Grammar is sometimes a dirty word. A whole generation went without it, and during a fair amount of my teaching career, the Foreign Language teachers knew more about it than the English teachers. Our American cousins frequently put us to shame. That is changing, and that may be a good thing about the Literacy Strategy.
The point is, grammar is the backbone of any language. And I do mean grammar, not usage. There are five major parts to grammar – verbs, word order, parts of speech, prepositions, number and gender. Okay, “verbs” is a big section with tense, person, voice and mood to worry about. Chomsky recognises that each language has a way of expressing al those components. We fill our languae acqusition device with our mother tongue.
Master the grammar of a language, and you can do anything with that language. The cloning and adapting strategies mentions in my previous blog are good up to a point and can be used until you acquire full knowledge of the grammar. In fact, they even help you to get to that stage. In the end, though, you do need to master all of these things.
I recommend acquiring the grammar as quickly as you can. Then all you have to do is practise your skills and pick up more vocabulary. No pressure then!
See The Complete Guide to Learning a Language Chapter 9. (How To Books Ltd) Selbstbedienung (ZigZag)
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