如何学好英语语法？

　　Let‘s Learn English Grammar Incidentally !

　　让我们在不经意间学好语法！

　　If you read my my first article on May 14, 2014, on achieving English fluency through personalising phrases and collocations, this article on the incidental learning of grammar should be a useful extension for you.

　　如果你读我在2014年5月14日写的第一篇文章，有关于通过书写个性化短语和搭配来提高英语流畅程度，这篇关于顺便学习语法的文章将会对你是一个有用的拓展。

　　Throughout primary and secondary school, and even later at private language schools, grammar is forced upon students in a very prescriptive way. It seems to be the passion of most curriculum managers and language school directors to force a structural syllabus upon teachers.

　　从小学到中学，甚至到后来的私立语言学校，语法被以一种指令性的方式强压在学生身上。大部分学科经理或者语言学校主管似乎都热衷于把有结构的教学大纲强加于老师身上。

　　This means that students must first learn the verb to be, then the present continuous, present simple and past simple forms of regular verbs and so on. However, the learning of English is never so perfect and predictable. When I think of my learning of Serbian, I was never opposed to learning supposedly difficult grammar items before, for instance, the present tenses if they came up during conversation. That is the point: grammar learning should be incidental!

　　这意味着学生必须先学习动词（to be），然后是动词的现在进行时形式，一般现在时形式，一般过去时形式等等。然而，学习英语的过程从来没有如此完美且可预测。当我想起我学习塞尔维亚语的过程，如果据称比像一般现在时更难的语法出现在对话中，我从未反对过先学它们。这就是我的观点：语法应该是附带着学！

　　It’s difficult for learners to get away from this enforced system when they have to go to school. They have to do the same kinds of exercises for ten years and they still, often, cannot use the grammar properly. So they must become autonomous learners who are responsible for developing their language skills. They can do this by creating and regularly updating the table I referred to in my first article. Let‘s have another example to show how you can update it with grammar items. The word on the left is in Serbian and the items on the right contain the target English word or variations of it:

　　学习者在学校很难逃脱这种强加的系统。他们必须做十年同种类型的练习，然后经常依旧不能正确使用语法。所以他们必须成为为提高语言能力负责的自主学习者。他们可以通过建立并定期更新我第一篇文章提到的表格来自主学习。让我再举一个例子来展示你如何把语法项目更新于表格中。左边的词是塞尔维亚语，右边项目包括目标英语单词和它的变化形式：

　　These examples have everything:

　　target word + preposition

　　present perfect tenses + useful time phrase (for weeks)

　　a semi-fixed phrase (an exciting adventure)

　　这些例子包括所有：

　　·目标单词+介词

　　·现在完成时+有用的时间短语（好几周）

　　·一个半固定的短语（一次令人兴奋地探险）

　　It is not necessary to translate all the sentences into the first language as it is important to read and evaluate the sentences in English. The learning of grammar is very much a thinking exercise where learners analyse personalized sentences, and work out rules for themselves, called the inductive learning approach. The method is also about boosting learners’ exposure to English and getting away from direct translation from the first language.

　　我们并没有必要把所有的句子都翻译成母语，因为用英语品读这些句子同样重要。学习语法的过程是一个思考练习，学习者分析个性化的句子，自己找出规律，这叫归纳学习法。这种方法同样促进学习者与英语的接触，并避免直接从母语翻译。

　　We can now look at the teaching and learning process more closely. Let‘s imagine the wordcruise has come up incidentally during a lesson for a Serbian learner of English:

　　我们现在可以更进一步看一看教学和学习的过程。让我们假设一个来自塞尔维亚的英语学习者在一堂课上遇到了cruise这个词。

　　1. For deep learning to take place, the word should be drilled a few times for pronunciation

　　2. The teacher can now ask a few questions using the target word, without mentioning tenses. For example: Have you ever been on a cruise? I think it would be a mistake to start learning the rules for the present tense here. Treat Have you ever ...? as a fixed lexical phrase and not as a discrete grammar item.

　　3. The teacher can now offer some typical collocations and help the learner to personalise language/grammar. For example, book a cruise and go on a cruise around the British Isles

　　1. 为了更深入地学习，这个词的发音应该被训练多次。

　　2. 教师现在可以用目标词语问一些问题而不提及时态。比如: 你曾经乘船巡游过吗？ 我认为从此开始学习现在时态将是一个错误。把”你曾经…?”( Have you ever…?)看作一个固定的措辞短语，而不是一个独立的语法项目。

　　3. 教师现在可以提供一些典型的搭配，并帮助学习者个性化语言或语法。比如，预订一个巡游，乘船在不列颠岛周围乘船巡航。

　　I really recommend that students on italki work with their teachers for ten minutes per week to update their tables and get help with personalising grammar and lexical items. The vocabulary and grammar items go hand-in-hand. They should not be seen as two separate entities. If a new word comes up during a lesson, the teacher could offer some typical collocates, and work with the student to put the language together and personalise it.

　　我强烈推荐学生在italki上与老师每周花十分钟来更新他们的表格并得到帮助个性化语法和措词。词汇和语法是紧密联系在一起的。他们不应该被看做两个独立的事物。如果在课堂上一个新词出现，教师可以提供一些典型的搭配，并与学生一起来组合这些语言并使之个性化。

　　I am not saying that doing grammar exercises should be totally avoided. Sometimes it is necessary to help a learner with a grammar item that is difficult to grasp. However, ministries of education, curriculum managers, and, most importantly, teachers, have a responsibility for getting out of their comfort zones and helping learners personalise language and demonstrating language learning strategies.

　　我不是说语法练习应该被彻底取消。有时候语法练习有助于帮助学习者掌握一些难懂的语法项目。然而，教育部门，课程管理者，还有最重要的，老师，有责任走出舒适区，帮助学习者使语言成为自己的并展示语言学习的技巧。