Posts Tagged ‘grammar’
English Grammar Rules
There was a time, way back in the murky past, when understanding English Grammar was considered to be one of the fundamentals taught at schools in the English speaking world. For some reason, this has changed over the past few decades and a more holistic approach to literacy instruction has been advocated. However, even highly intelligent students now seem to struggle when it comes to the conventions of writing in English. Clearly, there are some things that just don’t automatically happen via exposure to language and texts. There are still some basic elements of language learning, including those pesky Grammar rules, which must be actively taught.
In fact, it is somewhat misleading to refer to English Grammar rules as ‘rules’. They are not rules in the same way that we have rules of cricket, for instance. If we wanted to know about the rules of cricket, we would simply consult the official Cricket Rule Book. However, we cannot do something similar if we want to know about English Grammar rules. There is no official English Grammar Guide that contains all the laws of the language. These rules are not so much ‘rules’ as they are ‘conventions’, agreed upon quite informally over time by the majority of those who use the language.
The Rules of Grammar
Let’s say that you happen to be one of those people that has a very limited vocabulary, understanding how to combine the same words into different sequences to impart different meanings can be very affective, here is a great example: “Sheila heard him screaming at her” or “Sheila heard her screaming at him” both of these sentences employ the exact same words, but by rearranging the order of the words “her” and “him” we were able to give the words different meanings. Grammar is the only thing that makes this possible. Grammar by definition is a languages set of rules that dictate the ordering and combining of words to make them into understandable sentences.
When children first begin to speak it is usually in short 2 or 3 word sentences, this is would be described as telegraphic, or short, simple sequences of words without tenses, plurals, or function. In order to develop the capability of making whole sentences children must first acquire the knowledge to to utilize other forms of speech. In the English language this means understanding how to use the correct subject verb order, as in ” Corey chased the dog.”
Understanding and Using English Grammar
English grammar is a subject that truly frustrates many people. Regardless of educational level, nationality or age, grammar and spelling seem to baffle many people. And if someone has a learning disability like dyslexia, using correct grammar seems like an almost impossible feat. Using correct grammar can be difficult for those who have English as their mother tongue, but for those who speak other languages, English and it’s complexities can be especially confusing. While a dictionary can be helpful, it will not give answers to grammar questions. Even word processing programs can fail to give the much-needed help in correcting grammar errors that are blatantly wrong.
So, how can a person improve their English grammar? There are several things that might help someone struggling in this area. First of all, it might help to be with people who use correct grammar when they talk and read material that uses good grammar structure within the English language. Since everyone learns his or her native language by listening, even from back to the time of infancy, it reasons that if he or she listens to and reads material with good grammatical structure, they will slowly learn the correct way to write and say things.