The art of diagramming sentences is something taught in many schools across America. I remember learning about the different parts of sentences and how to make the sentence tree diagram. Although I have always been good with languages and some aspects of writing, sentence structure is one area that I found to be difficult because I felt like it required logic similar to science. It is true that the ability to speak English does not mean that one can read or write well in the language - and, vice versa. The parsing method sounds very similar to the way I was learning about sentence structure in elementary school. It is a very confusing and difficult method of dissecting phrases. For someone who is learning English as a second language, I can see how it can be extremely difficult to learn.
In many other languages, sentence structure is not as important as it is in the English language, or it is just very different. In the French language, adjectives are placed after nouns and when certain adjectives are placed before nouns, it gives a sentence a completely different meaning. In other languages, aspects, such as pronouns, are not used or used differently. Someone who speaks a differently language may not be able to easily grasp the concept of diagramming english sentences. I found this article interesting because I was unaware of the widespread use of parsing in teaching grammar and sentence structure in institutions across the country. I also did not know that this practice has been used for years and it is a traditional method of teaching children grammar. The article recognizes this method while alluding to the idea of developing a less difficult and advanced method of learning about sentence structure.
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