LRE Tip 2

 
Hi, I’m Joe Weiss, one of the directors of Learn Real English. And today I’m going to be speaking with you
about the second rule of speaking excellent English. So what is that rule? Okay, the second rule is don’t
study grammar rules. I know you may be surprised, but it is a very important rule. You’re surprised because
most students are told when they’re learning English that they must study grammar rules. And they’ve been
learning English for many years. Some of them in high school. Some of you have been learning at University
or in a language school.

So now I have a question for you. Have you been successful? Do you feel good about how your English
learning is progressing? Many of you have been studying for a number of years. So here’s the question you
need to ask yourself. Are you able to speak English quickly, easily and automatically? If not, then you need
to ask why. Why are you not able to speak English quickly, easily, automatically? That’s what you want.
Well the reason is because you’ve been studying the wrong way. But I’ll tell you. It’s not your fault. Many
people experience this same frustration. And why is it that they experience this frustration? Why are they not
able to speak quickly, easily and automatically when they speak English?

Well the reason is because they focus too much on grammar. They study grammar rules far too much. Why
do they do this? Well the reason is because their teachers tell them that is the way that you learn the English
language. They tell you the best way is to study grammar rules. And you look at your textbooks. The
textbooks have many grammar rules in them. So as a result, that’s why many people believe it’s very
important to study these grammar rules.

So I know the next question you may have is why is it important to not study grammar? Well there have been
a lot of reports, there’s a lot of research that shows that when you actually study grammar rules it impairs
your ability to speak. When you go and speak the English language, you think of these grammar rules.
They’re in your head. Instead of trying to automatically speak, you try to remember the grammar rules. So
it’s not automatic. And one of the main problems with this is that you cannot speak quickly. You cannot
speak easily or automatically either.

Now when you’re writing, it is different. You have plenty of time. You can write slowly. You can go and
correct yourself. You can even consult a book or ask a friend what the best way is to write something. But
when you’re speaking, you do not have that much time. If someone asks you a question, they want to hear
your response immediately. And you want to be confident when you talk with them.

So I know many people probably have the same question right now. How is it that a native speaker learns
grammar? Well, I’m a native speaker so I think that I can answer that question. When I was learning to
speak English, I did not study grammar rules. I didn’t even know what a grammar rule was. The only time I
began learning grammar rules was when I was in high school. And that was only as a means of helping to
better my writing skills.

Now we’ve already talked about writing and how that’s different than speaking. But the way to learn how to
speak grammatically proper English is by a lot of input. And what I mean by input is taking things in. For the
most part I mean listening. Taking things in through your ears. You hear the way grammar sounds. So
when you hear someone speaking, you know when it sounds right. You don’t have to think about what tense
it is. Is this the past tense? Is this the present tense? You just know that it sounds right. And when you go
to speak, you’ll use the correct grammar. This is one of the keys to speaking quickly, easily and effectively.

Now we’ve already gone over what Rule 2 is and I want you to repeat it with me. Ready? Don’t study
grammar rules. In fact, I’m going to take this one step further. If you have textbooks, it’s time to throw them
away. Textbooks that teach grammar will only hurt your ability to speak English, so it’s time to throw them
away. You can even light them on fire if you want. Just don’t use them to learn English.

Okay, so as we promised you, we’ll be sending you an e-mail every day. So in the next couple of days you’ll
be receiving some more information from us. And in these e-mails you will get to see how to learn grammar
easily. And I will tell you, it is not going to involve memorizing grammar rules so you can be happy about that.
I’m happy that I don’t have to tell you to memorize these grammar rules.

So keep an eye on your inbox to your e-mail and I hope that you’re excited to get these next e-mails because
we’re excited to share them with you. Now we’ve come to the end of Rule 2, I want us to all say it again.
Don’t study grammar rules. Okay. I wanted to leave you with that. I hope you’ve enjoyed this video and I
look forward to providing you with more teaching soon.