Foreign Languages and Grammar

I interviewed a professor in the Russian department about the importance of grammar. First we talked about how important it is that a student be interested in correcting his mistakes. Learning a foreign language can be very difficult, and students will invariably make mistakes. What is important is that a student continually work at gaining understanding. It's not enough to simply recognize one's mistakes - students should take the effort find out the right answer and learn it.

The importance of correction also brought up the importance of repetition when it comes to learning a language and its grammar. It may take a student 20 times before he finally makes the right grammatical choice, but hopefully the correct answer will eventually become second nature.

As if that weren't enough work, we also discussed the importance of knowing exceptions to the rule as well as the rule itself. While it may be unrealistic to expect a student to know every single exception, it is valuable to learn the most common exceptions since those are often the ones that catch students off guard.

To finish off our conversation, we talked about the necessity of confidence when learning grammar in a foreign language. It's better to make mistakes than to be too scared to ever talk. Students should learn from their mistakes, but they shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes. It takes time to learn a language, and students should have patience and perseverance as they study.