Grammar

[Alfonso]

Great, Poli, that's Noam Chomsky's generativism.

sospecho

[Iris]

When I was a teenager I did lots of drills in my English classes, and even though I would never do that with my students now, I think I learned a lot. But the main reason I liked my classes, was because the teacher was great. He always talked to us in English and told us lots of stories and anecdotes. He even organized a trip to Scotland, which in those times was almost unheard of.

[Alfonso]

Originally Posted by Iris

When I was a teenager (...) Scotland, which in those times was almost unheard of.

Are you pre-Scottish, Iris?

[poli]

I remember Noam Chimpsky. Is this his idea? If so, I agree with Noam.

[Iris]

Originally Posted by Alfonso

Are you pre-Scottish, Iris?

And pre-Greek too...

[poli]

¿Pues, como enseñas sin repetición, memorización y de el analysís de la función de las palabras? Quiero saber, porque si recuerdo correctamente aprender español no era fácil para mi. Aprendí porque
tenía un amigo tonto que quería estudiar conmigo. Yo tenia que explicarle
los verbos irregulares y las funciones de lo la le... Por tener que enseñar este tonto, you aprendía. El nunca aprendió bien. Yo no quería aprender y
aprendí por la necesidad de enseñar.

[Alfonso]

Poli, me temo que sacas conclusiones erróneas. ¿Por qué piensas que enseño sin repetición y sin ejercicios memorísticos?

[Rusty]

Even though language learning is innate, we teach our children to speak using essentially no grammar rules. We simply name an object, like a ball, until the child associates the word with the object. We're happy when the child repeats the correct word for the object. Later, we show (and usually mimic) an action associated with the ball, and may add an article: roll the ball
When the child rolls the ball, we applaud. We know, though, that we're not done with the concept just yet. It's certain that the article (the) wasn't even the focus. It's probably certain that the child has not associated the specific action to the word roll. There are many different things that happen when we roll a ball. The child may associate any one (or more than one) of those things with the word roll. What if direction were associated with the word instead of action? What if push were understood? What if touch were understood? Mimicking the touch or pushing the ball in the same direction may be all the child associates with the new word, and we applause that effort. Indeed, the child can later say roll ball or ball roll and we oblige. But if we never do anything more to make the child think that his current understanding of the phrase is wrong or isn't quite right, he may go on thinking that roll is the same thing as push, direction, or touch. The semantics we apply when learning a word or a phrase CAN be mistaken.

This is simplistic, but it shows that a child or an adult, for that matter, can learn a language without knowing all the rules and all the parts of speech.

I agree that memorization is not a good way to teach a language.

[poli]

En serio no conozco los métodos contemporáneos de enseñar el segundo
idioma. Imagino que en un modo o otro los estudiantes tienen que aprender las leyes gramáticas y memorizar vocabulario. ¿Estoy en lo cierto?

[Alfonso]

Sí, Poli, estás en lo cierto.