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.
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?
