CHAPTER 13 - The Fifth Rule: Learn Grammar Intuitively And Unconsciously I’ve promised
that you can learn to speak English well, without studying grammar rules. I’ve even
told you to throw your grammar books away because you don’t need them. Now I’m going
to show you what to do instead. It’s actually a very simple technique – one that I believe
is the best way to learn grammar – not only to learn English grammar, but grammar for
any language. The fifth rule of Effortless English™ is: Use Point-of-View Stories.
These are small, short stories in which we change the point of view. In other words,
we change the time frame and we change the grammar to create multiple versions of the
same story. By reading and listening to these story variations, you can learn grammar intuitively
without thinking of tenses, conjugations, etc. Point-of-view stories are easy and fun.
Best of all, they allow you to absorb the grammar naturally by understanding the context
of stories. That is the key point. Rather than studying abstract grammar rules, you
acquire spoken grammar skill from meaningful and memorable English. Point-of-view stories
were first developed by Blaine Ray, the creator of the TPRS learning system. In the 1990s,
Ray was a high school Spanish teacher in California who was looking for ways to engage his students
beyond the traditional drill and memorization methods used in language classes. TPRS stands
for Total Physical Response Storytelling (also described as Teaching Proficiency) through
Reading and Storytelling (see box). It was Ray’s belief that students could learn to
speak Spanish more naturally by listening to certain kinds of simple stories. I immediately
recognized the power of these stories, and decided to modify them for my own teaching
system. Point-of-view stories are now a very important part of the Effortless English™
system. How do point-of-view stories work? In the simplest version, you start by listening
to a main story – usually told from the past point of view. In other words, the story
is mostly about events that happened in the past. Next, you listen to another version
of the story, with a different point of view. So, for example, you might hear the same story
told again in the present. Then you listen to yet another version, told as if it will
happen in the future. Or even another version that talks about past events that have continued
to the present. Each point of view story is basically the same, but the change in time
creates changes in the language used… especially the verbs. By listening repeatedly to these
stories, you easily and naturally absorb the most common and most useful English grammar
tenses. Because you learn them subconsciously and intuitively, you will actually USE them
correctly when you speak – and you won’t have to think about it! An important focus
of point-of-view stories is that they should focus on the most commonly used grammar structures.
Some students become obsessed with extremely rare forms of grammar while neglecting the
forms that native speakers constantly use on a daily basis. For example, “He slept
for six hours” is far more commonly used than “He will have been sleeping for six
hours.” It’s far more important to master the first form of the sentence (the simple
past) as it is far more useful for communication. Thus, the point-of-view stories you use will
be limited to only the most common forms. The great thing is, you only need to listen
to these stories a few times every day. You don’t need to analyze the grammar changes…
and you certainly don’t need to identify the linguistic grammar rules. There is no
need to identify which version is the “simple past,” or which is the “past perfect.”
These terms may be useful to linguists, but they are distracting to those who wish to
speak quickly, easily and automatically. You must trust your intuition and simply listen
to each version of the story without analyzing it. Try to quiet your analytic mind. Relax
and focus on the events of the story. With time, you will absorb the grammar intuitively,
and use it correctly without effort. PUTTING THE PHYSICAL INTO STORYTELLING Dr. James Asher,
a psychologist at San José State University, was one of the earliest researchers to identify
the importance of physical movement in learning. Asher developed the “total physical response”
method (TPR) after discovering that students learned language more effectively if they
associated words and phrases with meaningful movement. He taught language without translation,
solely through the use of actions. For example, he would say to a class, “Sit down,” and
then he would demonstrate the action of sitting. Then he would say, “Stand up,” and he
would demonstrate standing. After repeating this series a few times, students quickly
understood the meaning of the phrases “Sit down” and “Stand up.” In the next phase
of the lesson, Asher indicated to the class to join him. So when he said “Stand up,”
the whole class stood up together with him. And when he said “Sit down,” the class
demonstrated their understanding by sitting. In the final phase, Asher gave the commands
but did not demonstrate them. Rather, he watched to be sure the class understood. This eliminated
the need for translation, as the students connected the phrases to the actions. With
time, students in Dr. Asher’s class were able to learn and demonstrate very complex
commands such as, “Stand up, turn around five times, then walk backwards to the door
and close it.” Dr. Asher built core fluency entirely through the use of commands and actions.
Later, Dr. Asher and other researchers modified TPR, adding gestures to represent more abstract
terms like “think” or “hope.” TPR was a predecessor of Blaine Ray’s TPRS (Total
Physical Response Storytelling). Ray realized that if the actions and gestures were combined
to create a story, students would learn even more quickly. TPRS is a method for getting
students to physically and verbally interact as part of storytelling. This technique was
the starting point for much of the Effortless English™ system. A Sample Point-Of-View
Story Let me give you a very simple example of a point-of-view story: There is a boy.
His name is Bill. Bill goes to the store. He buys a bottle of water. He pays two dollars
for the water. Ok, that’s it. That’s our little story right now. It’s not very interesting,
but you understand it easily. It’s in the present tense, and all you need to do is just
understand it. If this was an audio story, you would listen to it every day for a week
or more. Remember, we’re striving for deep learning, so you’re going to repeat it a
lot of times. Next, I tell you the same story again, but now it’s in the past: There was
a boy named Bill. Yesterday, he went to the store. He bought a bottle of water. He paid
two dollars for the water. Ok, that’s all. Very simple. Of course, in my lessons my point-of-view
stories are longer. They’re more difficult and they are more interesting. But this is
a simple example to help you understand the concept. So now you’ve read or heard Bill’s
story in the present and the past. Ideally, you have audio versions and you listen to
that story in the past many times. When you listen, don’t think about the grammar rules.
You don’t need to analyze, “Oh, this is the past tense” or “Oh, ’paid’ is
an irregular verb.” No, no, no – no need to think about that. Just listen to each story
version and understand the meaning. That’s all you need to do. Listen to the first story
– understand the meaning. Listen to the second story – understand the meaning. That’s
all. It’s easy, effortless grammar learning. After that, you would listen to the future
version of the story: Imagine there will be a boy. His name will be Bill. He’ll go to
the store, and buy a bottle of water. He’s going to pay two dollars for the water. That’s
the end of our short example in the future. Again, all you do is just listen to this little
easy story. You listen to the present version. You listen to the past version. You listen
to the future version. Every day for seven days or more, you listen to each one. We can
even add more versions. We can practice any kind of grammar with this. For example, I
might say: There was boy. Since last year, he has gone to the store every day. He has
bought a bottle of water every day. He has paid two dollars for the water. You don’t
need to know the name of the grammar or the verb tense that I’m using. It’s called
the present perfect, but you don’t need to know that. I don’t want you to think
about that. All you need to do, again, is listen to this version of the story. Of course,
I’m using extra phrases to help you understand the meaning. I said, “Since last year,”
so now you understand that these verbs change because something happened in the past and
it has continued for a while, but you don’t need to think about that. That’s why these
stories are so easy and powerful. You just listen. You listen to story number one. You
listen to story number two, and you listen to story number three and to story number
four, and you learn the grammar like a native speaker. Like a child. When you learn grammar
like this, using these kinds of stories, you are training like an athlete and you are freeing
yourself from the hidden curriculum. This is the difference between learning grammar
as abstract knowledge and acquiring the skill of using grammar in real speech. You want
the skill. You want to use correct grammar without thinking about it. HOW TO LISTEN TO
POINT-OF-VIEW STORIES To get the most out of a point-of-view story, do your best to
focus on the story and imagine it in your mind as you’re listening to it. Turn off
that part of your brain that labels the tenses or thinks about grammar. Instead, think of
a line going through your body. Behind you is the past. In front of you is the future.
Imagine now that the story you’re hearing is inside a box or radio. As you hear the
past version, try to imagine that box sitting behind you, back in the past. When you listen
to a future version, picture the box in front of you, up in the future. Imagining where
you would put this box or radio on the line gives the story a visual component, which
will help you to more intuitively understand the grammar. While it’s easy to understand
this idea by reading sample point-of-view stories, it is essential that you use audio
versions. Remember Rule Three: listening is the key to speaking. You not only want to
learn grammar intuitively, you also want to learn spoken grammar. That means, just like
vocabulary, you need to learn grammar with your ears. Learning grammar with audio point-of-view
stories develops your “feeling for correctness,” the same skill used by native speakers. Each
repetition and each variation develops this feeling. Eventually, you will instantly know
correct grammar because it will sound right to you. No need to think about linguistic
terms. That’s when you know the point-of-view stories are working. Remember that true grammar
skill must happen instantly. In a real conversation, you must produce the correct grammar without
hesitation. There is no time to think about rules. This instantaneous grammar skill can
only be developed subconsciously and point-of-view stories are one of the best ways to do this.
By using these stories, you skip the unnecessary step of thinking about abstract rules. You
produce correct English grammar intuitively, without conscious thought. In this way, you
use grammar like a native speaker. It takes time and repetition, but pointof-view stories
give you the most effective training for spoken grammar mastery. The Psychological Benefits
We have discussed the benefits of point-of-view stories to your English. These are significant.
However, the psychological benefits of these stories are perhaps even more powerful. For
most learners, abstract grammar study is one of the most painful aspects of studying English.
Most people find grammar study to be boring, confusing and frustrating. Many dread the
idea of trying to memorize yet another grammar rule. Most English learners have bad memories
of grammar lessons and grammar tests. Grammar study has a way of making intelligent people
feel stupid. They study and memorize countless conjugations. They analyze the use of English
articles, prepositions, countable and uncountable nouns. Yet, when it’s time to actually speak,
they find themselves constantly making mistakes. Even though they “know” the grammar, they
struggle to use it. “What’s wrong with me?” they ask themselves. “I know this.”
They are not stupid. They have simply confused knowledge with skill. Leave grammar knowledge
to the professional linguists. Your job is to acquire grammar skill intuitively, and
point-of-view stories are the best way to do that. Practice Exercise Here’s a fun
way to create your own point-of-view stories. Find a simple story about something that interests
you. The story might contain a few words or phrases that you don’t understand and have
to look up in a dictionary. However, it should be easy. Five new words is the maximum that
should appear in the story. Now, show this story to your English teacher, or an English-speaking
friend. Ask them to rewrite the story from different points of view. They will write
different versions for at least the past, the present and the future. After they write
each version, ask them to read each one and record it. Then, for the next week or two,
listen to all versions of the story every day. Once you have mastered those stories,
repeat the process again with a completely new story. Simply by listening each day, you
will develop your spoken grammar ability. Just like an athlete, you’ll train yourself
in the skill of using correct grammar automatically