Is Grammar Important? 23-25/10/2017

Is Grammar Important?    23-25/10/2017

        Well……no, if you only need to learn limited stock of vocabulary, language structures or patterns to fulfil your daily needs.  And you have the unlimited chances to hear the repetition and rehearsal of these words and structures all the time.  You also engage in the language use in speaking.  That is your mother tongue which people say that you are “connected to it 24 hours”.  That means that you use the language even in your dream.  Well, learning grammar is absolutely unnecessary.

        No, I did not learn any grammar for my first version of language, Foochow, a dialect which I see a less than half-developed language.  I learnt this dialect by hearing and listening.  I used this language to express my feelings, ideas, opinions and thoughts when I was small.  Hence, Foochow has a place in my faculty of speech.  I have more or less a full record of speech in Foochow.  I do not have any problem to express myself in Foochow.

        I learnt the standard Chinese language when I went to a Chinese Primary School.  I learnt the language through a lot of input in Chinese as all the subjects were in the Chinese language.  We did not learn Grammar at all for Chinese.  Besides, the Chinese language also corresponds well with my Foochow dialect in terms of structures.  This is perhaps the reason why I could learn Chinese easily with little pressure.   I do not need to know the Chinese grammar to speak Chinese fluently.  I can speak and write Chinese well enough because of having constant input in texts reading and listening in Chinese. 

        Besides, the Chinese language does not have different tenses and forms, subject-verb agreement and so on compared with the English language.  We are not bothered by the subject-verb agreement in the Chinese language, either.  It is so much simpler for me to learn it at ease.  The English language was taught as a single subject when I was in Primary Three and it proved to be so difficult for me to follow from spelling to structures.  I still can remember how often our English teacher gave us the spelling test and how often I was caned for not passing the tests.  It was a hard time for me.  I even resorted to cheating.  The language was too alien for me to learn then.    

        When I was in secondary school, all the subjects were in English except the Chinese subject.  I was more or less lost in this language.  I can’t remember how many times I could pass the English subject.  Other subjects like Geography, History, Science and the like, I could memorise the key points to pass them.  

        I had so much listening and texts reading input in English in my secondary schooling.  I have no idea if we were taught the English grammar or not.   I used the language quite fluently but not so accurately because I had no idea how the language works.  I used the language quite spontaneously but I was blurred about the language forms and often hesitated about the usage.   

        I just managed to get “E” for the English language and also “E” for my Literature in English for my School Certificate.  I did not pass my General Paper in Higher School Certificate though I still got the full certificate because I could pass 3 other principal subjects and 1 subsidiary subject.  These were my past struggles to learn the language.  I guess that I was a slow learner.  I am also not so fast now. 

        When I enrolled to study an English course at a university in Taiwan, only then I realised that the importance of English grammar and pronunciation to become competent in the language.  I found how well my coursemates performed in the written tests as they made no or few grammatical mistakes.  The whole English learning scenarios/arena there and then emphasised a lot on the accuracy use of the English language.   They did not get enough texts reading and listening input, hence their English lacked fluency.  Unlike me, I had better fluency (partially fluent) but lacked accuracy. 

But the parents there and then believed in the myth that oversea Chinese students had better command of English.  So, it was never difficult for me to find students to give tuition.

        When I gave tuition there in my sophomore year, I found the need to study grammar seriously in order to deal with the questions posed by my secondary school students.   In Taiwan then, a teacher had to explain why for the choice of the answer.  I still can remember how I failed to answer the question posed by one of my tuition students. 

He asked me why the word after ‘ devoted to’ is present participle not ‘to-infinitive’.  I was not able to answer him with a clear explanation but could only tell him to remember it that way.  I knew that it was not a professional way of dealing with the question.  I did not feel good to fail my tuition student this way.  Hence I decided to look around for a more suitable and better grammar book to brush up my English grammar.  Though I had the coursebooks on grammar, they did not touch me enough to enlighten me. 

        Luckily, I found a very good grammar series written by Li Ming Ho.  Through studying and doing the exercises of these books, paying attention to forms and the structures in texts reading, investigation on tenses both in the active and passive voice and their relationship with forms of the verb,  and studying different grammatical items, my understanding of this language was getting better and better. 

Finally, I understood why ‘devoted to’ is followed present participle not to infinitive.  It is because the word ‘to’ is used as a preposition here.  Based on the rule,  the preposition is followed by noun/pronoun/present participle.  This is an enlightenment to me.  That is why 'I am looking forwards to hearing (not to hear) from you.' This understanding enabled to gain better insight on the general underlying rules governing the language structures.

I really find that knowing the grammatical forms and their functions is really important in language use in speaking and writing especially.  Being able to analyse the sentences also helps a person in texts reading and listening activities.   

        English is learnt as a second language here in Sarawak and elsewhere in the Federation of Malaysia.  Like a blueprint to build a house or a road map or the Global Positioning System to help a person to go to any desired destination, the mind-map of grammar of the English language serves as a guide to a learner to explore the unfamiliar terrain. 

        If a learner has a good knowledge of English grammar, he can edit his own work.  If he does a lot of texts reading and listening in the input and he also engages himself actively in language use in speaking and writing,  he will command the language in the course of time as he has the grammatical rules to refer to all the time.  Remember being competent/proficient means that a learner is able to use the language correctly in speaking and writing.

        Bear in mind that English is learnt as a second language.  Thus learners are not connected to it 24 hours.  No doubt, some deliberate effort is needed to set up the speech patterns in their heads.  They must have enough recorded speeches or language experiences or exposure to use the language freely and creatively. 

        As I have said before, an English word may have different forms.   I am not sure if a native English speaker can differentiate the following forms of the word ‘die’ in the following sentences.

die   dying  died  died

dead  / deadly

death

1.   Tina's pet cat ___________ a few days ago.

2.   Tina cried so sadly over the _________ of her pet cat.   

3.   The cat was _________ when she came home from school that day.

4.   She guessed that it could be due to the _________ bite of a poisonous snake.

For learners of English as a second language, if you have the
knowledge, for sure, you know what is the right word for each blank.

Fill in the blanks with different tenses of verb-to-be.

1.   Bill ________ sick a few days ago.

2.   He ________ still sick today.

3.   He ___________ sick since last Wednesday.

4.   He _______________ sick for a week by tomorrow.

5.   Bill's brother _________ sick if he plays in the rain so often.

6.   A few months ago, Bill _______ so sick that he was admitted to hospital.

7.   He __________ sick for nearly a month before he recovered.

Is grammar important if you learn English as a second language?