Hi!
Let's be truthful now. What’s the one thing about the English language that really stops you progressing to where we want to get to?
Easy question – GRAMMAR of course.
Just the mention of the word “grammar” can cause many students pain. There is a widely held belief that before you can start to speak a language fluently, you must spend days, weeks and months learning the fundamentals of English grammar.
This by itself can create limiting beliefs –
“I can’t learn English until I learn the grammar”
"Speaking English is beyond me, I will never learn grammar"
“It is going to take me forever before I can speak English confidently”
This reason by itself can stop many aspiring English students in their tracks. The initial desire and motivation to learn English is lost. After a few false starts, the student gives up. Okay, I was there! I was in the very same position. I have tried to study so many grammar books, but none were able to help me overcome my limiting belief.
And then one day it dawned on me. At the time it was a revelation. It created a huge shift in my thinking. To explain, let me ask you this simple question?
"I have never yet seen a young child with a grammar text!"?”
The answer is clearly no! So how do we learn a language as a child? You must practice and practice the following - learn phrases, understand them and speak them. Sounds simple right? Well clearly the execution is not quite as easy as it sounds, but the principle certainly is.
So how do I apply this to my spoken English development? There are various learning techniques that are available that avoid you going through the torture of learning the fundamentals of grammar. Trust me - I wholeheartedly believe in this. I will discuss this in a future post.
There is nothing more frustrating than seeing potentially great English speakers giving up because of grammar. Continue to follow the updates at http://spokenenglishonline.com and I will share with you some of the readily available techniques to speak English with confidence and have fun along the way.
Take care, Poppy
