The more classes I attend, the more discussion I had with my classmates, the more I feel myself changing. It's fun and scary at the same time (as I'm always afraid of change). This is how I felt towards 'grammar'
I used to believe that grammar is very important. If one don't understand the sentence structure, how could one understand sentences and paragraphs? One block must built upon another to make castles.
I feel that this is changing inside me as I recall the days when I don't speak any English. Teachers in New Zealand don't teach me grammar, instead, they gave me books to read. They told me to skip the words if I don't understand them, they urge me to take gusses. By and by, I understood.
I didn't learn English through grammar, but to use English even though it's full of mistakes. You guess the meaning, you imitate other people and keep trying until they understand you.
It's just like how we learn Chinese. We write even though we don't know the sentence structure of Chinese; We speak not worrying ourselves to sound 'native' ( the most accurate Cantonese should be in Guangzhou). I'm sure the grammar in Chinese is just as complicated as English, then why, are we not worrying about them?
So is grammar important when learning English? Well, I don't know anymore.
3 則留言:
I think grammar is essential to language. But the most important thing of learning a language is the attitude --- not afraid to try. Although we may make mistakes, we learn from it. Then we will have progress. I can tell you have this virtue. Well done! ^_^
I have the same feeling as you. My mind kept on changing in the past three weeks.
I think we have to teach grammar, because different from students in New Zealand, students in Hong Kong may not be able to practice English outside schools. Hence, they may learn faster if we can teach them grammar, which consists of rules in using English.
Actually, I wish I learnt grammar in school. Grammar completes the picture of a language. It would save me a lot of effort now to re-learn....LPAT exam is coming up in a couple of months (sorry, not to scare you).
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