Why Memorizing Grammar Is Killing Your CELPIP Score (And What to Do Instead)

Foreign.

Hello and welcome to the CELPIP Success Podcast.

The most introvert friendly podcast on the planet, dedicated to helping you confidently prepare for and conquer the CELPIP exam.

If you're tired of feeling nervous, stressed and stuck and getting ready for your exam, then my friend, this, this is the podcast for you.

Who am I?

My name is Aaron and I've been an English teacher for over 17 years and I'm a certified CELPIP trainer and I can't wait to help you get ready for your CELPIP exam.

Being stuck on the CELPIP feels like the story of my life.

Would you please talk about grammar?

I think most of us are actually struggling with it.

The past, the present, future, future, perfect future, progressive.

That question came in from a good friend of mine, Julia, who is a long term listener to the podcast.

Julia, hi, thanks so much for sharing this great question.

And you know what?

You've raised a question that I think many CELPIP test takers struggle with, not just you.

So you're not alone on this.

Today we're going to talk all about grammar and how you can get better at using it for your general English practice, but specifically for the CELPIP.

And like I was saying before, grammar can for sure be challenging.

And I think the big, huge reason why it is that way is because of the way we're so often taught it and the way we so often try to go about learning it, and that is by memorization.

Like there's this huge emphasis on memorizing lots of rules and lots of verbs and conjugating them.

I don't know if that's what your experience has been like, but for me, that's the story of my life when it comes to grammar and just thinking about it.

For me, when I was learning French in elementary school, I can remember spending a long time writing down lists of verbs and rules about how to use them and then trying to conjugate those verbs, often repeating them again and again and again in class as we practice together.

And actually, I've seen very similar approaches to English classes too, where the teacher drills the student on the verb to be.

For example, like I am, you are, he is, she is.

And everybody repeats that all together.

And then when you they tried to help you to learn new tenses like the past or the future, the approach remains the same.

I will go, she will go, he will go, they will go.

You get the picture, right?

There's lots of lists, lots of rules, and a lot of trying to memorize stuff.

And if you're like me and my grammar learning experience, I didn't seem to do a very good job of making the connection between all of those lists, all of those rules with actual day to day conversations where you actually need them to work.

For some reason, all those rules and all of those lists kind of just stayed in my notebook or stayed in the grammar book that we were working with and they just didn't seem to cross over to here, to my mouth and to my tongue to help me to say what I want to say.

Does that happen to you?

I think for me that is what is holding most of us back when it comes to grammar.

Like we we tend to see learning grammar as something outside of our daily life.

It's over there outside of us in some grammar book somewhere or in a class, not with us in our day to day when we actually need to use it.

And I think we need to stop learning grammar that way with lots of memorizing, lots of lists and endless rules that seem totally fine, foreign or disconnected from the reality of the self up exam or our day to day life.

Instead, I propose a different approach.

What would happen, what would happen if you see grammar as something you pull out just in time to help you solve a specific real communication problem?

Just in time?

Learning, or J I T L for short, is a real approach to learning.

It means bite sized targeted learning to help you solve a problem in the moment that you need it.

That's why it's called just in time.

And that's the big reason why I think typical grammar instruction and learning fails.

It's rarely in that just in time kind of approach.

And so it's not as easy to connect with.

In other words.

And instead of memorizing lists and rules, I think that we should grab the specific grammar rule we need and learn how to use it specifically to help us solve a real communication problem.

So how does that apply on the CELPIP exam?

On the celpip, as you probably know, there are eight speaking tasks.

Now some of those tasks have obvious grammar applications that will help you succeed on them.

And not having a solid grasp of the grammar you're likely to use on that speaking task can have a negative impact on your score.

For example, let's talk about speaking task two where you're having to describe a past experience.

That one right there is obviously focused on the past tense, right?

Speaking Task 3 will use a lot of the present continuous because you're going to be describing an image, something that you see happening right now in front of you, and the one next to it.

Speaking Task 4 Did I say the one next to it?

The one after it Speaking Task 4 will have you using a lot of future verbs like going to or will because you need to make predictions about what you think is going to happen next.

So to do well on those tasks, you should be aware of the kind of grammar that will help you to express yourself effectively in each of those tasks.

For Speaking Task two, remember where we're talking about a past experience, you need to use the past tense all the way through that answer.

So if this task continually gives you trouble, I think that might mean that you need to spend some time, a few minutes, reviewing the past tense rules and common verbs now not to memorize them.

Instead, what I want to encourage you to do is quickly look through them and then lean towards quickly trying to use them as you practice talking about a past experience.

Like your first day of work in Canada, or what your first day actually being in Canada was like, or what you did last weekend.

Remember, don't fall into trying to memorize stuff.

Focus instead on applying the rules as you describe your experience.

Now, I was thinking, how can we get some practice in so that you can begin working on your past tense as you're talking about a past experience?

And here are a few ways that you can get some hands on.

Practice right after you finish listening to this.

How about this?

During your mealtime, your next mealtime, practice talking about what you did that day with the people you're eating with.

If you were to ask me today, for example, I went for a walk early in the morning, I went for a walk.

Then I made breakfast for my son and my wife, and we ate together.

I made breakfast, we ate together.

My wife and I talked about what we thought about a movie we watched together last night.

We talked about what we thought about a movie that we watched together last night.

And then a few hours later, I drove to a grocery store and bought some groceries that we needed.

Did you hear all those examples of the past tense?

All I was doing in a very normal everyday kind of thing is talk about something that I did.

And that's something that you can practice doing as well.

It doesn't have to be complicated.

It doesn't have to be long.

It doesn't have to be pressured.

I mean, just think you're sitting around the table with people that know you, hopefully people that you love, and you can just begin talking about your day.

How was it?

What did you do?

That is a great way to begin focusing your speaking skills on the past tense Use everyday opportunities.

That's what I'm getting at to help you to begin practicing using the verbs and the grammar rules that you're trying to learn.

And in this case it's the past tense.

Do you want another thing that you can try?

Listen to a two minute news segment on the radio or the podcast.

And I've talked about this option before, but the CBC has a podcast which I will link to, that gives you a summary.

It's not a summary, but a collection of the news stories of the day.

And oftentimes the news gives you information about something that happened in the recent past, like maybe that day or maybe over the last couple of days.

But the thing is, a lot of the verbs, a lot of the action that you will hear in those news stories will be something that has taken place already.

And what I suggest you do as you are listening, practicing your, your, your active listening school, active listening skills is to take notes on those news stories.

Pay attention to the verbs that you hear when you especially when you hear them talking about something that happened in the past.

Try to write them down.

See if you can write what the verb was and and then see if you can write down the general sentence.

If you can.

If you can't get the exact sentence that was being used with that past tense, see if you can get the general idea of what was going on in the story and then see for yourself if you can use that new verb that you pulled from the new story.

See if you can use it yourself when you're expressing your own ideas about something that happened in the past.

So in conclusion, what I've been trying to say here with all of this.

In order to learn grammar, I want to encourage you to stop trying to memorize long, boring lists of rules.

Instead, try just in time learning.

Pull specific grammar rules, specific verbs that you need in the past or in the future or in the present that will help you to solve a specific challenge that you're facing on the CELPIP exam or in your day to day conversations.

Like the example from above.

If I know the past tense gives me trouble.

Grab that grammar book.

Brush up on the rules of the past tense, but focus most of your time actually trying to use those rules in your conversations.

Don't hide behind I'm trying to learn grammar rules.

Use them to learn them.

That, my friend, is how I think that you should learn grammar.

Make it about helping you solve a specific real problem in your communication just in time, right when you need it.

Not something that gets stuck and forgotten in a book somewhere.

Was today's episode helpful for you?

Would you like some help to improve the way you are getting ready for the CELPIP exam?

Then I'd love to talk to you.

If you've been feeling stuck in your CELPIP prep, then I'd like to invite you to book a totally free 30 minute celpip clarity call with me where we'll take a close look at what you've been doing to get ready for your exam.

This call is 100% about you.

I'm here just to listen and help you fine tune your approach to getting ready for your exam.

I promise that I will not try to sell you anything.

I'm an introvert.

I don't like selling anyway.

But this call is not about me trying to convince you to do anything.

I'm here just to listen to you, to your story, to your journey as you're getting ready for the exam.

And we'll work together to see if there's something that we can do to fine tune your approach to make you more effective as you're working towards your goal.

If you'd be interested in that, there's going to be a link in my show notes today for you to book that free 30 minute call.

There's zero pressure, zero sales.

It's 100% me listening to you and just trying to find a way to help you to keep moving forward towards your CELPIP goals.

Thank you so much for being here.

Have a great day.