In the minds of many, mastering a language means above all mastering its grammar.
The question is how this mastery is acquired, because knowing a rule does not mean being able to apply it.
Two memory systems for two different grammars
For the sake of simplicity, we’ll borrow the terminology used by the neurolinguistic approach (NLA) designers Joan Netten and Claude Germain.
AtNLA, we distinguish two grammars: internal and external, which are linked to the functioning of two very distinct types of memory: declarative and procedural.
Procedural memory enables the development of so-called implicit skills, those that cannot be explained but can be demonstrated. Thanks to this type of skill, we no longer need to make a conscious effort to perform a task, such as rehearsing a choreography, getting dressed in the morning or tying our shoelaces. It’s all done automatically, without thinking.
In the field of language, this translates into the correct use of language, automatically, without thinking.
This skill is developed through the intensive and frequent use of language structures that create patterns at the neural level , preferred “paths” for the flow of information…
This is what NLA calls internal grammar. It’s made up of regularities, and is implicit and unconscious.
Declarative memory, on the other hand, belongs to the conscious realm and enables us to accumulate knowledge about the world.
Thanks to declarative memory, we know that an apple is a fruit, or that the capital of France is Paris. It also stores formal knowledge of how a foreign language works, such as vocabulary, grammar rules, conjugations, cultural connotations…
WhatNLA calls external grammar therefore refers to theoretical learning, and is carried out with the help of textbooks and possibly a teacher. It’s explicit and conscious, and it’s often what everyone thinks of when they think of grammar.
The grammatical paradox
Michel Paradis ‘ work on the double dissociation of Alzheimer’s disease and Broca’s aphasia led to the theorization of the “grammatical paradox”.
According to this theory, the two memory systems are independent, andthere is no connection between them. That’s why knowing all the rules of how a language works doesn’t mean being able to speak it, just as it’s possible to speak a language perfectly without being able to explain its rules.
This is a radically different position from that of traditional methods, which postulate that one must first learn the rules, then do a lot of exercises to be able to transform this knowledge into skill so as to be able to use the language in conversation naturally and spontaneously.
The way we teach grammar is based on this paradoxical principle.
Timing is everything
Our teachers focus on developing the learner’s internal grammar, i.e. solid oral interaction skills. Through sustained, supervised practice, learners construct all their sentences correctly and memorize only grammatically correctstructures .
Once they are able to use these structures correctly and automatically, the teacher moves on to the more formal aspects, in order to develop external grammar, linked to knowledge. This takes place during the reading and writing phases .
For us, practice precedes theory.
The application of memory-related principles in the classroom makes our approach a balanced one. We don’t reject any aspect of learning, and give the right place and timing to the development of all skills.
