My Fool-Proof Plan to Mastering English Grammar With Mini-Stories
There are two major problems that English students face when studying grammar. The first is they spend way too much time focusing on the exceptions and waste time that could be used more profitably.
The second problem is that when they want to talk in English, they have to pause to remember all the rules and exceptions to the rules before they can say anything. That kills your fluency and makes you stumble over your words and sentences.
Using mini-stories and following these three simple steps will help you overcome both of these problems that most English students face with a single blow.
Step 1: Listen To Your English Mini-Story
Once you have a mini-story that focuses on the English grammar structure that you want to learn, you need to listen to it many times. This will allow you to begin assimilating the grammar structure before you begin to study the grammar rules. This will make it much easier to understand.
Listen to your English mini-story several times a day. And do this for several days. You must understand the story well and grasp its internal structure implicitly before you try to memorize any of the rules. Otherwise, the rules just won’t make sense.
Instead, you want to use the grammar rules to explain what you have already seen in the story because that is how children learn to speak their mother tongue. First, they learn how to talk. Then they go to school to study grammar. So, why learn English any differently?
Step 2: Study Your Grammar Lesson
So, after you have listened to the mini-story several times and understand it, now it is time to study your grammar lesson. Now, this is where most English students make the fatal mistake of getting bogged down in the details.
Most want to learn all the rules and exceptions to each rule…and waste lots of time where it isn’t profitable. At this point in your English learning process, you want to speak English fluently like a native. And native speakers make lots of ‘grammar’ mistakes…which means that if you speak too perfectly you won’t sound like a native.
There is nothing wrong with that…if you are the head English professor in some fancy language university where you want to impress everyone. But if you’re like 99% of the English students I know — you just want to be able to express yourself clearly and easily.
So, don’t get bogged down in the details and all the exceptions to the grammar rules. Instead of spending weeks trying to learn how the grammar doesn’t work…you can spend just five minutes watching a quick video to understand how it does work.
Focusing on the basics…means that you can spend your effort and energy on what is most important — developing your fluency.
Step 3: Do Your Grammar Exercises
Now that you understand the basic concepts of the grammar structure…it’s time to put your skills into practice. So, this is where you want to do some basic English grammar exercises.
Not only will you be practicing what you are learning…but you will also be testing yourself which means that you will be able to evaluate if you understood what you learned correctly.
Okay! I know I promised you three steps…but I wanted to give you a bonus step here that will help you master the grammar structures that you are learning.
Bonus Step: Listen To The Grammar Mini-Story
For best results when learning something, you must compare it to something else. That way you can look at the similarities and differences between each one. So, what I always recommend that you do is listen to your original mini-story again…but this time with a different grammar structure.
For example, if your original mini-story was in the present continuous…you would now want to hear it in the past continuous or the present perfect. That way you can observe what changes between the structures and what remains the same.
Follow these steps, and you will master the English grammar structures quickly and easily so you can speak English fluently and proficiently like a native speaker in the least amount of time.
