8- Learning other languages

I believe that grammar must be taught, in striking a balance, in which grammar is not the primary focus, but an adjunct leading to communicative development. My experiences of developing foreign languages confirmed this belief.

After my puberty period, I studied two languages: French and Hebrew. I studied each one for three years. I studied French in high school. The curriculum was focusing on how we can explore the French documents and how we can use the language in different places and situations, such as in the airports, restaurants, and clinics, etc. When I came from Egypt to the USA, I stopped in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for three hours to change airplanes. I told the officer in the security check, “Je ne parle pas français”, which means “I do not speak French.” The officer smiled and told me, “But you said it in French.” This story showed me that, you can use the language even if you barely learned the grammar.

In the University of Alexandria, my major was Arabic language and Arabic literature. I had to choose a Semitic language to study for three years. The goal was just to compare the Arabic language with another language from the same family. I chose Hebrew language. There was no material other than the books. The curriculum was higher-order language functions, such as semantic relations. The instruction was focusing on reading and writing skills and ignoring listening and speaking skills. One day, I met a person who speaks Arabic (my native language) and Hebrew. I told him, “I study Hebrew.” So he asked me in Hebrew “What is your name?” I did not understand, and I could not answer. So he told me, “So you study Hebrew but you did not learn it.” This story showed me that, you cannot use the language if you just learned its grammar.