| 49465 |
Language learning method: Part III of V
I just measure my fluency in terms of how often the words I don't know in what I'm reading interfere with my ability to get the point of the reading. A lot of words I can work around—figuring them out from the context, or getting enough information around them, that I'm not concerned about what they mean exactly. I might notice, for example, that a strange word seems to be the name of the color, and decided that I really don't care what color it is—it may not be important to the reading.
The actual practical experience with the reading, writing, speaking, and listening must be the foundation of your study. After all, that is, I assume, your purpose in learning the language—developing the ability to communicate orally and in writing (people often skip the reading and writing, or just the writing, if those skills aren't important to them. It makes sense to me). But all of the grammar drills and vocabulary work in the world will be of no help to you at all if you don't practice putting those vocabulary words into grammatically correct sentences (or taking them out of them, if you're listening or reading). It's like reading a book on how to ride a bike and expecting to be able to ride the bike. It just won't happen until you get through the practice and laying down those new neural pathways in your brain.
There's a lot of controversy in education these days about whether grammar drills even accomplish anything useful for students who want to write well (and I would imagine the same would apply to learning to speak well). There are a number of very smart people writing very well-researched articles that argue that teaching grammar is a complete waste of time. I've read a few of these, but I've never been convinced. Mostly because I find that having a sound knowledge of grammar really helps me. I think it's because of the incredible synthesizing abilities of the brain. It can pull information together and make the most incredible intuitive connections. For example, are you aware that nobody has ever been able to program a computer to tell the difference between a cat and a Chihuahua? They look too similar, and there is no way to specifically identify the visual characteristics that differentiate the two. Yet for the human brain, this is a very simple task—a "no-brainer". We don't even think about it. It seems so obvious to us. Still, we can't identify the process that makes this so simple.
I think there is something similar going on with the grammar. Knowing the rules and practicing their application supports and reinforces (in my humble opinion) the learning process that occurs through practice. I may be full of baloney, but that's my opinion, for what it's worth.
Continued: See Part IV of V
|
Language pair: English; All
|
|
|
