One of the main principles of the FEARLESS COMMUNICATION PROGRAM is not to analyze YOUR speech from the grammatical perspective. The same applies to reading. You may try to understand what a specific sentence, states as per English grammar concepts, and the absurd side to it are, that sometimes you are simply confused instead of achieving something!
You read a sentence and your left brain starts analyzing automatically: “Wait wait, is it a passive or active voice structure? Is it a dependent clause or an independent clause? Then you go to Google and try to find out!
There you go? Browsing various websites & spending your time to meet your curiosity! Wasting a lot of time and learning absolutely nothing.
The good news is you are not alone.
There are millions of English learners who think of such questions. The moment they come across a new sentence, they try to understand, “how some words and groups are being used in that sentence? Which Grammar tense is being used in the given sentence? So on and so forth.
I remember the times when I analyzed everything, what I read or heard, and I don’t feel shy to mention that this was the core reason I couldn’t speak English fluently. My mind was following a permanent analytical regime, and I lived under a false impression that, when I become a master in English grammar, I would be able to speak English fluently. So, I did all I could to improve my grammar, read books, solved grammar exercises, and watched YouTube videos related to all the grammar perspectives. Then one day I got a chance to talk with someone in English, and you know what? I still spoke very poorly. I wanted to say something, it was in my head but I couldn’t get the words and when I finally managed to speak, I felt that I was making a lot of grammatical errors. Despite studying so much grammar my spoken English was still poor. WHY?
Because I was caught up in the Analysis-Paralysis
I didn’t realize that it was completely wrong logic.
Just think about it – Will the ability to define, what a certain set of words represent, help you to create that phrase or sentence when writing or speaking in English?
For sure, It will not – that’s it!
BUT why is it?
Let’s find out by answering a simple question. Do you think your knowledge of English is
1. automatic, without conscious effort or
2. It is thinking, focus, and attention, being conscious
When you learn something new knowledge is created in your brain. there are two types of knowledge
1. Implicit knowledge and
2. Explicit knowledge
If you want to speak fluently in English you must know the difference between the two
Implicit knowledge is automatic, without conscious attention. examples of such activities are
1. Riding a bicycle
2. Playing a musical instrument
3.Speaking your native language
Implicit knowledge
It is fast automatic and effortless, that is why you ride a bicycle without focusing on the movement of your legs. That is the reason why singers can sing while still playing musical instruments without paying attention to their fingers and that is the reason why you can speak your native language easily effortlessly and automatically naturally without focusing on any grammar rules. That’s possible because of implicit knowledge
Explicit knowledge
Explicit knowledge is the opposite of implicit knowledge. It is a knowledge that requires conscious thinking focusing attention and you need to think you need to focus on it before doing anything which involves explicit knowledge for example
1. Solving a math problem suppose I give you 34 into 18 you cannot answer it automatically without calculating need time to think
2. Giving the names of states of India- it requires efforts
3. Explaining a grammar rule will obviously take time to think and explain to me
It’s only useful when you are doing a task that doesn’t require a quick response this type of knowledge is useless when it’s when it comes to spoken English where you have to give, you have to react quickly to a question or a remark.
For example, someone asks you “where have you been last night?” now before answering you start thinking, OK, the question is about last night I am supposed to answer in the past tense and I want to say “I have been in a mall”. Now should I say A Mall or The Mall? Because my grammar teacher told me to say “The Mall”
Obviously, you don’t have time to revise think and apply all these grammar rules. makes sense, right?
So, if you want to speak good English you must stop doing activities that result in explicit knowledge for example
1. Watching a video explaining the difference between can and could
2. Reading an article that teaches you the usage of a, an & the
3. Listening to a lecture that teaches you the usage of prepositions at, on, in, & of
Following these activities can definitely improve your writing skills but obviously not your speaking. Implicit knowledge is automatic so you don’t have to think about grammar while speaking this allows you to concentrate on expressing your thoughts and ideas. As a result, you can speak English effortlessly. It feels as if you are talking in your native language
Most of the English learners can not distinguish, (and it’s all due to the kind of teaching traditional English at school!) Between the
1. Explicit or Theoretical knowledge
Which is using Grammar rules, syntax, tenses, prepositions, articles
2. Implicit knowledge
The skills and ability to use English automatically, when speaking or writing! Without conscious efforts and analysis
Many of us believe that knowledge transforms directly into skills – but that’s not how it happens!
The ability to speak, for example, depends upon your ability to repeat correct speech patterns, and the best way to meet it is only by imitating and remembering a particular sentence.
If you talk to real people in real life, is someone interested whether the sentences are active or passive?
NO!
All that is important is your ability to say it out LOUD!
You will never find me posting any articles related to Grammar and its usage.
Use of present continuous tenses
Difference between could have or should have
Where to use A, An, The
According to me, grammar knowledge actually doesn’t matter that much – it’s all about your ability to replicate grammatically correct English patterns.
Well, I don’t want to mislead my YouTube followers and blog readers by talking about grammar first and then telling them that they actually don’t need the grammar.
To be honest, I have actually forgotten most of the Grammar terms, rules, and definitions.
Some of you may think of this as a sign of a complete lack of professionalism, but if you stick to this mindset, you missed the point!
You need to understand that
“Just Having an explicit knowledge of Grammar rules and theories will not serve the PRACTICAL PURPOSE” Nothing at all.
As I already mentioned in this post …
When you speak in real life with real people, you don’t have time for APPLYING the grammar rules!
Yes, you might be building sentences in your brain, from the scratch – especially if you’re a struggling English speaker – but you still have to agree that knowing the role of a particular word or group of words in a sentence – “predicate”, “adjective” or “conditionals” – WILL NOT help you build that sentence.
The average native English speakers have no idea about all of the grammar, still, they are fluent! They USE English words and phrases without even exactly knowing their role in a sentence and that’s the major reason, why I stopped caring about grammar rules, years ago. And imagine, This does not prevent me from helping other English learners!
Fluency is your ability to speak without thinking, without hesitation, at a comfortable pace.
Are All the fluency management methods and confidence-building strategies I post on my blog, less effective due to my lack of grammar knowledge?
So the next time you catch yourself asking a question like – “what’s the predicate and what’s the subject in this sentence? …” – give it a thought.
For more such tips, tricks, and hacks to make your English learning easy, join me
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