English Experts

Should Beginners Learn Grammar?

Hello, everyone. How are you? Alessandro and I were talking about whether English students should learn Grammar or not… Well, I think that when you first start learning a language, you should concentrate on learning communicative sentences.

I suggest that you go to sharedtalk to talk with native speakers in the English room. Notice the sentences they use to talk to each other. Then write down the sentences that you want to use yourself in a chat. Since native speakers said them, they will be grammatically correct and you can just plug them in to your own conversation. We can learn a new language like a child learns.

If a child makes a mistake and says , “Mommie, I goed outside!” the mother does not say, “No, sweetheart, you can’t say, “I goed outside because the verb “to go” is irregular and the past tense of ‘to go’ is I went”. Mommie will just correct her and say, “No, honey, you went outside.” “Oh yeah, I went outside, Mommie.” Using grammar can come later, when you reach an intermediate stage. Native speakers at sharedtalk will correct you if you want, and if they do not understand you, they will try to help you be clearer. For beginners, it may be helpful for the speaker to translate the sentences you do not understand, typing bilingually.

I hope this helps.

Autora: I'm Mary. I tutor ESL at the IHM Lteracy Center in Philadelphia. I lived a year in Brazil where I became certified to teach English as a Foreign language. Outros textos da autora.