One of the biggest differences between Chinese speakers learning English and native English speakers using their own language is the way they learn grammar.
學(xué)英文的中國(guó)人和英文母語(yǔ)者之間最大區(qū)別之一就是他們學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)法的不同方式。
To learners in China, grammar is sacred. It is a code used to make sense of a language that works very differently to Chinese. It is a means of knowing whether the English you are speaking or writing is right or wrong, and a way for teachers to set exams then mark students' answers right or wrong.
在中國(guó)人看來，語(yǔ)法的地位近乎神圣，在我們理解與中文迥異的英文上，它成為了解讀英文的準(zhǔn)則，它是幫我們判斷自己口頭和書面英文是否正確的方式，也是老師奉為改卷判斷正誤的圭臬。
But many native English speakers struggle to explain English grammar, yet they still manage to speak and write English accurately. So, why is learning grammar from books so unimportant to native speakers, when learners emphasise it so much?
但是許多以英語(yǔ)為母語(yǔ)的人卻感覺真難解釋英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)法，但他們?nèi)匀荒苷f和寫英語(yǔ)時(shí)準(zhǔn)確無誤。那么，為什么對(duì)于母語(yǔ)者來說從書中學(xué)語(yǔ)法這么不重要，而別國(guó)學(xué)習(xí)者卻如此重視呢？
英美國(guó)家的人說英語(yǔ)都幾乎沒錯(cuò)，而且還不怎么思考語(yǔ)法結(jié)構(gòu)，他們是怎么做到的呢？
When a native English speaker learns English, they are exposed to it all day, every day. They hear it after they wake up, they use it with their family and friends, they read it in the newspaper and online, and they hear it on the radio and television.
英國(guó)人他們是要每天都和英語(yǔ)打交道的。他們每天醒來都會(huì)聽到英文，他們用英文與家人和朋友溝通，他們?cè)趫?bào)紙上和網(wǎng)上閱讀英文，也在廣播和電視上收聽英文。
In other words, they have so much exposure to English, that they become very used to the language. The human brain is naturally inclined to recognise and respond to patterns. When we hear a phrase or a sentence hundreds of times in different contexts, we learn the patterns of the language. These patterns are in fact grammar, but a native speaker's brain will recognise and use them without thinking, because they have a 'sense for the language'.
換句話說，他們接觸英文太頻繁了，所以他們已經(jīng)習(xí)慣了這門語(yǔ)言，他們的大腦已經(jīng)自然地可以識(shí)別這種語(yǔ)言模式，并對(duì)其做出反應(yīng)。當(dāng)我們?cè)诓煌瑘?chǎng)合上聽到同樣一個(gè)短語(yǔ)或者句子幾百次的時(shí)候，我們也就自然地學(xué)會(huì)了這種語(yǔ)言的模式，這些模式其實(shí)是語(yǔ)法。但是一個(gè)母語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者可以不假思索地能識(shí)別出它來，并且學(xué)會(huì)使用，因?yàn)樗麄円呀?jīng)養(yǎng)成了語(yǔ)感。
What's more, when a native speaker sees something that does not confirm to the pattern, they recognise it as a mistake without thinking about the grammar rules themselves - it just 'looks' or 'sounds' wrong.
另外，如果母語(yǔ)者發(fā)現(xiàn)一個(gè)表達(dá)不符合他之前所見到的模式時(shí)，他就會(huì)覺得這種表達(dá)是有問題的，而不是思考背后的語(yǔ)法規(guī)則——這樣的表達(dá)“聽起來”或者“看起來”怪怪的。
為什么語(yǔ)法學(xué)習(xí)常常會(huì)產(chǎn)生新問題呢？
Chinese learners of English have very limited exposure to English, therefore they are often taught grammar rules to make the learning process easier, and to help them recognise the difference between right or wrong English.
中國(guó)人學(xué)英語(yǔ)時(shí)，其實(shí)暴露在英文環(huán)境下的時(shí)間很少，因此我們都被告誡要好好學(xué)語(yǔ)法，這樣學(xué)習(xí)才會(huì)更容易，并且可以幫助我們更好地識(shí)別什么是正確的英文。
There is nothing wrong with learning grammar rules, in fact it can be very helpful and make things quicker, but it can also cause problems.
學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)法沒有錯(cuò)，事實(shí)上對(duì)我們很有幫助，幫我們學(xué)得更快，但同時(shí)也可能產(chǎn)生問題。
This is because English, just like any language, is like a living, breathing entity, because it is created by people. And like other languages, English is evolving and changing all the time. Something that may have been true when a grammar book was written may no longer be the case by the time you read it.
這是因?yàn)橛⒄Z(yǔ)，就像任何語(yǔ)言一樣，是一個(gè)活生生的，會(huì)呼吸的東西，因?yàn)樗侨说膭?chuàng)造物。和其他語(yǔ)言一樣，英語(yǔ)也在不斷地發(fā)展和變化中。當(dāng)一本語(yǔ)法書問世的時(shí)候，里面寫的語(yǔ)法可能是符合當(dāng)時(shí)實(shí)際的，但當(dāng)你讀的時(shí)候可能已經(jīng)發(fā)生了變化。
In addition, English is spoken in many areas of the world that are very far away from each other. Consequently, the English language may be used slightly differently in the US to Australia, or in South Africa or New Zealand. English speakers in different areas also have different speaking habits.
另外，世界上許多地區(qū)都說英語(yǔ)，而他們卻相隔甚遠(yuǎn)。因此，美國(guó)英語(yǔ)和澳洲英語(yǔ)、南非英語(yǔ)、新西蘭英語(yǔ)都可能略有不同。不同地區(qū)的英語(yǔ)使用者說話習(xí)慣也不同。
This is why you will often get the wrong answer if you try to speak English and judge between right and wrong purely based on rules laid down in grammar books. Some rules may no longer be valid, or only in certain situations or in certain places. Other rules will not cover the English that is used by young people, or in music or on the Internet.
所以如果在說英語(yǔ)時(shí)，你只是純粹基于語(yǔ)法書中的規(guī)則來判斷正誤，可能會(huì)得到錯(cuò)誤的答案。有些規(guī)則可能已經(jīng)不再使用累，可能僅在某些情況下或某些地方使用。有些年輕人使用的英文或在音樂界或互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上使用的英文也是語(yǔ)法中的特例。
如果說母語(yǔ)的人不太懂語(yǔ)法，那他們?nèi)绾闻袑?duì)錯(cuò)的呢？
When a native speaker says or writes a sentence in English, they are calling on all the instances of the language they have ever read or heard.
他們說或?qū)懸粋€(gè)英語(yǔ)句子時(shí)，他們是潛意識(shí)里調(diào)動(dòng)了他們?cè)?jīng)讀過或聽到過的所有例子，然后再表達(dá)出來的。
For example, if the sentence is 'I am back to Beijing', a native speaker would know that this should be 'I am back in Beijing', because they have heard the usage 'back in' so many times that they have internalised this rule - they are comparing it to all the usages of this word that they have heard before. They will already know the prepositions 'back' is most commonly used with, and the tenses and constructions that come after it etc. In other words, they have a huge corpus of information about the language in their mind that takes into account the changes and variations in the language - the human aspects of English.
例如，有句話是 'I am back to Beijing'，英國(guó)人都知道這其實(shí)應(yīng)該是 'I am back in Beijing'，因?yàn)樗麄兟犝f使用 'back in'的次數(shù)太多了，所以早就在心中內(nèi)化了這個(gè)用法——他們其實(shí)在拿從前聽到的所有儲(chǔ)備來和這個(gè)做對(duì)比。他們?cè)缇椭懒?“back”一詞后最常用哪些介詞，時(shí)態(tài)和結(jié)構(gòu)等等，換句話說，他們大腦中有一個(gè)龐大的語(yǔ)料庫(kù)，儲(chǔ)存了語(yǔ)言各種變換的信息——而這，才是英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)中人性的光輝。
By contrast, English learners who have had very limited exposure to the language are only able to analyse whether the language is being used correctly through logical analysis based on grammatical rules. Because such an analysis does not take into account recent changes in the language, colloquial usages, different registers of the language and so on, it will often lead Chinese learners of English to incorrect conclusions.
與此相反，很多中國(guó)人卻對(duì)英語(yǔ)的接觸非常有限，只會(huì)通過語(yǔ)法規(guī)則的邏輯分析才能正確分析語(yǔ)言是否使用正確。因?yàn)檫@樣的分析沒有考慮到語(yǔ)言的最新變化，口語(yǔ)習(xí)慣，語(yǔ)言的不同語(yǔ)域等，往往會(huì)導(dǎo)致中國(guó)的英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者得出錯(cuò)誤的結(jié)論。
如何使用母語(yǔ)者的“技巧”來提高你的英語(yǔ)
The best way to make your English much more accurate is not to learn rules, but expose yourself to much more English - just like native speakers do.
讓你的英語(yǔ)更準(zhǔn)確的最好方法不是學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)法規(guī)則，而是讓自己更多地接觸英語(yǔ)——就像母語(yǔ)者一樣。
Try to surround yourself with English, to read in English, listen to content in English, talk to English-speaking friends and think in English as much as you can. By doing so, you will be learning grammar in a much more natural way than from a grammar book - by understanding how it works in the context of sentences from real speech or texts, and very slowly, you will start to acquire the rules without thinking.
試著將自己浸泡在英文環(huán)境中，讀英文，聽英文，說英文，盡可能多地用英語(yǔ)思考。如此你學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)法就會(huì)變得更加自然，比從語(yǔ)法書上學(xué)到的生硬規(guī)則要好得多——了解從真實(shí)講話或文稿上的表達(dá)，逐漸你就能不假思索地掌握這些語(yǔ)法規(guī)則了。
If you have listened to and read thousands of hours of English, and you continue to do so every day, you will notice a lot of changes.
如果你已經(jīng)聽了或者讀了好幾千個(gè)小時(shí)英語(yǔ)，并且日日如此，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己有很多的變化。
You will find it much easier to judge whether what you are saying is right or wrong. You will speak more naturally, using more of the idioms and ideas that a native speaker would use.
這樣下來你就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)判斷英文表達(dá)是否準(zhǔn)確容易得多。你會(huì)跟母語(yǔ)者一樣，表達(dá)更加流利自然。
Keep up your listening and reading for a number of months and I promise you - you'll notice incredible changes in English and you'll have started to go native - you'll no longer be so dependent on the grammar rules you once found so crucial!
堅(jiān)持聽上和讀上幾個(gè)月，保證你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)令人難以置信的變化，你會(huì)真的開始變得“洋氣”了，再也不會(huì)像以前那么依賴于語(yǔ)法規(guī)則！
圖文排版和翻譯：冰夏
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