Have you ever had a teacher say to you, “Put the book down and listen to me?” While books are good and necessary for learning, there comes a time when exposure to the conversational tone of the language is absolutely necessary. Even though English is spoken in countries around the world, different countries and even different regions within countries tend to have a variety of accents and phrases that may not always make sense outside of their respective communities.

Traditionally we have been taught that learning rigid grammar rules (along with their exceptions) is the proper way to learn a language. In this episode Gabby explains that maybe a better way to learn is to actually listen to people speak, and pay attention to how they use certain words and phrases. Once you hear the spoken word, it might be easier to study the grammatical structures behind the words and their meanings.

If you want to learn English faster and better while improving your conversational skills, visit gonaturalenglish.com and use the resources that Gabby provides to help you with your fluency. Good luck in your English language studies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtb3J8rSnKE

Episode transcript below:

Hey, Hey! How’s it going?

What’s up?

Welcome to Go Natural English.

I have a quick English learning tip for you.

What I’d like to request, with all sincerity and respect, is that you stop trying to memorize grammar rules.

Don’t try to go from learning grammar rules to conversation.

I want you to do this backwards.

Do it a little different than the traditional classroom learning English way that is not working.

So, we’re going to flip things around.

I want you to start with English conversation.

I want you to listen carefully to the way that people are trying to express themselves in English, and notice the grammar that they’re using in specific situations, and then copy that and use it in the same situation.

For example, if you notice people are talking about their experience, they’re probably using the present perfect – “I have worked”, “I have traveled”, “I have blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

So, you notice – ooh, I need to use – I’ve heard “I have” in the present perfect, you use that structure to talk about experience.

So, I need to use that to talk about my experiences instead of trying to go from your textbook memorizing every single tense and then trying to apply it when you speak English without even hearing it.

That way seems backwards to me.

So, what I suggest for you is a natural way of learning.

Listen first – try to understand the patterns, and then use it yourself.

You’re just copying what you already heard and it’s so much better.

I’ve learned Portuguese this way.

This is how I am able to express myself fluently in other languages and I recommend it for you too.

So, if you’re interested in learning more about how to learn the Go Natural English way then come to gonaturalenglish.com and I’d love to share a free eBook with you and I’d love to invite you to join the premium Go Natural English course.

It has tons more tips, materials, support, and practice for you to get fluent fast.

I hope to see you there.

Bye for now.

The post Are You Learning English Backwards? Learn Conversation then Grammar appeared first on Go Natural English.