Is it necessary to analyze grammar?

Tee   Sunday, August 11, 2002, 10:17 GMT
A few months ago I wrote to Tom and asked him the following questions:

Could you show me how to analyze English grammar in a sentence? Should I use grammatical terms? Could you give some examples? [Now I do not analyze grammar structure of a sentence at all. I just try to understand the sentence.]

And Tom replied:

You don't have to use grammatical terms. The idea is to spend some time wondering about:

- why a given part of the sentence was phrased in this way, and not some other way
- what are the implications of some particular phrasing ("Oh, so this means I should say ... and not ...")
- whether anything in the sentence seems to contradict previously gained knowledge

When I do this, I sometimes make my own grammar rules. I don't learn them by heart, but they help me to focus on all the aspects of a sentence. I don't feel "reading for meaning" is as effective, because often it boils down to quickly sweeping your eye over the main object and the verb in the sentence and grasping the general meaning. I don't see how you can learn much grammar by reading this way, because you skip over the articles and a number of other words which are not important for the meaning, but important grammatically. Let me give you an example of the thoughts I'd get when reading some English sentences (I won't include the thoughts on vocabulary):

Former President Jimmy Carter will visit Venezuela next week to mediate talks between the government and its opposition, which have been locked in a power struggle since a failed coup.

- "Former President" - not "The former President", so I guess "President Carter" and not "The President Carter"
- "to mediate talks" not "mediate in the talks" or something like that
- "since a failed coup" -- so I can say "since an accident" (preposition use), not only "since an accident happened" (conjunction use).

Jennifer McCoy, of the Atlanta-based Carter Center, told reporters Saturday that Carter may be able to help break the political deadlock when he visits beginning July 6.

- "of the Center" - not "from the Center" (in Polish it would be "from")
- "Atlanta-based" = "based in Atlanta" - "Saturday" not "on Saturday" -- seems I can skip the "on" sometimes
- "may be able" -- not "might be able" == lack of reported (indirect) speech. And my English teacher told me I should say "She said she MIGHT stay", etc. - "to help do sth" -- used without an object (not "help SB do sth"), and without "to" (not "help TO do sth") - when he visits -- not "when he will visit", even though it will be in the future - "to visit beginning July 6" -- interesting structure - "beginning" replaces "on" ("to visit on July 6")
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Thank you for your helpful advice, Tom.

Personally, I think it is a great idea to learn grammar like this. In fact, I used to use such technique a few years ago and found it far more effective than learning from grammar books.

But now I wonder if it is really necessary to pay such careful attention to grammar while reading in English? Maybe it is enough to read and listen a lot (passively) and then one will pick up grammar automatically (and unconsiously)? In this way, one will learn to speak English naturally and correctly without thinking a lot about grammar structure. In fact, I'm not sure whether this kind of unconsious learning will work or not. But some people say it works.
Tom   Monday, August 12, 2002, 10:00 GMT
I've thought about this more than once and my current opinion is that I tend to skip over "helper" words like articles and prepositions when I'm reading "for meaning". So I have serious doubts whether my brain would learn to use articles and prepositions correctly if I didn't pay special attention to them.
Tee   Tuesday, August 13, 2002, 12:18 GMT
Does this mean that we should learn English grammar consciously rather than relying on our intuition?
Tom   Thursday, August 15, 2002, 16:26 GMT
I'll answer in a slightly roundabout way:
The fact that I think about certain "interesting" phrases a lot, certainly contributes to my grammar intuition, because if I repeat a phrase in my mind many times, I can internalize it more easily. If I'm reading in German, and I stumble on something interesting like "der alten Tante", and then I think about it for some time, it quickly becomes natural, because I've repeated it to myself 10 times. Show me something different like "der alter Tante" or "der alte Tante", and a red light will go off in my head!
R.Kanagaraj   Thursday, August 15, 2002, 17:00 GMT
Dear Tom,
Though languageis for communication only,I can't tolerate if anyone
speaks without following basic rules of grammar.Ex He don't know that.
I see him yesterady. I am afraid from fire.(Arabs speak like this,under the
influence of the mother tongue. In Arabic it is Ana gayif min nor. Min is translated as from.
Nobuo Saito   Friday, August 16, 2002, 06:44 GMT
Do native speakers pay special attention to grammar of their language to speak correctly?
Tom   Friday, August 16, 2002, 18:26 GMT
Nobuo,

When I speak Polish (my native language), I sometimes pay attention to grammar. That way, I can avoid saying things which are widely used, but regarded as incorrect by some people.
I don't do this as often as when speaking English, though.