Grammar is a waste of time.

RedRose · Post by **RedRose** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:20 am

No, grammer is important.

for us, Chinese grammer is different than English grammer. if we don't know english grammer, then our english must be confusing. at least english speakers can't undertstand it.

Coolfish · Post by **Coolfish** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:35 am

In my opinion, practicing is more important than garmmar in spoken language, whereas grammar is as important as practicing in written language.

MissLT · Post by **MissLT** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 8:05 am

Rosamunde wrote:I am a Chinese student.Though I like learning English,English tests at school is no fun to me.They emphasis too much on grammar,which makes us students feel bored all the time.

Still,we need to learn certain amount of grammars so as to learn the language more correctly, don't we?

I had a really good teacher during my first year in the U.S. She changed my ways of thinking why English grammar wasn't so bad and the more I tried to practice it, the more I'd love it. I mean, there are so many things to know. My boyfriend is Caucasian (who has passed all his English classes with an A 8) , by the way), but sometimes he has to think about my questions about English grammar. He's taken the language for granted; therefore, it strikes his mind sometime to think which and which should be correct .

shokin · Post by **shokin** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:16 pm

Grammar is very useful for creating in each of us a language structure, a reference (an origin ?), whatever the language you speak.

But the meaning of the words can change (or not change), evolute, according to your using of these words. That is why the meaning of one word can be different from a region to another.

But the grammar structure does not change as fast as the meaning of the words. Once you've created a language structure into you it becomes difficult for you to change it. [But it is even more difficult to create a new language structure. That is why it is very important to communicate with the children (for them).]

Shokin

someone_cute · Post by **someone_cute** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 4:22 pm

I don't Know why you love the sentence ( .... is a waste of time ) ..
May be u r a teacher and it is easy for you , so u said that ..
But for me ,, I think it is important even for speaking .. That's not mean that you have to memorize the structure but to know it in general at least ..

setsukaka · Post by **setsukaka** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 4:17 am

TP wrote:We don't need to learn English grammar to speak English. Grammar is a waste of time.

i don't think it a waste of time, maybe for the native. Grammer help us to cteate the correct sentences and to translate.

natsu0713 · Post by **natsu0713** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 6:15 am

I don't think grammar is a waste of time. To me, it is worth of spending time on learning it.

If we want to express our ideas correctly or let other people fully understanad what we mean, we have to learn grammar. Otherwise, they may misunderstand us.

Besides, grammar is like rules of a game. If we want to enjoy the game, we have to know the rules.

If we want to find out the beauty of a language, we have to learn its grammar.

CityYoung · Post by **CityYoung** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:05 pm

For me I think is very important beacuse How I make right sentence and i don't know the Grammar . also I learn english not just to speak I learn for every skills ( reading , writing , listening , speaking and grammar )

vahid · Post by **vahid** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:30 am

hello .
Yes i belive you . but before judging about the usage of grammer and how important it is we should look at our goal of learning a modern language .
if we are learning L2 for communication yes knowing the grammer basically is sufficiont . but in acadamic level we must know detaild information about grammer too .
for example it is a shame not to distinguish between thease two word . hear - listen

jeffcox · Post by **jeffcox** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:48 pm

As an native English teacher, I think that students spend too much time worrying about grammar.

That seems controversial, and it really is.

A child listens, then learns to speak. He learns to read and then he learns to write.

I bet he learned to speak before he even knew what the word 'grammar' means!

I live in Brazil and I have learned Portuguese day by day, without taking any classes. Basically, I read and I listen to people. So, how did I learn? I simply try to repeat what I hear and read.

My Portuguese is far from perfect, that's because I have nobody correcting me, I have no grammar to fill in those small errors.

Grammar is important because there are always some doubts that we have about what we hear or read. But, generally students focus on the grammar too much.

Students often have difficulty 'accepting' a structure as an example and copy it.

If you know how we say things, and you understand it, then repeat it and modify it. Just like you did when you learned your native language. Grammar, then, just fills in the gaps!

So, grammar is important because it gives the necessary structure to the language. However, it's not necessary to know all the grammar in order to speak the language.

Openmind · Post by **Openmind** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 10:41 am

Jeff, you've raised some very valid points here and I agree with you. Most people are struggling to 'accept' something new, they focus too much on the question why a certain grammar structure is correct. It's not important to know why something is correct. What really counts is the fact that you know what sounds good. Yes, you have to develop a feeling for the language. You need to know what sounds good and what doesn't. Don't try to learn grammar rules. We use certain phrases and expressions not because there are grammar rules. Linguists analyze the way people speak and when they detect a pattern, they 'create' a rule. So why waste your time with grammar? Listen to the way people speak, imitate and copy them until you fell comfortable using the exact same phrases they use. Try sounding like them. Do native speakers use their grammar correctly? Yes, at least most of the time. Are native speakers able to explain the grammar rules they follow? No, although they can use the rule correctly, in most cases they can't explain those rules. Why? Simply because you don't need to know a grammar rule in order to use it correctly.

Gwynfor · Post by **Gwynfor** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:40 pm

TP wrote:We don't need to learn English grammar to speak English. Grammar is a waste of time.

And we dn't nid to learn kemistri to chow ou gum, kemistri is a waste of time. We need time to chow ou gum.

cuongviet · Post by **cuongviet** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:10 pm

As far as I know, many non-native English speakers are afraid of speaking english because they are worried about using wrong grammar. But in fact, to native Englosh speaker, grammar is not the most important factor to understand what other say. So if you don't know grammar well, it doesn't matter to communicate your ideas. But if you want to express clealy what you mean,you must know grammar well enough.

kia · Post by **kia** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:10 pm

Grammer is not a waste of time, but don't make yourself lost in Grammer.

kia · Post by **kia** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:52 pm

Just like new-born babis do. They listen, they look, and then they imitate without any hesitation in the grammer.Sometimes, I feel realy stupid to learn quite a few grammer rules.I can't use most of them in daily life.What appear in my communication with other people are always very simple and short praises and idioms.But many students around me care about grammer much more than how well you use them, I mean to speak. Most of them are not able to communicate with english spaeker, what is worse, it seem that they didn't realise the importance of speaking. their pronunciation is not correct, but they just ignore it, they spend a lot of time in the exercises of grammer, discussing a lot of complex questions like they are professors. But the fact is they even can't tell others how they think in a correct way, they are bookworms,for me , it's obvious that this kind of learning way is really not good for english learners.

Lac · Post by **Lac** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:00 am

We all should reread carefully the brief article of Openmind above.

Lac · Post by **Lac** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:27 am

When studying English, I'm sometimes very much interested in Grammar. I think if I cultivate it by reading and learning the rules of grammar by heart, i would know more about constructions of English in thinking and writing. And then I delve in Syntatic, Oxford Grammar, Collin Cobuild etc., not to mention suring Internet to find more updated documents.
Now I notice that search helps me more or less but not quite really remarkable. Its obviously helpful in writing and understanding the English construction. It equally helps you to work everything with care related to foreign language you've been studying.
But at the same time, it creates barricades in approaching the English language involved. Speaking becomes far slower, reading also cannot faster.. Listening non-native English speakers, I often try to figure out some grammar-related similarities and differences before putting forth comparisons in my mind.
Openmind's quite right. I dont have the feeling of English. And so I unintentionally creates by myself numerous obstacles of getting closer English language.
Most Languists now acknowledge that the interactive environments are very imnportant to expand the foreign language skills of students. And should you have a good language interaction, you would be find it not complicated in referring to Grammar so soon. Right ?

sweethuman · Post by **sweethuman** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 10:04 am

No I totally disagree with you, Grammar for those who are not the native speakers of english and they are living in such a country where the medium of conversation is English then for them it might not mean that much, however for the remaining countries where english is used and learned as a second language, Grammar is very essential since they can differenciate the tenses and formulation of the sentences and vocabulary.

sashok · Post by **sashok** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 4:17 am

I cannot agree with the statement. Once a person has time and desire to discuss, he is not altogether indifferent to modest science of learning languages.
1. Grammar is needed to those who is going to study another language, even to name a verb a 'verb' in order not to plunge into description of the syntax meaning and role of the word in a sentence. Without common grammar rules we'll study French for years - good French, I mean.
2. Happened to catch a mistake somewhere and joyfully rub hands that have? Be honest: educated speech and writing make us feeling fresh and active while hearing endless slang and interjections sooner or later gives you a headache.
3. Even if we accept that grammar is a prejudice, other prejudices are not better than this one, yet we follow them without further thinking.
4. Think of documents where a comma is found in incorrect place, so that the whole of the paper contents may become perverse in meaning and consequences. Grammar gives us chance to avoid disappointment in cases like that.
5. If a language is your native one, choose to know its grammar to show strangers you love it.

Muhammad · Post by **Muhammad** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:54 am

Teaching grammatical rules would be a real waste of time if you don't use them in your spoken sentences. If you only study them as "rules to remeber" but you don't use them in speaking, you will definitely lose them easily and get nothing but wasting your time.

sdluk · Post by **sdluk** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 1:06 pm

TalkingPoint wrote:We don't need to learn English grammar to speak English. Grammar is a waste of time.

I am surprised , an English teacher is saying that we don't need to learn grammar to speak in English.

"You're an English teacher." And "Are you an English teacher?" Could you understand what I want to tell if I speak in either of these sentences. This is where we need grammar.

tandvictor · Post by **tandvictor** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 3:18 am

yes exactly and I recommend EffortlessEnglish method for better speaking skill!

kminang · Post by **kminang** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 5:22 pm

We don't need to learn English grammar to speak English. Grammar is a waste of time.

Wow... I suprised. Are you sure?

safia · Post by **safia** » Sun Feb 03, 2013 3:22 pm

I think the writer means unnecessary learning of difficult grammar that we do not need it in our speaking and listening.otherwise we need grammar to be understood clearly

pravejprk · Post by **pravejprk** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:17 am

friends grammar is a not waste of time .we don't understand pure grammar, our think is not possibal . we r not know english fully

agatawerecka · Post by **agatawerecka** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:52 pm

I hate grammar like all students, cuz this is the hardest thing when someone is learning a foreign language. But Im pretty sure dat grammar int a waste of time. Grammar makes our speeches are richer or more advanced. We need to learn grammar, but u know. It isnt pice of cake.

jamsmith · Post by **jamsmith** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 7:59 am

No its not at all waste of time, if you know grammar properly you can speak better than who do not know grammar.However, while speaking you do not need to focus on grammar so much because if you focus so much,it will let you not speak fluently and fluency is the most important thing for speaking

Madusi · Post by **Madusi** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 7:49 am

Grammar is something important in learning

Madusi · Post by **Madusi** » Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:02 am

Hi all of you. I'm guest here. But on my side I believe that knowing grammar is goog. Grammar help to create any sentense of your own after getting new words. It much easier to read English book and being well understood. Thanks.

rachelallan · Post by **rachelallan** » Wed Jan 18, 2017 7:47 am

I am agree with all of you but we know basic of gramer to lean English.

Keziah · Post by **Keziah** » Mon Nov 30, 2020 11:07 am

Grammar is needed for learners because it helps in forming structured sentences. While learning tenses, degrees and parts of speech one gets to know to form correct sentences and therefore there might be less chances of making mistakes.

bighoss · Post by **bighoss** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 7:38 pm

I think I agree with you in the sense that when learning English Grammar does not need to be prioritized, but I still do think it is important in making statements that make sense. If grammar is not at least loosely understood many misunderstandings can arise from using incorrect grammar. Although I think vocabulary is a little more critical because it helps with understanding and communicating with native speakers. I think when learning through conversation vocabulary could be prioritized and grammar could be less of a priority because it can be for the most part picked up when speaking to a native speaker.

Keshav · Post by **Keshav** » Tue May 18, 2021 3:29 am

Grammar is an essential part of English.
I think that without grammar there is no existence of English.

maidensedate · Post by **maidensedate** » Mon Apr 18, 2022 9:05 am

You will not be a full-fledged English speaker and writer without the grammar. It might not be necessary for routine talk, but you need it for work or any other type of communication.

Murazik · Post by **Murazik** » Sat Nov 11, 2023 12:46 pm

knowing grammar shows how educated he is and you see who you're talking to.

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