Oh, Grammar, what big teeth you have!

When I took over the remedial group on Thursday afternoons at one of my former schools, I had a fair idea of what I'd find. Had the school been a casino, I could have put serious money on that and won.?

Of course, assumption being the mother of all f***-ups, I asked about their problems with English anyway. The fun thing is that the first answers are always along the lines of 'I don't get it.' OK, no worries, let's find out exactly why.

90% basic grammar

When you write it all on the board, roughly 90% or more of what they don't get concerns grammar basics, especially word order and tenses. Often, they'll also feel insecure about the grammatical structure of their native language - that is, if asked to make it explicit and explain what otherwise comes naturally.

Some kids would complain about English spelling - well, who doesn't? But ask if they also write down words they need to memorise, and you know their answer is no. Still, English spelling is likely to drive any learner crazy. There are some helpful tricks, but it'll never be easy. Reading actually helps, of course, preferably while listening so that sound and print may come together.

But let's get back to the 90%. When you ask students?why?they think grammar is necessary, you'll often hear things like:?because the teacher says so;?because it's in the coursebook; or?well, there'll be a test.?All?terrible reasons, I'd say.

Stop and think

So wait a minute. Isn't grammar supposed to make things easier by explaining the structure of a language? Then why complicate it so much that it hinders rather than helps? There must be something rotten in the state of grammar.?

I often compare grammar rules to traffic rules. There are many, some minutely detailed, but you don't need to know all of them right away. You learn to drive while practising actual driving with an instructor at your side. So long as you know which side of the road to use, give right of way, and stop for red lights and old ladies, what could go wrong?

If you had to learn the traffic code by heart first, you'd never get anywhere. The same applies to language learning. You don't need all the grammar rules right away - if at all; you need the structural basics, a helpful instructor, and lots and lots of practice with?real?language.

At first, and to the novice eye, streets full of traffic appear daunting. So will a new language with all its peculiarities. English is no exception, with its particular ideas about word order and verb forms. It's scary at first but gets better with practice. And it certainly helps to know the basics.

Unknown, unloved

But this is what humans do: we fear what we don't understand. We tend to hate what we fear, and the root cause is usually ignorance, being uninformed. Also, we tend to fight or try and avoid the things we hate and fear. So uninformed students may avoid getting to grips with essential structures and keep struggling instead. Inevitably, that'll hold them back - unnecessarily.

Grammar's teeth may look scary and intimidating, especially if you're expecting a wolf. Imagine students' relief when that big bad wolf proves a harmless puppy. (Please feel free to think 'kitten' if you're a cat person.) Puppies may still bite and scratch a bit, but are they scary??

To students, grammar is what teachers make of it, and I prefer to make essential English grammar structures easy for all. In my remedial group, the students' initial lament of?'I-don't-get-it'?would soon turn into a relieved?'is-that-all?'?

Is that all? Yes, that's all - that, and lots and lots of practice with?real?English.

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grammarCORE/GrammarBob's continuing mission: to boldly go where no grammar has gone before and make essential English grammar easy for all

grammarCORE: I help English language teachers discover how a radically new approach to grammar will empower them and their students