It was really ironic to read the New York Times article “A Picture of Language” by Kitty Florey, because I remember the process of diagramming sentences in middle school. Reading the article did not make me nostalgic for the art however, nor did it make me reminisce about the joys of grammar learning. Furthermore, I’m not sure if learning to diagram sentences actually has much utility as far as actually speaking a language. As the author herself asks at the end of the article, “does diagramming sentences teach us anything except how to diagram sentences?” I’m not sure that it does.
Breaking down sentences into small components, classifying each in terms of its part of speech, as well as its tense, number and function in the sentence simply do not inspire me. Hearing a language, feeling, and experiencing it do. I suppose this is why I never became an English teacher :)
I understand studying the grammatical components of a language is necessary in order to obtain a rich understanding of it. My argument is that this aspect of language learning does not have to be the primary emphasis. Grammar is indeed necessary and important to understand, but if you immerse yourself in a language and regularly practice it with native speakers, I believe the grammar components will eventually come along (of course, this is assuming the people one immerses herself with speak grammatically correct…).
As my previous blog entries reveal, I am the type of language learner who learns best with the “trial by error” method. I love diving into a language and getting a general feel for it before getting into any technicalities of grammar. Nonetheless, I always appreciate articles showing me various ways of language learning.
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