The original idea of grammar is to learn a language by knowing all its rules. Let’s discuss its pros and cons. First of all, the main disadvantage of grammar is the aversion it causes in beginners. At the first steps of learning a language, it seems to everyone to be a fig leaf, because of the incomprehensibility of the rules and the lack of practical need for them. Would not you lose the desire to learn a language, if, at the very first lessons, you were explained the use of articles in abstruse language, then given a tedious meaningless exercise on their positioning in the sentence? It is wrong to do so, I would even call this approach a disrespect to the listeners.
Beginners should be given the freedom to create even a «false» (in the opinion of the coryphets) perception of mastery of the language. It is recommended to learn simple words and simple expressions, such as: «Hello», «How are you?», «What’s your name?», and «How old are you?», which are taught playfully and memorized at ease. If you explain the rules of grammar to beginners, it is better not to get carried away with their abstruse explanations. It is desirable to use as few complicated terms as possible and to cite as many examples as possible. An effective process would be one in which students fire off their examples as if from a machine gun, applying the rules they have learned, and demonstrating their practical value. I do not consider grammar to be such an essential element of language mastery. The depth of grammar study should be determined by the degree of the learners’ background. For example, if a group has just recently completed A1 level, there is no need to move on to learning the subjunctive mood and compound tenses.
The second drawback of grammar is the impossibility of mastering spoken language fluently. Imagine, you know grammar well and have a good vocabulary. But then it’s time to express your thoughts and again it doesn’t go easily. First, you try to remember the appropriate words, then grammatical rules, then put all the words into a sentence, quickly mentally check yourself on the correctness of the sentence, and only then verbally express the thought. It takes about 20 seconds to do all that. How does this happen? It’s simple, most of the time we practice the language in exercises, and we have enough time to think about them. It takes us 3—4 seconds to translate a sentence or substitute a verb form, but we don’t have that in live speech! Maybe I am exaggerating something, but many people who learn a language only by grammar, most often express their thoughts with two or three words, without reaching fluency.
The third disadvantage, according to which it is not worth considering grammar as a way of teaching spoken language is that grammar, in fact, like any other theory, has the property of «airing out». Any theory is quickly forgotten because it is not needed or there is no possibility to apply it in practice. The point is that human beings have well-developed practical thinking rather than abstract thinking.
If grammar «fades with time», what should remain in the memory? And what should remain should be the templates by which a sentence is constructed. After all, without thinking about it, you can substitute the name «Roman» instead of «My name is Artyom» or «His name is» or «His surname is» instead of «My name is». Now we have a more complicated example. Let’s assume that the subjunctive mood is being considered (if «I were you, I would buy…» which means «На вашем месте я бы купил…”. You can substitute another verb for «buy», such as «say», and thus change the sentence to «На вашем месте я бы сказал».
So, in the end, what is the best thing to memorize when learning grammar so that you don’t waste your time? You should memorize patterns, not specific rules. I would like to point out that the model of teaching grammar from practice to theory is widely used in the Cambridge and Oxford learning systems. As you have realized, the problem of learning a language through grammar most often lies in the lack of its practical application
Another drawback of grammar is that it is detached from vocabulary, as is often the case. Just imagine, you learn the rules and each of them is supplied with a few examples – you can learn the whole grammar book, but in the end, you will not learn to speak. First of all, you will have a poor vocabulary, and secondly, you will not have the skills of practical application of grammar. It is important to understand (maybe even realize) the practical use of the rules in speech when you analyze a grammar lesson. This is something we do not see in everyday language lessons in educational institutions and courses. After all, grammar cannot exist without vocabulary. For practical mastery of the language, either a dialog or a topical text must be learned, and it is better to learn it all at once.
Moreover, there are some grammatical rules that «can be understood» only at a certain stage of language learning. It is useless to explain to a beginner the rules of the «sequence of tenses of the subjunctive mood in a compound sentence». And then we are surprised at how many people start learning languages and give up this thankless task.
In case you still want to learn speaking skills using grammar, study each rule carefully, try to do as many exercises as possible to consolidate them (I recommend translation exercises), and do not proceed to the study of a new subject if you have not understood the previous one.
Grammar cannot be completely excluded from our «diet». Without it, expressions, lexical expressions, patterns of narrative and interrogative sentence building, etc. will not be understood. Those who use grammar as an aid to practical speaking lessons can find useful speech patterns that allow them to translate correctly when working with a text. You just need to know how to use grammar correctly, understand the purpose of its study, and consider it as a supporting element (framework) of spoken language.
I can add that as much as I learn grammar, I still build phrases on a subconscious level. How to achieve this skill? Read more about it in my book.
When covering the topic of whether to learn a language or to study it, we forget to take into account one important factor, without which it is certainly impossible to learn to communicate freely, is listening to speech. All the elements of a language to be learned must be accompanied by sound. Few people who learn a language resort to audio recordings, and how wrong they are! For the most part, it is only through auditory perception that you can learn a language. Imagine, if you spend a whole year learning a language only from printed materials without audio, what will you learn? – You may be able to write without mistakes, translate, and express your thoughts in writing, but you will not be able to speak fluently. Then why do you need to learn a language if you can’t speak it?
Question on the topic: «Why are deaf mutes called so? Maybe a person just can’t hear, and he is at once considered not only deaf but also mute?».
The answer to the topic: «Without listening to speech, it is impossible to learn to speak». Conclude it for yourself.
You can also compare learning languages with learning music. My mother graduated from a music conservatory, my brother graduated from a music school, and my father played the cello in his youth, so don’t wonder why I compare language learning with music learning. Let’s say you learn only musical notes, the theory about music is solfeggio, and without ever sitting down at an instrument or hearing a piece of music, will you learn to play? Not listening to music makes it hard to memorize the notes, likewise, not seeing the notes makes it hard to memorize the music. We face the same thing when learning a language.
Without listening to foreign speech, your efforts to learn to speak will come to nothing, and I am not even talking about the fact that you will not be able to understand the other person speaking. How will you be able to understand your interlocutor who speaks in his native language with his peculiar pronunciation? Of course, sometimes knowing a lot of words can help – if you don’t understand the