I often hear that from language learners: I don’t want to learn grammar, I don’t need it to learn a foreign language. Hadn’t I spoken my native language well before I started learning grammar at school? With a foreign language, it must be the same, right?
Teachers sometimes agree with them: you don’t need to work on the grammar, it’s boring, repetitive, discouraging, and demotivating. The students don’t like it.
Many « linguist-coaches » join them, in their style: you don’t have to be a mechanic to drive a car! You don’t need to know how the engine works, you go to see your competent mechanic for that! All you need is just the driving and being able to get from point A to point B.
So, grammar, the « poor relation »?
Let’s put things in their right place and, since this car-driving analogy is so common, let’s do it right. When you learn that « the adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun », or that « the past participle of verbs that conjugate with ‘être’ agrees with the subject », you do not « do the maintenance « . You don’t learn how the engine works. You prepare to drive the car, and for this, you learn what the commands are called, where they are, and when and how to operate them. The monitor tells you about the « turn signals », not the « little yellow bulbs on the sides », and it tells you to press the « clutch pedal » or – how awful! – to « declutch », and not to press « the first pedal on the left ».
But just learning the terms « the turn signals » or « the clutch » doesn’t mean you know how the electrical circuit works, which allows the turn signals to come on and how to disassemble a gearbox. You learn a minimum of terminology to understand how to « start the car », which saves you a lot of time. And believe me, there’s no practical French textbook in which we « do grammar », in the sense of « doing mechanics ». These are the linguists specialized in grammar who study these mechanics, they are the ones who have fun (or not) dismantling these gearboxes and these suspensions, to understand « what is that noise when I brake ». You can have fun peeking into their « workshop », and reading some articles from scholars who are specialists in the field.
They discuss government, restriction, predication, subordination, and many other things. It’s complicated and absolutely fascinating, and even if it can sometimes be used in foreign language methods, it bears little resemblance to the grammar rules that are explained to you by language teachers in the class.
Each area of knowledge has its terminology. Footballers learn the rules of the game before participating in the championships. Not everyone needs to have the skills of a professional referee, but having the basics helps to understand what is happening on the field when you are watching a game. The chefs master their vocabulary, which is not always clear to the uninitiated. Not everyone has their know-how, but knowing a little of their « jargon » will be useful for you when you are looking for a recipe idea on the internet. You don’t have to be a grammar expert, but knowing a few basics will make your life easier and learning a foreign language easier also. Sure, this will require a little effort, but the ease with which you will then understand the explanations is well worth it.
« I don’t want to scare my students with grammar: COI, COD, predicate, it’s so complicated, they’ll run away! » – No, not at all. If you do things gradually, using funny and easy-to-remember examples, it works pretty well. The human brain likes to reduce a multitude of particular cases to a limited number of models and all-purpose solutions. For learners, grammar rules work like these patterns. It is therefore not an additional complication that is added to them, but quite the contrary – it is something that simplifies their learning. They are quite able to understand some simple grammatical notions, without going into the details that linguists deal with. To claim otherwise is to underestimate and almost despise the students. With a few rare exceptions, generally, people can understand if that’s explained correctly. Those who say « I don’t want any grammar, I forgot everything and I won’t understand anything at all » express their uncertainty and lack of self-confidence. In this case, the teacher has to reassure them and introduce the necessary concepts step by step and in an accessible way.
In addition, learning the basics of grammar makes it possible to solve several problems that are a source of anxiety for learners and teachers, perhaps even more so for the latter. Just one example: homonym confusion. Remember those famous « words not to be confused » lists in French? vers/verre, qu’en/quand, et/est, a/à, ses/ces, on/ont, c’est/s’est, etc. But if you understand what’s the function of et (as conjunction) and est (verb être), it is impossible to confuse them!
Finally, one last argument. Learners often say, « Yes, but generally the children learn without grammar! » Yes, of course. But how long does it take them? The apparent fluency with which children learn languages is another big topic that I won’t go into here, I’ll just limit myself to two questions:
– In your opinion, at what age do children start speaking quite well? Five years old? Six years? Seven? Are you ready to take seven years to learn a foreign language to achieve a level close to the one of a seven-year-old child? So the comparison isn’t quite right, is it?
– You, an adult person, with a certain qualification, a learning experience of different subjects, a certain number of books read, with knowledge, know-how, etc., etc., etc., do you believe that it is reasonable to set aside all that knowledge and insist on learning a foreign language as the little ones do? Children learn it as they can, with the tools they have, but why do you think it’s an ideal method that should be adopted by everyone? Each has its advantages, be pragmatic and take advantage of yours.
Finally, some practical recommendations. For beginners and intermediates, grammar explanations should be clear and concise, with accessible and simple terminology, even if not quite « scientific » – once again, grammar should be practical first and foremost, it’s a tool. At levels B2-C1, I would advise studying in depth a more fundamental grammar book, which would explain, for example, the modal and contextual uses of verb tenses, some less used constructions, in the form of a « grammar intensive », with lots of exercises.
Not only will this improve the comprehension of more difficult texts and improve your written expression, but also – and often this is quite an unexpected bonus for learners! – their oral fluency will be much better.
Going back to the analogy at the start, of course, you don’t need to know how to disassemble the gearbox to drive a car, nor even know how to disassemble a tire. But when you know exactly where all the controls are and when you can operate them without looking for them, your driving is much smoother. I hope that so will be your French.