Fluency is very important in speaking, but if your conversation is full of grammatical errors, your ideas will not get across so easily.

Studying grammar rules will certainly help you speak more accurately. This advice sheet will shed light on how to learn grammar for speaking systematically. It will also inform you of what other things are important to develop accuracy in speaking English.

The aim of this leaflet

The aim of this leaflet is to help you plan you improve accuracy in speaking. It introduces you to systematic ways of self-access grammar learning, and suggests learning tips and materials in the Language Commons that will improve your English grammar for speaking.

Planning your learning

The following is a recommended way to pursue your grammar learning for speaking systematically through self-access learning. You can get help from the SAC advisers at any stage you have problems with.

• Ask SAC advisers (sometimes through recordings) to analyse your speaking output to clarify the actual problems: e.g. vocabulary, sentence structure, tenses, lack of practice, etc.
• Establish with advisers what you need to focus on, fluency or accuracy.
• If you decide to focus on accuracy, taking a diagnostic test could be the quickest way to discover study needs for grammar. You can do a diagnostic test in one of the following books located on the Grammar Practice shelf in the SAC to find out your weaknesses:
  
  • How English Works, P3 - 11: Diagnostic tests for different levels are provided.
  • English Grammar in Use (New Edition), p301 - 309: The Study Guide enables you to find out your weaknesses in separate grammatical categories and helps you to decide which units you need to study in the book.
  • Test and Practise Your English, Book 1 (p1 - 45) & Book 2 (p1 - 34): Diagnostic tests are provided in context, and you can choose the ones which interest you. A wrong answer in one of the tests has a cross-reference in the Test Key that says which Practice Exercise should be done in order to avoid future errors.
  • Homework (First/More/Advanced English): Choose the areas you think you are weak in and try the Practices which can also be used as diagnostic tests. You are encouraged to find the rules out by yourself through the numerous examples given in the book.
  • AutoLANG (online): Do Diagnostic Test.
    You can also do the "Diagnostic Test" on the online computer program AutoLANG, developed by John Milton at the Language Center. Please discuss with an SAC adviser first before you log on the test in any of the SAC computers.

You may find it easier to make and evaluate progress if you focus on one or two areas at a time rather than trying to improve everything at the same time.

• In self-access learning, you have the freedom to select and prioritise what aspects of grammar you feel you need to learn. Discuss with your SAC advisers when devising your self-access learning plan.

• Devise a short or long term plan by considering questions like What? How? When? How long? Plan Achieved?. You can change your plan whenever necessary.
• Plan and stick to programmes of work where long term learning is concerned, e.g. dealing with ingrained mistakes, etc.

Try out different materials to see which one suits you when you devise your self-access learning plan. Refer to the grammar advice sheet SELECTING MATERIALS FOR GRAMMAR (G5) to get advice for choosing materials suitable for your needs and learning styles.

• Negotiate the type of materials you can use with the SAC advisers arranged according to functions or discrete grammar points.
• You need exercises which encourage you to check how the rules you have learned apply to actual English sentences in context.

Good language skills always need active and persistent practice. Learners are advised to arrange regular time to study. Some suggestions are:

• Join discussion groups organised by the SAC for active practice to experiment and reinforce the learned rules.
• In order to evaluate your progress, whenever you work on a particular grammar point, try self-testing with the exercises and the answer key in the material before and after you study the grammar aspect.
• When you find it difficult to evaluate your own progress, seek help from your English course instructor, SAC Advisers to comment on your grammar in speaking.

Learning tips

• Even though you know certain expressions for particular functions (e.g. greeting, buying things, asking for directions, etc), you may lack the ability to generate your own way of saying things, the ability to communicate in any situation. A grammatical framework is needed for this.
• To develop fluent and correct English for speaking, apart form just working on grammar books, you need to listen and read actively, practise conversation, and be aware of your mistakes.
• There are areas that Chinese learners of English find especially difficult when they are using English and those areas are specified in the Advice Sheet G2 (Grammar for Writing).
• It is difficult to assess how much difficulty you might find in coping with any particular worksheet. For example, a student who could be classed as a beginner in terms of his or her spoken skills might actually have a good knowledge of English grammar which is at present untapped, or a student who is orally proficient might not have any awareness of grammatical rules. So the levels indicated in the books should be seen only as a very rough guide, and you should seek help for the SAC advisers when you are not sure of how to choose books.
• It is very important for you to understand how the English grammatical system works, but practice in using the rule is also crucial to make it part of the language you use naturally. After you know enough of a grammar point and its uses, you should stop doing grammar exercises and make a confident try with it in ordinary speech. Don't be afraid to experiment. As soon as you have got the basic idea, you should try it out in real conversation and get free of the grammar book.
• You can feel in charge of the grammar you are learning by looking analytically at bits of language in any context, and by continuing to check back how the learned rules are used in any situation where you are experiencing English in any spoken or written forms (e.g. conversations, newspapers, magazines, television, etc.).

And Now...

If you would like any help or advice, or just a chat about your progress, please get in touch - we are here to support your independent learning! To contact us:

• see an Adviser, on duty at the SAC Advice Desk (for details of advisers and their availability, please go to http://lc.ust.hk/~sac/sacadviser.html)
• e-mail lcsac (lccommons@ust.hk) with your query;
• ask at the reception counter of the SAC — if the receptionist cannot help you directly, s/he will pass your query on to one of the SAC advisers.

Note
The introductory leaflet in this series is the leaflet Improving Your Grammar (G1).

This advice sheet is part of the Grammar series of leaflets supporting independent learning, produced by the HKUST Language Center SAC team. This leaflet was written by Kyungnan Park and Jacqueline Lam Kam-mei, 2000. Version 2. If you copy from this leaflet, please acknowledge the source. Thanks.