Here is yet another counter intuitive advice that I usually give, and that makes most people’s jaws drop.
Do not study grammar rules. I know it might come as a surprise, or even as a shock, since most teachers in most schools all over the world focus on it.
However, this is usually the most unhelpful thing a language student could make: To study grammar.
We know it is true because most language students (be it English, French or even Korean…) spend years and years studying grammar rules.
But how effective is this method anyway?
For this argument’s sake, we are going to focus one more time on Business English. So, let us take a look around us! Can most people speaking Business English do it in an excellent, confident and correct way? You will find that the majority fails at it, even if they spent years studying. I blame grammar rule study for this problem.
So, let us think about this and try to find out why studying grammar is a bad idea.
In case of writing , let’s say, a business e-mail, it is completely acceptable to think about grammar rules. And the reason why is, we simply have the time. We have plenty of time to recapitulate, rethink of our word choices, check spelling, find a better suiting vocabulary and review grammar, be it through self-check, asking a tutor or just showing our colleagues.
This way, we can take a couple of hours or even a few days to write the e-mail and make sure it is grammatically correct.
However, what happens a in a real conversation, especially in case of a Business conversation?
Let’s say, we are on a job interview, negotiating a contract or dealing with an unhappy customer. During these situations, everything happens very fast. People are speaking to us,in what seems to be quick, at a normal conversational speed. We need to understand everything instantly. There is no time for translating the information in our head, let alone rethink about grammar rules. Our only way out is to respond automatically and naturally. Because every time we think even just a little bit about grammar rules, we need to pause. A strange silence occurs, eye contact is lost and everyone is feeling uncomfortable. The only adequate way to follow the flow, is to mimic what we do in our mother tongue, which means speaking naturally without second guessing the grammar rules.
Grammar rules are learned instinctively. When we were in elementary school, we had grammar classes that explained grammar rules to us. The classes were not about teaching grammar rules, but more about understanding them, because we already knew them by speaking the language naturally.
Language learning is not scientific. Grammar rules are not a mathematical format. Exceptions exists more often than we would like to admit. That is why studying grammar rules is not an effective method.
If you want your Business English, or any language for that matter, to sound fluent, correct and most importantly confident, you need to forget about grammar all together. Because all it is doing is confuse you.
Now go ahead and get rid of your grammar books!
August 31, 2014 at 8:22 am
Great post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m inspired!