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Super-Fast Grammar Learning Techniques | ||
Tags: Grammar | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6085 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 11 18 January 2012 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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What techniques do you use to acquire the target language grammar both quickly and thoroughly ? Here are a few that I use,
1. Read a mono-lingual grammar. E.g. a grammar book written entirely in the target language. I find I retain grammar rules better if I read them in Spanish or French. 2. Read a grammar book from cover to cover in a relaxed manner. Don't try to learn specific endings or rules but develop an awareness of the entire features of the language. I enjoy reading grammar books so this isn't a chore. 3. If you want to learn items such as verb endings, case ending or adjective agreement, use an audio based FSI type drill. Hand pick specific drills you want to focus on. I find this works better than plodding slowly through an entire FSI type course. My ears naturally tune to the grammar rules better than my eyes. 4. Read extensively with a focus on the grammar. Ask yourself why a certain construction has been used. I find it easier to learn grammar by accruing numerous examples as opposed to rote learning. 5. Don't use verb or case ending tables to learn. Only use them as a reference. Do you agree with these techniques ? Do you use any others ? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| a3 Triglot Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 5190 days ago 273 posts - 370 votes Speaks: Bulgarian*, English, Russian Studies: Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Finnish | Message 2 of 11 18 January 2012 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I read grammar from many sources. And by many I mean really many - from as many as I can find. I dont rush it though. My idea is that I cant learn everything from one grammar(and I really dont), so after I read it, I dont work with it anymore - instead I search the web for yet another one. I have completely or partially read about 30 grammars and sites for German and about the half for Finnish. And it works for me. The different grammar courses and referrences are written in different way so if you dont understand a thing from one grammar, you'll understand it from another one. Gradually, things overlap and build up and I get the complete picture. I read only one grammar at a time and sometimes there are weeks before I start reading another one.
Also, I dabble in historical grammar and sound changes that happened in the languages so that I explain myself the regularities easily. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6637 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 11 18 January 2012 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with most of DaraghM's observations, but with some minor reservations.
I have made a collection of my own favorite techniques here, and there is no reason to repeat everything here. Reading several grammars to compare their descriptions is also a favorite technique of mine, and like DaraghM I like to get an overview first and then use the grammars in conjunction with studies of concrete examples - rote memorization of rules without hands on experiences won't teach you to use a language. I would like to mention my 'green sheets' with ultrakoncise and personalized morphological tables as one of the main ingredients in my study technique. Each sheet is a summary of things I need to know about a large part of the morphology o a language, and making it is part of the learning process. And now for my reservations concerning point 1 and 3: 1) I also like reading about grammar in books written in the target language, but you have to be fairly advanced to do it. And even if you actually are fairly advanced you may still find that a grammar written for native speakers skips things every native speaker is supposed to know, but you might need to hear about. On the other hand there will often be a lot of nitpicking about topics which aren't really necessary to learn in so much detail at your current level. 3) Some learners may learn better through their ears (at least with a number of repetitions). Personally I would prefer to see the examples and drills in their printed form before I hear them. I can never be totally sure I have heard everything from a recording, but there is only a certain number of letters on the screen or shet of paper. Besides I read much more than I listen, and I write more than I speak so for me it is not unnatural to prefer the written form. Edited by Iversen on 18 January 2012 at 11:01pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fiziwig Senior Member United States Joined 4799 days ago 297 posts - 618 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 11 18 January 2012 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I tend not to look things up in a grammar book until after I've experienced them for a while. I read a novel and the fourth or fifth time I run across some puzzling construction I look it up in the grammar to see why the sentence was built in that particular way.
Take Spanish direct and indirect object pronouns. I encountered the over and over in my reading and kind of "absorbed" how they work by osmosis. Only later did I go back and actually study them in a grammar text. For me, anyway, things stick a lot better if I have some idea of what something is before I "study" it. They say that to "understand" something is to know how it fits in with everything else you know about the world. When I hit the grammar books too soon the information is packed too densely and gives more details than I know how to integrate into my mental world model. It talks about things I've never experienced, so I can't really relate to them. The grammar of a new language is like a city you've never been to before. I'd rather explore the territory and experience it first hand, while having the road map in my back pocket for when I take a wrong turn and get lost. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| atama warui Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 4635 days ago 594 posts - 985 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese | Message 5 of 11 20 January 2012 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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In my case, Jpod101 was really helpful. Also, Tae Kim's guide or Timwerx were very good. I also keep pestering Japanese friends whenever something refuses to become clear - some of them are excellent teachers, which is an unexpected thing for me. How many Germans can explain German grammar? Hmm... ^^
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5315 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 6 of 11 21 January 2012 at 3:41am | IP Logged | ||
If you are learning the rules of the language, how can you read them in the target language? I like to get a general idea of the language, so I will sometimes read through a grammar to get a general picture, but since I do that at the beginning, it won't be possible in the target language. This is also useful because I now know where to look when I'm trying to say something and can't remember the exact rule. Other than general exposure, I usually focus on production from the start, so grammar becomes necessary and useful right away -- using it is the best way to acquire it so it quickly becomes second nature. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| atama warui Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 4635 days ago 594 posts - 985 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese | Message 7 of 11 21 January 2012 at 12:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm also not a fan of "super fast" techniques. I prefer thorough quality ways to make the language mine.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6531 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 11 21 January 2012 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, my techniques aren't super fast either, but they're very enjoyable. I love linguistic enigmas and I love figuring things out this way. It's been especially fun in my Romance languages.
Another amazing technique is listening-reading. And reading - I picked Spanish for tadoku simply to finally finish reading Forlán's book, and now after 200 "pages" in 20 days (which also includes using lyricstraining.com a lot) I think a lot in Spanish, just randomly. I'm still not sure what to do with languages where I understand quite little (Danish) or have good passive skills but can't use the language actively - this experience with Spanish tells me I need to read but I'm not sure. Edited by Serpent on 21 January 2012 at 11:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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