of words. To learn a language we need to learn words, many words. We need to get a sense of what they mean, in different situations, and which words they are normal y used with in phrases. We need to learn how these words change. There are thousands of words to learn, and even more combinations of these words, that we have to get used to.
How do we do it?
Should we learn words or should we learn phrases? There is increasing realization that it is important to learn phrases. There has been some research to show that we learn languages in chunks, which I guess corresponds to phrases. I agree that learning phrases, getting used to recognizing phrases that regularly appear in the language, is important. We need to give our brain enough exposure to these phrases, in contexts, and in flash cards or other deliberate study activities, so that they start to become natural to us. That is the easiest way to get comfortable with tenses, prepositions, case endings, and al the other things that are so different from language to language.
Phrases are important, however, so are words, individual words. They are the basic building blocks of the language. We need a lot of them. Many words are connected to other words so that the more we know, the easier it is to pick up new words without even noticing it, incidental y. In vocabulary acquisition, the rich get richer. The sooner you start accumulating, the better.
Native speakers of any language know natural y which words belong together. They have heard their own language so often, and in so many situations, that they can natural y put words together in a way that sounds effective. The foreign learner cannot do this.
Every sentence is unique, but phrases repeat themselves often. A phrase is any group of two or more, (usual y no more than five) words that natural y belong together and can be used in many situations.
Learn to look for phrases, save them and learn them. One word of caution is necessary, however. The phrases must come from meaningful content that you are listening to and reading. Free examples of sentences and phrases from dictionaries are false friends. You think you are learning but you are not. You need to find your own phrases as you discover the language from interesting content.
