How You Can Learn Any Language in A Fraction of The Time You Spend Learning by Traditional Methods

“How You Can Learn Any Language In A Fraction
Of The Time You Spend Learning By Traditional

Methods”
by
Shawn Glenn Ongley
www.englishmasteracademy.com
Chapter 1
Grammar Is More A Habit To Be Practiced Than

Rules To Be Learned
I want you to think about the chapter title for a moment. If you are like most people,
you probably think that grammar is rules to be learned. This is because that is the
way it is usually taught in school.
In my thinking, grammar is a habit to be practiced, more so than rules to be learned.

The answer to this question will determine to a large extent, the process by which you
approach learning a language.
Now the “grammar is rules to be learned” approach is ok if you are interested in

passing grammar tests or are interested in comparing one language to another.
However, if you are interested in actually learning and speaking another language,
then correct speaking habits need to be formed. The question then is: “What is the
best way to develop my speaking ability in another language?”
Much of the “wisdom” of language schools, book, and other language learning media
utilize the memorization of grammar rules, phrases, and vocabulary to promote
fluency. I would categorize these approaches in the “grammar as rules to be learned
category.” Why? Because these activities do not directly promote language fluency
as I will explain in detail in later chapters. Even if they do, it is a slow, tiring process
to ultimately reach the goal of language fluency.
In this book, then, I will try to show what I consider as a better method toward
internalizing the grammar of the target language. I will argue that grammar is a habit
to be practiced much more than just rules to be learned.
In brief, I would like to discuss why this distinction is so important for a person who
is considering how he or she should learn another language.
This is a foundational question, because if language is a habit to be practiced, then

why do most textbooks and language schools focus so much effort on the formal
teaching of grammar?
The assumption of the language schools and language textbooks must be that the
formal teaching of grammar leads ultimately to language fluency. If it did not, then
why are they teaching in this manner? Or maybe it is that they don't know a more
effective way to teach.
The underlying assumption of most textbooks and language schools is that through
the formal study of grammar, we can then go on to speaking competence. This may
be true for a few students, but it is my contention that this is the long, hard road to
language fluency for most.
For most language students, it's as if they are given a thousand piece puzzle. The
contents of the puzzle are dumped out on the table and they are supposed to put the
pieces together to make a coherent picture.
In other words, they are given many pieces of grammar, but they have a hard time
putting the grammar together to arrive at language fluency. Going from grammar
rules to speech is a daunting task.
This is the reason why so many students think they cannot learn a language well and
quit. After all, they didn't have to think about rules at all when they learned their own
language. When they study another language, they toil over learning rule upon rule
with only a slight idea about how to put everything together.
The fundamental question then, is whether languages are best learned through the
memorization and formal study of rules. Now some people may be asking
themselves whether there is another way. There is, and this is the subject matter of
this book.
I am going to argue that the formal study of grammar methodology leads to cognitive
overload and requires too much additional cognitive processing to understand and
speak another language. This is an unnecessary burden on the language student.
Now, this is not to say that learning a language can be divorced from a knowledge of
grammar. The point I will make in this book, does not eschew the study of grammar.
The main point will be how grammar is studied, not whether or not it is studied.
It is my contention, that language first and foremost is a habit with the rules of
grammar providing the organizing framework for that habit.
The main point of this book is how to develop the habit of grammar without the
burdensome chore of memorizing books full of grammar rules.
To many people this idea will sound very strange. It probably sounds strange to you,
because this is the paradigm by which the vast majority of people approach learning a
new language. They study individual pieces of grammar. They learn the rules of the
target language. They learn individual phrases....
but they do not internalize the grammar as a speech habit, because if they did
they could generate thousands of sentences at will.
Think for a second about your own language. How much effort do you spend when
you need to speak? That's right. If it is your native language, you speak it
effortlessly. Why? It is precisely because the grammar structure of your language is
firmly implanted on your brain's hard drive. You don't have to cognitively process
grammar. In other words, you don't have to think about what you want to say. You
just say it.
When I was in my early twenties, I asked myself this same question. I wanted to
learn German, but I was having difficulty with the grammar. This was my thought:
“If I could just get the grammar into my mind, like a native speaker I could
speak thousands of sentences...not just try to remember and then speak a few
phrases that I memorized, but how can I do that?.”
Think about that last paragraph. It is the whole point of this book.
What you and I are after as language learners is the quickest way to develop an
understanding of grammar AS A SPEECH HABIT. Notice, I don't mean knowledge
of grammar rules.
That sounds strange, because most of us are taught that if we don't know the grammar
rules then we won't be able to speak correctly. This is nonsense and I will prove it.
There are millions of people uneducated to the rules of their own grammar that
nonetheless speak their own languages fluently.
Must we, who want to learn another language, become an expert or fully
knowledgeable about the target language's grammar in order to gain fluency?
I say no, and I will show you why in the chapters that follow.
I believe there is a wide gap between knowledge of grammar rules and competence in
speech. How many people do you know that know another language's grammar well,
but yet cannot speak fluently?
You see, once the target language's grammar is deeply embedded in your mind, you'll
be able to say anything you want without thinking. This is not because we have a
library of grammar rules that we know as facts, but because we have a library of
speech habits.
So, what we are after is not the conscious ability to learn grammar rules and
remember them. The goal is to develop grammatical speech habits by which we can
create thousands of sentences at will. We do not want to have to go from thinking
about grammar rules to speech. That is not natural. We want to learn grammar as a
habit.
Learning grammar as a speech habit should be our first priority. The problem is that
one's own language is often quite different structurally than the new language we
want to learn. In other words, the language's grammar is different.
Grammar to a large extent has to do with the correlation between form and function.
In other words, in order to communicate what we want (function), we have to select
the appropriate grammar structure to do so (form).
The challenge of learning another language is that there is sometimes a wide

divergence in the form/function correlation between languages. In simple English,
this means that there is a difference in the two languages' grammar that makes the
target language difficult to learn.
I don't want to get technical, but this form/function correlation can express itself on
the grammar level or down to the phrase, or word level.
For example, let's look at English and Korean. On the grammar (syntax) level, a
sentence is expressed as subject, verb, object in English. In Korean, a sentence is
expressed as subject, object, verb. This can cause problems for the student trying to
learn the other language because the form/function correlation between languages do
not match exactly.
This is why speakers of the Romance languages, Spanish and Portuguese, can learn
each others languages so easily, because there is a very close form/function
correlation between the two languages.
Here is why this is important: A large part of the problem learning another
language is that the student constantly compares and contrasts his or her own
language to the language he or she is learning. This is because of this form/function
divergence between the languages on all the levels from grammar (syntax) all the
way to the word level.
This constant comparing between languages I call “cognitive clutter.” This is just
another name for wasteful or unnecessary thinking. I call it wasteful because the goal
in learning to speak another language is to be able to think in the new language
without reference to one's own language. In other words, if I want to speak German,
I would not have to first think of what I want to say in English.
The goal of a language student should be to learn the target grammar in such a way
that the process of comparing is excluded altogether. I will contend that this is best
achieved by practicing grammar as a habit, rather than as a rule. I'll show you the
method later.
In other words, languages are best learned as they are, not in comparison to one's own
language.
I said all of that to say this: The formal study of grammar may be good for a
comparative linguist, but it adds undue stress and strain for someone who wants to
learn another language.
The target language can be studied without all of this mental clutter. I think that is
one of the reason children learn languages faster than adults. They don't know the
grammar rules to be able to compare their own language to one they are learning.
They just learn to speak through practice, not by thinking and comparing.
You must understand that a lot of the steps that we intuitively feel are necessary to
learn a language are not. They are nothing more than excess baggage that slows our
progress up the language learning mountain. Scaling this mountain is tough enough
as it is, why not take off the extra weight and make the climb easier?
In this book I am going to show you how to do exactly that. I am going to show you
how to develop an intuitive understanding of grammar without studying grammar in a
formal way. More importantly, this will not be just a knowledge of the grammar, but
a development of habits, by which you will be able to speak without thinking.
Far too many people think about grammar rules before they can speak. They
compare their language to the target language. This adds heavy baggage to their trip
up the language learning mountain. This needs to be eliminated and can be if the
advice in the following chapters is followed.
Chapter 2
Is A Formal Knowledge Of Grammar Really

Necessary For Language Competence?
I briefly discussed the notion that a formal knowledge of grammar does not
necessarily determine one's ability to express oneself in the target language. I want to
write a little more on this subject because this is the preeminent manner in which
English ( and other languages) are taught in language schools and textbooks.
It is true that in language schools and textbooks that there are speaking or
conversation sections. These are somewhat helpful to a degree...actually to a small
degree. This is what we are going to discuss right now.
In most of the current language instruction available, the student is instructed in one
facet of grammar with an accompanying example sentence or two. The student then
proceeds to learn the phrase and understands the meaning of the grammar and its
example sentence.
The problem is that although a person learns the example sentence and its
accompanying grammar, he or she still might not know how to apply the grammar
outside of that one sentence. In other words, when he or she learns a language, it is
not enough to collect 100's or even 1000's of phrases in his/her mental data bank
(brain). He/she needs to learn grammar not on the individual phrase level, BUT AS A
GENERATIVE PRINCIPLE.
Let me explain that. So many people sit down and learn phrase after phrase in a
phrase book. They learn 1000's of vocabulary words from a vocabulary book, but
because they don't have the grammar structure in their minds, they are incapable of
generating sentences outside of the phrases they have memorized.
Therefore, when you and I approach a language to learn it, the primary focus should
be on how to learn grammar as a generative principle. This means that we learn
grammar not through individual phrases however useful they may be. It means that
by practicing multiple sentences within one grammar structure we can develop the
speech habits by which we make make 1000's of sentences with only a minmal
knowledge of grammar rules. This is the subject I will develop fully in the next
chapter.
As I discussed briefly in the last chapter, many people are quite competent and fluent
in their own language without a formal knowledge of grammar. Here I am talking
about grammar rules. This is because the grammar rules are already embedded deep
into their minds. The grammar is subconscious, something they don't have to be
think about.
You basically have two options, in my opinion, when you study a language. You can
study the individual pieces of a language, whether it be vocabulary or grammar rules.
You then can proceed to try to put the pieces of the language puzzle together. You
can try to make everything fit. A lot of times, this is similar to trying to put a puzzle
together without being able to see the picture on the box.
With the big picture (the picture on the puzzle's box), you know how to put the
individual pieces together, because the individual pieces always make up the big
picture.
In the same way, when you study English (or any other language), the individual
pieces, whether they be vocabulary or grammar, should always be studied within the
framework of the big picture.
I know this sounds a little abstract, but bear with me. This does lead somewhere. In
other words, in order to truly understand grammar as a habit and not just a rule, I
must practice one grammar structure (the big picture) with many different pieces
(sentences, phrases, words). The pieces make sense within the context of the bigger
picture. This means that I never learn grammar as a habit with just one or two
example sentences, but with many.
A child doesn't learn to distinguish the present, past, and future tenses of verbs
through formal grammar lessons, but by making comparisons and contrasts in the real
world. In certain situations he or she contrasts the use of the past, present, and future
tenses through experience in speaking situations. This is not always possible for the
language student to experience in the real world (since you may not live where the
target language is spoken), but this can be simulated very effectively in practice.
Let me show you an example. In this example I am a student learning English. I

want to learn how to use “have,” “has,” and “had.” Now, you will see the example
sentence on the top. I made this exercise from one example sentence. Again, this is
only an example, I could have selected any facet of English grammar that I wanted to
learn.
Now, most people would memorize this one sentence and that would be the extent of
their grammatical knowledge. No, no, no! That is like the miner in California who
was digging months and months for gold. He didn't find any so he sold his gold
mine. The man who bought it struck gold just a few feet down from where the other
man had quit. This is why I would like to stress that just one sentence is a miniature
grammar book in and of itself. I'll show you what I mean in a minute.
What I am going to do is expand this one sentence into a complete grammar chart,
whereby I can practice many different facets of the grammar contained in this one
sentence.
Now I will expand it further as my language learning needs dictate. I will make
exercises based upon what my goals are as a student. Look at the chart on the next
page. You will see the original sentence highlighted in yellow.
Now we will practice present and past tense.
Today I have 10 yellow pencil(s) but

Right now you had 9 old eraser(s)
____________ we 6 new bottle(s)
Yesterday you 22 dirty ball(s)
they 33 clean leaf (leaves)
Last Sunday a lot of small
Monday he has a few big
Tuesday she had a couple of
Wednesday some on the table
Thursday just one under
Friday only one next to
Saturday to the right of
.........
Last week
month
year
As you can see, the original sentence is: “Today I have 10 yellow pencils.”
Now I have two choices: I can memorize this sentence alone. Or I can practice
multiple sentences together.
If I memorize this sentence by itself, chances are good that I will not develop any
competence to be able to speak other sentences with this same grammatical structure.
Learning this phrase would be an end unto itself. In other words, I learn the sentence
or phrase and my mission is accomplished.
That would be a waste. My whole goal is to learn the underlying grammatical

principle by which I could generate an unlimited amount of sentences (limited
only by the vocabulary I know). This is where a person learns to be creative with a
language. But creativity only comes when grammatical habits are formed, not mere
knowledge of grammar rules. Learning individual phrases doesn't help much either.
Let me show you how a smart student would learn to speak English from this one
example sentence.
Look at the chart below. As you can see, there are both the present and past tense in
this chart. At first I would only practice the present tense. I would practice so much
that speaking and generating language would become automatic. The correct
grammar is already in the chart, so I don't have to worry about speaking incorrectly. I
use the chart to correct my mistakes.
Since I am going to practice only the present tense, I will change some of the past
tense words into present tense, so this chart will be a little different from the chart
above.

1 2 3 4 5 6
Today I have 10 yellow pencil(s)
____________ we 6 new bottle(s)
This evening you 22 dirty ball(s)
Tonight they 33 clean leaf (leaves)
This morning
This afternoon a lot of small
he has a few big

she had a couple of
some on the table
just one under
only one next to
to the right of
Now this is a simple example, but it is very powerful when you understand
everything that is happening at the same time. In a nutshell, I am expanding my
vocabulary and forming grammar speaking habits at the same time.
First we are going to focus on the time elements in column 1. We are going to skip
column 5 just to make using the chart easier.
Now it is important that you realize that we don't read the chart when we do this
exercise. I would write all the words in column 1 on a separate piece of paper and
use them as a cue to start the sentence:
On a little piece of paper I would write:

“Today”; “Right now”; “this evening”; “tonight”; “this morning”; “this afternoon”
Looking only at the words I wrote I would make the following sentences:
Today I have 10 pencils.

Right now I have 10 pencils.
This evening I have 10 pencils.
Tonight I have 10 pencils.
This morning I have 10 pencils.
This afternoon I have 10 pencils.
I would practice this simple structure until I could speak it perfectly and
automatically (without thinking). I don't need to worry about correct grammar,
because the correct grammar is already in the chart.
What I am doing is contrasting words with different meanings in the initial part of
the sentence. By repeated practice my unconscious mind is being conditioned to
automatically generate these types of sentences with many different words.
Essentially I am learning grammar and vocabulary at the same time.
So many students learn grammar rules and vocabulary separately. If your goal is to
speak the vocabulary you are learning that is not the correct way to learn. That is
only good for a vocabulary test (or a grammar test).
Now you may be thinking. So what! You made six easy sentences. No. This is not
some mindless repetition of sentences. What I am doing is starting with easy
sentences and mastering them. I progressively make it more complex from this point.
For instance, I can add the color or an adjective:

1 2 3 4 5 6
____________ we 6 new bottle(s)
This morning
he has a few big
she had a couple of
some on the table
just one under
only one next to
to the right of
I would then practice again. This time I would write the colors or adjectives on
another piece of paper and make the following sentences:
-This evening I have 10 yellow pencils.

-This evening I have 10 old pencils.
-This evening I have 10 new pencils.
-This evening I have 10 dirty pencils.
-This evening I have 10 clean pencils.
-This evening I have 10 big pencils.
-This evening I have 10 small pencils.
Next page please.
I can also add prepositional phrases to the chart, when I can do the simple sentences
without thinking: (I first write all the new words on a separate piece of paper: This
evening, on the table, under the table, next to the table, and to the right of the table).

1 2 3 4 5 6
____________ we 6 new bottle(s)
This morning
he has a few big
she had a couple of
some on the table
just one under
only one next to
to the right of
This evening I have 10 yellow pencils on the table.
This evening I have 10 yellow pencils under the table.
This evening I have 10 yellow pencils next to the table.
This evening I have 10 yellow pencils to the right of the table.
When you are finished you change column 2 and practice with: “you” “we”
“you” “they” “he” and “she,” just like you practiced above.
Or you can change column 5. Do as you like.
Ok, before I continue. I would like to say something. The words we use are not
important. When I want to learn a grammar structure and make it an unconscious
speaking habit, I NEVER USE DIFFICULT WORDS.
I always use easy words. Once you can speak the sentences with easy words without
thinking, then you substitute the easy words for hard ones. By then you already
speak the grammar easily and will have no problem making more difficult sentences.
It is important to do the basics 100% correctly before you try harder sentences.
Also, another important point is that when I learn new vocabulary, I never learn them
in isolation. In other words, I ALWAYS INTEGRATE NEW VOCABULARY into a
grammar chart. This is because if you put the words you are learning into a
grammatical context, or sentence, it will be much more meaningful. Words are best
learned on the sentence level not as islands in the middle of a meaningless ocean.
Ok, now I don't want to do numbers any more. Now I will substitute them.

1 2 3 4 5 6
____________ we 6 new bottle(s)
This morning
he has a few big
she had a couple of
some on the table
just one under
only one next to
to the right of
Again I write all the words I might forget on a piece of paper: “a lot of” “a few” “a
couple of” and “some.” You can do anything in column 5. You can also do anything
in column 2.
This evening I have a lot of yellow erasers.

This evening I have a few yellow erasers.
This evening I have a couple of new erasers.
This evening I have some big erasers.
Now, you can practice with “just one” or “only one.” I am not going to make a chart
for it.
Now I want to practice making a contrast between “I,” “you,” “we,” “you,”
“they”-- “have” with “he” and “she”--”has”
See the chart on the next page, please.
I will do the yellow highlighted section first and the green second.
1 2 3 4 5 6
Today I have 10 yellow pencil(s) but
____________ we 6 new bottle(s)
This morning
he has a few big
she had a couple of
some on the table
just one under
only one next to
to the right of
Now you can practice with all of the yellow in column 2 or just one at a time. I
will practice just one of them: “we”
-We have a lot of yellow erasers but he has a few yellow erasers.
-We have a few yellow erasers but she has a lot of yellow erasers.
-We have some yellow erasers bus he has a lot of yellow erasers.
-We have a couple of yellow erasers but she has a few yellow erasers.
What we are doing when we practice English with the chart is that we are making
comparisons and contrasts within one sentence pattern with many different words.
Eventually, after practicing these exercises several times the unconscious mind will
begin to make these grammatical distinctions automatically in speech.
In the example above, rather than memorizing a rule that says “he” and “she” goes
with “has,” or that “I,” “you,” “we,” and “they” go with “have.” I have practiced so
much that it is now a habit, while other students only know it as a rule and not a
speech habit. Again, the grammatical distinctions mentioned above would be
separated in the chart, so that grammatical mistakes would not be possible.
Do you understand why this system is much more powerful than the old “Learn-the-
Grammar-Rules” method?
It is because by the time the traditional students have memorized a rule, the students
of this system CAN ALREADY SPEAK CORRECTLY. Rather than cluttering their
minds with grammar rules they don't know how to apply, by practicing this way
THEY NOT ONLY KNOW THE RULES (intuitively), THEY CAN ALSO SPEAK
grammatically correct English. They are “killing two birds with one stone.”
And that is only the beginning. With this newly formed grammar habit, they can
substitute the words in the chart with more difficult words and make an unlimited
amount of sentences.
This is important, because the student of the traditional method can only try and
remember the phrases he or she studied, but has little capability of generating
sentences, because he or she learned grammar as a rule, not as a generative principle.
That makes a huge difference in the amount of time it takes for a student to become
fluent in English. Students of the method I am proposing, master simple sentences so
that when they come to more complex areas of grammar they have no problem. This
is because complex grammar is merely simple grammar put together.
The other students have not mastered grammar on the speaking level, so not only do
they have problems speaking simple grammatically correct sentences, they can't even
attempt any of the more grammatically challenging sentences, because they haven't
mastered the simple ones.
Learning with the traditional method leads many students to think that they don't
have any aptitude for English. They take a test and maybe their test scores are below
average. This has nothing at all to do with ability. Actually there are plenty of people
with great test scores that can't hold a simple conversation.
Ask yourself about how many people you know who have studied English grammar
and still have difficulty expressing themselves.
This makes me sad, because it has nothing to do with a student's aptitude. It only has
to do with the method by which they learned English in the first place.
I can promise you this. I can take an average student who uses my methods
faithfully, and increase their English level way beyond some of the best students who
use the traditional methods taught in schools and language books.
This is not because I like to brag. It's simply because the mind doesn't jump from the
learning of grammar rules to the habit of correct speech. It just doesn't work that
way. The problem is that teachers were taught by learning grammar, so this
methodology is perpetuated in the school systems. We have a saying in America: “If
you are a hammer, you think everything is a nail.”
In this situation, this merely means that teachers are just teaching the way they were
taught. They were taught to speak a language by learning grammar rules, so that is
what they teach their students. Another reason is that this methodology does not lend
itself to a classroom setting as much as a lecture in grammar would.
I am a teacher at heart, but not one by education. My college background was in

anthropology and linguistics. Ever since I started high school Spanish class, I was
enthralled with learning languages. It has been my hobby ever since.
My Spanish teacher, William Kromer, was an excellent teacher. He gave me a love

for learning other languages. 'Spanish wasn't overly difficult, but when I started
college I started studying Greek and Hebrew. These were Biblical languages so I
didn't need to speak them. At the same time, I was listening to German 4 hours a day
via short-wave radio.
The grammar was quite difficult compared to Spanish. It was then that I understood
that traditional methods were not going to help me to actually speak German (or at
least not quickly). I needed to escape the “learning phrases-learning rules” paradigm
if I wanted to make quicker progress towards my German fluency goals.
It was then that I started reading linguistic books. I started reading books by people
who were experts at learning languages, not just at teaching them. Part of what they
taught me found its way into what I am explaining to you in this book.
I said all of that to say this: I take a language learner's approach to learning
languages. I really don't care how they teach teachers to teach languages in the
universities. The main point is: “Is the current methodology working or not?” Even
if it is working, how long does it take it to work? Why is it that someone can study
grammar for a long time, know the rules, but make so many mistakes when he or she
speaks. These are the problems I am addressing in this book.
I must say this too. If you are only interested in passing grammar and vocabulary
tests then the traditional method is fine. My method is only for people who want to
learn how to speak grammatically correct English.
It is my sincere hope that you really understand how you can internalize grammar
principles as speech habits and not just be able to recite the rules. That is what this
chapter was all about. This is because once you have grammar in your brain (like a
native speaker) you won't have to remember phrases. You will have learned grammar
as a generative principle by which you can produce thousands of sentences with
minimal effort.
In the next chapter, I am going to show you how you can use the charts to turn any of
your speaking weaknesses into strengths in the shortest time possible. It all depends
on the quality of your practice time.
Chapter 3
How The Grammar Chart System Helps You Destroy

Your Language Learning Weaknesses
Now it really doesn't what language you are studying. As I stated earlier, you'll most
likely run into parts of language that are difficult for you to learn. Depending on the
language and its similarity to your own, this proves to be quite a huge obstacle. It's a
lot like hiking in the mountains. There are flat stretches in the valleys and then there
are inclines so steep that make you want to do a U-turn and head back home.
Don't worry about these areas of the language. I am going to show you how you can
turn those steep mountains into easy-walking hills. Now in the last chapter, I gave
you in example on how to learn grammar as a habit on the sentence level. That
means we learned grammar by speaking it as a sentence, but this is not always
necessary or advisable.
Sometimes we come upon a steep incline of grammar that is too difficult to climb in
one day. Do we give up and go home? No. We just climb a little at a time. We take
a break and start again the next day. The last thing we want to do is frustrate
ourselves to the point that we throw in the towel and give up.
So many students make great progress and then give up when the mountain gets too
steep. Don't let that be you. This is exactly why I wrote this chapter.
Let's look at some examples of how a person could attack and conquer his or her
weak areas in English. Now it doesn't matter what those are. It could be learning the
past tense forms of the verbs. It could be distinguishing between the simple present
and the present progressive. It does not matter.
We can make a chart to guide us to language mastery for any area that gives us
difficulty. We merely make the charts based upon what we need to master at the
moment. We master that AS A SPEECH HABIT and move on to other areas we want
to master.
In this example, I want to learn the difference between the simple present in English
and the present progressive. Until now, I really don't know when I should use the
present simple, “I run,” and the present progressive, “I am running.” To learn this, I
would make a chart that contains some of the distinctions that a native speaker
understands between the present progressive and the present simple.
Rather than just learning the present simple by itself, or the present progressive by
itself, we can learn them together. In this manner, we can contrast the two and
develop distinctions and intuitive understandings of how they are different. Now, this
understanding is not based up knowledge of a rule, but of usage.
When you practice grammar as it is used, you develop a feel for when to use the
present simple, and when to use the present progressive. Learning grammar rules, as
such, if divorced from speech habit, does not give you this understanding. In other
words, you may know the grammar rule, but you probably won't have the grammar
habit. That is exactly why we practice these distinctions in the chart by speaking and
not memorizing.
I must also say that here we are using a simple example, but the principle is the same
for any of the charts we make. This manner of thought would hold true no matter
what aspect of grammar we are studying. Using the charts simply allows us to
compare and contrast language. This ability is simply not available to someone who
has merely studied the rules. The beauty of the charts is that we can compare and
contrast much more than one piece of grammar. There are so many ways to use the
charts, so let's get started.
1 2 3 4 5
I (am) usually run(s) in the park but
you (are) sometimes jog(s) at school

we often ride(s) a bike in the morning
you never play(s) soccer in the afternoon
they always
running now
he (is) jogging right now
she riding at the moment
playing
When we make the charts, we are not competing with Leonardo DaVinci. In other
words, we are not trying to win an art competition. We just need a chart that
functions...one that helps us learn what we need to learn. As you can see here, I
distinguished the present progressive by highlighting it green. For the present
simple, obviously, I would not use these highlighted areas.
Let's practice this in steps. In step 1 we are going to practice “I” with the adverbs of
frequency in column 3, one thing in column 4 and one thing in column 5. We will
practice with the present simple. We will practice the present progressive later. See
the chart below:
1 2 3 4 5

they always
running now
playing
I usually run in the morning.

I sometimes run in the morning.
I often run in the morning.
I never run in the morning.
I always run in the morning.
Now we are going to practice just the simple present may different ways. We might
not necessarily need to if our skill level is already high. I would just like to show you
a few things we could learn from even a simple chart like this one.
1 2 3 4 5 6
I (am) usually run(s) in the park on Fridays but

Saturdays
you (are) sometimes jog(s) at school Sundays
we often ride(s) a bike in the morning Mondays
you never play(s) soccer in the afternoon Tuesdays
they always Wednesdays
running now Thursdays
playing
He sometimes runs in the morning on Fridays.

He sometimes jogs in the morning on Fridays.
He sometimes rides a bike in the morning on Fridays.
He sometimes plays soccer in the morning on Fridays.
Here I am just practicing with one thing from column 1, one thing from column 3,
and one thing from column five and six. I would usually have around ten to twenty
verbs in column four to maximize my learning. I would practice again by changing
one thing from whatever column I wanted to focus upon. I could practice this chart
for hours until I could automatically speak without having to think.
1 2 3 4 5 6

Saturdays
playing
He sometimes rides a bike in the park on Saturdays.

He sometimes rides a bike at school on Saturdays.
He sometimes rides a bike in morning on Saturdays.
He sometimes rides a bike in the afternoon on Saturdays.
Here I am just focusing on location or time: “at school,” “in the park,” “in the
morning,” or “in the afternoon.” I would put many other phrases in this column that I
wanted to learn. That way I would be learning new phrases and grammar at the same
time. I also could practice them many ways.
Why are we practicing the simple present in many different ways? It is because,
eventually we will begin to associate the present simple with cue words, such as:
“always,” “never,” “sometimes,” and “often,” to name a few. This is good practice,
but it is only when we combine the present simple and present progressive into a
single sentence that our minds begin to make the necessary distinctions.
Let's start practicing the present progressive with the same chart. Now, we can
practice the present progressive many different ways too. Let's say we don't
remember “I am,” “You are,” He is,” “She is,” or “they are....” We can practice only
that (all in the same chart).
1 2 3 4 5 6

Saturdays
he (is) jogging right now Fridays
playing
These are the results:
I am running now.
You are running now.
We are running now.
You are running now.
They are running now.
He is running now.
She is running now.
If I know that well, which I suspect most people do, then I could practice with the
verbs in column 4. We are practicing only the green right now.
1 2 3 4 5

they always
running now
playing
He is running right now.

He is jogging right now.
He is riding right now.
He is playing soccer right now.
I could practice column 5 by keeping columns 1,2, and 4 the same, but we don't need
to do that. We could though. I would probably practice more by changing column 1
or column 5.
Now let's put it all together. We will practice the present simple and the present
progressive together:
1 2 3 4 5 6

Saturdays
playing
Practiced together it would look like this:
I usually run in the park on Mondays, but I am running in the park right now.
You usually run in the park on Mondays, but you are running in the park right now.
We usually run in the park on Mondays, but we are running in the park right now.
You usually run in the park on Mondays, but you are running in the park right now.
They usually run in the park on Mondays, but they are running in the park right now.
He usually runs in the park on Mondays, but he is running in the park right now.
She usually runs in the park on Mondays, but she is running in the park right now.
Now I could practice this many ways. For instance, I could change column 3 after
each practice. I could change column 6 too. There is no rule about how you have to
practice the chart. You practice the chart according to what weaknesses you have.
You practice until you develop automatic speech habits.
By putting the present simple and present progressive together into one sentence, we
are then able to contrast the differences. We don't contrast the differences based upon
knowledge of grammar rules, but by speaking. For instance, we know from speaking
experience that the present progressive does not use such words as: “always,”
“never,” “usually,” etc.
We know from speaking experience that we don't say: “He speaks right now.” That
sounds very strange. It sounds strange not because we memorized a rule. NO. It
sounds strange, because the speech we hear and have practiced do not contain such an
expression. This approximates how a child learns a language, not by burdening
himself with rules, but by listening and speaking.
Of course, the example above was a simple example of how I learn languages. The
purpose was not to get too complex, but to show you how you can study with the
charts from the simple all the way to the complex. It was to show you how you can
design charts to help you master any part of grammar in which you have not yet
developed as a speech habit. Remember, that is the whole point. We are learning
grammar as speech habits, not as rules.
That is exactly why that if I practice this many times, I will eventually begin to
automatically speak correctly. Often though, it is necessary to practice pieces of the
larger sentence you want to learn. In other words, you learn the small pieces by
themselves thoroughly and then and only then do you integrate them into the sentence
level.
Now I know that may sound complex and to a certain extent it is. If you have a
thorough knowledge of grammar (or an excellent grammar book) you can make your
own charts and do the same with any part of grammar that you like. The challenge is
that not everyone is a grammarian.
My students at www.englishmasteracademy.com benefit from my doing all the work

of setting up the charts. Everything they need to master is already done for them.
They don't need to worry about making anything. They just practice. So, if you can't
do it yourself, then you would need to find a native speaker who can. Practicing with
the charts is the easy part, making them usually is not.
Remember, you and I are not trying to learn to speak by memorizing rules. We are
learning rules through correct speech. That means that when we make the charts, we
have to be sure the grammar that goes into them is correct in the first place.
Now I know some of you may be feeling overwhelmed right now. The purpose of
this chapter is not to overwhelm you, but to show you that you can take any piece of
complex grammar and break it down into simple parts. You then learn the simple
parts. After that you put the simple parts back together into sentences.
Now if you are only learning individual phrases this is very hard to do. When we put
everything into a chart it is then and only then that we can make distinctions between
different pieces of grammar. That is exactly why you can learn to speak so much
faster with this system.
You see, a child who has learned his or her native language has had years of
experience hearing and mentally making distinctions about the grammar he or she
was hearing and speaking. A non-native speaker does not have this luxury. The
necessary distinctions that need to be made must be made in the chart. This is
because you aren't able to make these distinctions from individually memorized
phrases. In other words, you can't easily make them individual phrases or rules of
grammar that you memorized.
So what we are doing in the charts is making the distinctions that a native speaker
would have done through years of experience hearing and speaking the language.
Because we have no such experience, we approximate it in the chart. I know that is
pretty deep, but it is so important.
If we don't do it this way, we are going to spend so much more time learning a
language, because we aren't able to compare and contrast the phrases we have
learned. They are essentially individual islands in a vast ocean. No, we must
compare and contrast everything we learn with other parts of grammar. That is
exactly how we arrive at fluency in the shortest time possible.
The great thing about the charts is that it allows you to practice multiple sentences
within one main grammatical structure. As you practice the various vocabulary, and
phrases within the one structure, you are learning the structure as a habit and
learning vocabulary at the same time.
This is what I meant by climbing the language mountain. The steep, or hard to climb
parts we break down into easily doable small-sized pieces. That way the climbing, or
learning is so much easier. In the next chapter, I will use English examples to show
you how you can make your own charts to skyrocket your language learning ability.
Chapter 4
“Stop Studying English And Start Training Like An

Professional Athlete”
I admire musical artists and sports stars. While I might not always admire how they
live their lives, I definitely admire the mastery with which they perform their given
crafts. I especially admire soccer players like Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal and
Ronaldinho from Brazil. They display incredible skill on the field, but guess what?
It's probably safe to say that the vast majority of their skill was not learned from a
book, but from hard work and hours of practicing the fundamentals.
This is true with any performer who has achieved great success. They have practiced
the fundamentals of their games and arts, until the performance is automatic. Soccer
players do hours and hours of skill practice. Musicians practice scales and other
fundamentals. Learning a language is no different.
How much thought do professional sports people and artists do when they have to
perform? Virtually none. When performance time comes, all the hours and hours of
practice take over. The hours of practice were done so that when the performance
time came, they could do it automatically.
The chief weakness of traditional methods of learning English is just that. There
really isn't a good way to practice the fundamentals. Sure you can learn grammar
rules, study vocabulary, and maybe study a phrase book, but there is no system to
practice a language like a professional athlete perfects the fundamentals. There is no
way to practice the fundamentals to absolute mastery. That is what we who want to
speak well are pursuing.
Please don't misunderstand me. I believe in listening courses like the famed Pimsleur
method and other such audio-lingual methods. I like to study grammar books. Some
people think I am sick and that's all right. These courses, however good they may be,
are still the traditional method I talked about earlier. In other words, I learn a phrase,
but I don't learn how to apply it on a broad scale. I might be able to apply it five or
so ways and then my learning screeches to a halt.
With the chart system you can practice whatever language you want to learn until,
just like a professional athlete or artist, you can do correctly and most importantly
automatically.
The system I am proposing in this book is nothing new. I learned the basics of it
from studying linguistic books. Actually, I used charts to analyze the grammar of
some of the world's minority languages from Papua New Guinea and some in Africa.
Basically, what we did was take a lot of sentences of the languages and analyzed
them. We basically wrote a grammar for the languages we were studying This was a
pretty fun process.
Here's the point though: I was not interested in writing out the descriptions of the
grammar we were working on. I was interested on how to apply these same charts to
learning languages. The charts taught me to see the grammar of a language as a
visual whole. Earlier I talked about the form/function correlation or relationship.
What this relationship allows us to do is to expand from one example sentence and
learn a whole chapter of grammar.
What I mean is this: One sentence contains a code, much like DNA contains the code
for a much larger organism. With just a little piece of code we can construct a larger
organism, meaning many sentences with that same structure. I'll give you an example
and then I'll tell you why this is so important.
For instance: I am reading a book and I come across a structure that I don't know
very well. Let's just make up one:
“Before I went to the movies, I had already done my homework.”
We already know the meanings of the individual words, but maybe we cannot speak
it as a habit. We understand the meaning of “went” and “had done”, but we still don't
really know how to use it.
This one sentence will become the DNA code for a whole chart. This is because the
form/function correlations within a language do not vary much. That is why I said
that you can form a whole chapter of a grammar book with just one sentence.
Let's make a chart: The example sentence is on the top.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Before I went to the movies I had already done my homework
you to town you previously your housework
we to the game we our
they school they washed their car **
he he his
she she her
**The phrases,“done homework” and “done housework” are separate from “washed
car,” obviously.
As you have seen in previous chapters, we can now practice this chart in many ways.
There is no one correct method. A key point we also need to remember is that we
don't have to worry about correct grammar. It is already in the chart. It is already in
the DNA code from our example sentence.
At this point, if I don't understand the grammar, I will look in the grammar book
which will tell me that we use “had done” to express the fact that something
happened before something else. Now, I am not going to stress myself about learning
this as a rule. All I need is the basic information to understand the meaning. I will
learn the grammar as a habit by practicing the chart.
We can add many new phrases to columns 8 and 10 depending on what we want to
learn. We could also add many more things to column 4. It all depends on what you
want to learn.
Now we will practice this chart many ways, until the grammar becomes part of our
mind. We condition the habit of grammar through repetition (NOT THROUGH
READING). Let's look at a few ways to practice this chart.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
he he his
she she her
As you can see here, we are only practicing the personal pronouns, everything else
stays the same. You will find that after practicing this way for a few days, that new
habits are developing. This is great. Why?
Because This Newly Formed Habit Is The DNA For Speaking An

Unlimited Amount Of Sentences With The Same Structure
If this is too much to learn all at once, no problem let's just practice it piece by piece.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
he he his
she she her
The next time I practice this, I would substitute column 7 or column 10.
Or you can practice it this way:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
he he his
she she her
The next time I practice this, I just substitute column 4.
Try practicing this way from phrases memorized in your head. It's next to
impossible.
We're not done yet. There are so many ways we can practice this chart. Let's look at
another one:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
he he his
she she her
“Before I went to the movies I had already done your housework.”

“Before I went to the movies I had already done their housework.” (No, thanks!)
“Before I went to the movies I had already washed his car.”
Next time you practice change columns 2 or 4. The combinations are many.
Listen: I could practice with this one chart for 45 minutes and still have
something to learn. No joke.
Now I can practice sentences where someone does something for someone else.
Again, I could add many more phrases to columns 8 and 10 to practice new words
within this grammar structure.
The above charts are exactly why I believe most methods of learning a foreign
language waste valuable resources. It's like the time I was in Northwest Africa, I
carried clean drinking water with me, because the public water was polluted. There
was no way I would waste one drop of that water.
In the same way, learning just one phrase by itself is a waste, because you are
throwing away its DNA if you don't learn to apply it on all levels. That was not a
great analogy, but I hope you understood what I was trying to communicate.
With traditional methods there is just no way to train like a professional athlete or an
artist. Because there have not been sufficient means to do so, most students have
been stuck with traditional methodologies. Hopefully, you can take a few ideas from
this chapter and apply them to your own studies.
If you practice in the way suggested above, you will not believe how much progress
you can make in your language learning goals. I want to close this chapter with 4
points about the power of these charts.
1) Practicing with the charts will give you years of speaking experience in just a
few months time. Think about it. Most students don't know how to practice
outside of memorizing rules and vocabulary, because they have never been
exposed to a method like this.
2) Practicing with the charts guarantees that when you practice, everything you
say will be grammatically correct. The correct grammar is derived from the
DNA code of the original sentence. (If you make your own charts, consult a
knowledgeable native speaker if you need to.)
3) Practicing with the charts will allow you to make distinctions by comparing
and contrasting different parts of grammar and vocabulary while you speak.
This is important because much of our knowledge is gained by comparison and
contrasts.
4) Learning new vocabulary is best done within a grammar structure. In other
words, if you put the new vocabulary into the chart system, your mind will
remember it easier because it is connected to a meaningful context. The words
we know have meaning in relation to other words, therefore learning them in
isolation is counterproductive.
It is my hope that you understood what I meant when I said: “Stop Studying English
And Start Training Like A Professional Athlete Or An Artist.” With a little practice or
help you can make charts to virtually explode how fast and well you can learn a
language. I don't mean just knowing a bunch of rules and phrases either. I mean real
ability to think and speak a foreign language like a professional, because you have
trained like one.
Chapter 5
“Why Learning Grammar As A Generative Principle

Is The Fastest Way To Language Mastery”
Don't let the chapter title confuse you. What is this thing, grammar as a “generating
principle?” In this chapter I am going to explain why this method of learning a
language is by far the fastest and best way to learn a language. Not only that, I am
going to show you why even learning the simplest of grammar as a habit and not as a
rule will help you achieve fluency very quickly.
So what is this idea of learning grammar as a generative principle. I've talked a lot
about this idea in the previous chapters, so you already have a good idea of what it is.
Now we are going to expand on it.
First though let me give you a simple definition. Now professional linguistics might
call it something like “deep structure,” but for our purpose in this book we will call it
this:
The grammar habits you have formed through repeated grammar use (spoken
grammar) that allows you to automatically make an unlimited amount of
sentences.
What we are doing with the charts is forming habits with the language so that you
can ultimately become creative. I've said this before, but it is worth repeating,
studying grammar through memorization and written exercises does not develop this
kind of habit. In fact...
The Only Way To Develop Creativity With A Language Is By

Learning The Grammar Through Speaking. Period!
Let's look at an example. I am going to use a simple example, because students who
have studied English for a while think it is ridiculous to practice speaking with easy
examples.
You know what? The vast majority of the time, these same people have not
developed competence or great ability with even the simplest of grammar structures.
My point is:
IF YOU CANNOT SPEAK THESE SENTENCES WITHOUT THINKING...IF YOU
CANNOT GENERATE HUNDREDS OF SENTENCES WITH JUST ONE
STRUCTURE....YOU DON'T KNOW IT.
I don't know how many times I have heard the excuse:
“Oh, I already know that. I don't want to waste my time studying easy
grammar. Shawn, you are insulting my intelligence with easy exercises.”
As I stated earlier, complex grammar is merely simple grammar put together, so the
better you learn simple grammar (by practice not by memorization of rules), the
better you'll be able to speak difficult grammar. Besides, we are not studying
grammar as rules to be learned, we are training grammar into our brains so that
we can speak without thinking.
In other words, the people who make this argument, generally are still operating
under the assumption of learning to speak via the same traditional means we talked
about earlier. As soon as this thinking is dead and buried, the faster these same
students can really start to learn to speak.
Let us look at a chart from one of my lessons on “There is...,” and “There are...”
Lesson 2: “There is” and “There are”
1 2 3 4
There is one (a) green glass(es)
There are five yellow bottle(s)
four blue clock(s)
twenty red shoe(s)
many black dress(es)
There isn’t a lot of purple pen(s)
There aren’t a few brown basket(s)
a couple of pink
a pair of
In this chart we are training with many different ways to make sentences with “There
is,” “There are,” “There isn't,” and “There aren't.” There are several ways to practice
this chart.
Like I said before, we are not reading. The student would write the highlighted
words on a separate piece of paper and use the chart to check his or her answers.
The main point of the practice is to be able to use “There is,” “There are,” “There is,”
and “There isn't” with a large variety of words.
Now some people might be saying right now: “So what?” “All you have made are a
few easy sentences.” That is true, but very short-sighted. You have to see beyond the
simple exercises to see the main goal. By training with this chart and making simple
sentences, we gradually develop our ability to speak these simple sentences
automatically and without thinking.
What is so special about that? Remember when we talked about the DNA of a
sentence? We said that we should never waste the DNA of a sentence. When we
practice the charts this very DNA becomes part of our language ability (if we practice
correctly).
Most importantly, it becomes a generative principle. This principle HAS A MUCH

BROADER SCOPE than just the few simple sentences we practiced. In other words,
the words we use in the chart are not the final goal. The goal is to learn the principles
by which we can....
Make Thousands of Sentences By Learning Just One Principle
The traditional method of learning phrases, vocabulary words, and grammar does not
have this generative capability. Why? Because when you learn grammar rules,
individual words and phrases you have to remember them to speak them.
When we practice the grammar in the charts we are learning the principle by which
we can make thousands of sentences without trying to remember any particular
sentence we studied. Once the principle is in our minds, we are free from the tyranny
of remembering rules and words/phrases in order to be able to speak.
Let me explain what I mean by the DNA of a sentence a little better. After that I will
show you how a little DNA can form thousands of organisms (sentences).
Next page, please.
1 2 3 4
four blue clock(s)
twenty red shoe(s)
a couple of pink
a pair of
As you can see in this example there are four columns. Under each of these columns
there are various words. For example under column 2, we see: “one,” “five,” “four,”
“twenty,” “many,” “a lot of,” “a few,” “a couple of,” and “a pair of.” We see many
variations under every column. In other words, we see many different words with
different meanings.
Therefore, when we speak of DNA we are saying that the words in each column have
a similar function to the DNA sequence of the original sentence. In other words,
column 2 deals with numbers or quantity; column 3 deals with adjectives (like
colors); and column 4 deals with nouns.
Now, if we memorize only the original sentence we throw away the broad range of
words and meaning that we could have learned if we had used the DNA to the fullest
extent (the chart).
Why is this important? It is because when we practice the various combinations

within the same DNA our minds begin to grasp the grammar beneath all the different
combinations. We are learning how to apply the DNA of the sentence not as a boat
adrift in the middle of an ocean, but as an interconnected whole.
Here is where all of this is leading: We are not concerned about the few sentences we
have practiced. We are mainly concerned about acquiring the grammar habit. By
ingraining the DNA of the sentence into our minds, we can generate thousands of
sentences easily with this same structure.
At this point, our creativity is only limited by the vocabulary we know. What we
mean by the DNA then, is that within this one generative principle there are hundreds
of other nouns we could use. Basically stated, we can use 1000's of nouns that go
with this structure.
Rather than just learning a couple of phrases and stopping, we now have a structure
in our minds, an automatic habit with which we can practice thousands of words that
we want to learn. By practicing vocabulary within the grammar chart we are
accomplishing many things at the same time.
First, we are able to study words and remember them much more easily, because the
words are connected to a meaningful sentence. This is how we learned our own
language as a child. Words are used in relation to other words. Put into a meaningful
context the words we are studying will be remembered so much faster.
Second, we will be able to use the words we studied, because we first used them in a
sentence, not individually. I can't even begin to count the students I know who
memorize vocabulary word after vocabulary word and still can't use them in real
sentences.
Third, by using several different words in the grammar charts, our grammar ability
improves rapidly. By comparing and contrasting different words in the same chart we
are both learning the words and intuitively learning the grammar.
In contrast, the student who merely memorizes individual words has not developed
grammar as a habit and still does not know how to use the words. He or she has to
think about the words meaning and then remember the appropriate sentence to use the
word with.
This method requires way too much thinking. No. What we must do is this: Put the
words we are learning into many different kinds of charts (various grammar charts).
When we learn in this way, we are expanding both our speaking ability and ability to
use the vocabulary.
Let's look at the original chart again and see how we can expand it:
1 2 3 4
four blue clock(s)
twenty red shoe(s)
a couple of pink
a pair of
1 2 3 4
There is one (a) plastic shower cap(s)
There are five yellow can(s) of deodorant
four plastic bottle(s) of perfume
twenty glass jar(s) of moisturizing cream
many black barrette(s)
There isn’t a lot of purple nail clipper(s)
There aren’t a few brown bottle(s) of nail polish
a couple of pink
a pair of
Of course we can't use every adjective in column 3 with the nouns in column 4. The
point I am trying to make here is that these types of sentences will now be very easy
to make. They will gradually become automatic, if they are not already, because we
have first practiced with the first chart above.
On the grammar level, we have already learned the pattern by practicing it. Now that
we have developed a grammar habit with this structure we can apply it in thousands
of ways. With the traditional “memorize the rules” method, students do not get
enough practice to speak automatically.
As I said before, we can make these new sentences easily, because we first learned
the grammar habit to our minds. We don't have to remember a single rule to make
these sentences, just like you don't have to remember the grammar to speak your own
language. We have eliminated all this unnecessary thinking, because we learned the
correct grammar intuitively through the charts, NOT BY MEMORIZING RULES.
Here is the main point: Instead of being able to speak a couple of phrases that we
memorized, we can now speak thousands of sentences only limited to the vocabulary
we know.
Here is an analogy to explain this better: There was a farmer that explained to his son
why they must not eat all the corn they harvested. It was because...
THE FUTURE HARVEST WAS IN THE SEED
From a few handfuls of seeds grew fields of corn. If you eat the seeds there is no
reason to expect a large harvest.
In the same way, learning with this method is a lot like planting seeds. Learning
grammar as a generative principle is like the small seeds which when planted yield a
large harvest.
So where do we find the DNA (seed) to start planting our crops (language ability)? I
often use grammar brooks with example sentences. It also depends upon what your
level is. Here is what I do in addition to grammar books. While I primarily use the
grammar book, sometimes I get a book that is easy. I find sentences that I would like
to learn to speak fluently. (See the scanned material for further reference.)
Now, I expect a certain number of you may be thinking: “This all sounds good, but I
really don't know whether I can make these charts. After all, how can I make charts
for a language that I don't fully know yet?”
I understand that. I trained in linguistics for two years at a special school, so it might
be easier for me. Let me encourage you to make the charts though...EVEN IF THEY
ARE BASIC. This is truly the best way to learn grammar as a habit. If you need to,
get help from a native speaker.
If you don't have access to a native speaker, you'll have to buy all the grammar books
to help you do that. I can't tell you which books to buy, because I don't know what
language you want to study. In order to really cut off years of time that it takes you to
learn a language, you'll want to practice every day with the charts (even if it is for
only 10-20 minutes).
For those of you who want to learn English, I recommend my site:

www.englishmasteracademy.com . I have made all the charts for you, all you have to
do is practice. Each lesson (even the easier ones) would take about 2-3 months to
master. Again, this all depends on your study habits. Studying a language is
something you should do every day. You have to keep up the momentum and never
stop.
Addendum
“How To Train Language Into Your Brain With This

System”
By now, you should have a pretty good idea of how to use the system, because much
of the system was in the previous chapters. Remember: Everything we do with the
charts orbits around one central goal...
Learning Grammar As A Habit, Not As Rules
Therefore, when you and I practice these charts we aren't going to be reading. We
already know how to do that. No. We are going to practice one grammar structure
with many easy words until we can speak automatically.
“And what do we do after that?” you may ask. We substitute all the simple words
with new words we want to learn. I showed you this in the last chapter. We can
literally learn to use 1000's of words with one chart. That is why it is important to
have 100's of charts too.
The learning doesn't stop after we have learned the simple words. We only used to
the simple words to learn the structure, or the grammar. Remember, what we learn
from the charts is only the beginning. The lesson never ends, because there are so
many more words to learn. Now the real learning begins.
I said that to say this: On my website there are lessons with simple charts. Some
people may think that these charts insult their intelligence. No. What better way to
learn difficult words than by using easy charts. We don't want to learn difficult words
with the difficult charts. Remember, we learned the grammar with easy words. Now
we are going to learn the difficult words with easy charts. So even if the grammar in
the charts is easy, the easy charts are great for learning difficulty words.
Of course not every chart can be used for every word. That is why we need 100's of
them. That is why you should keep all of your charts in one or two notebooks, so
that when you are learning vocabulary, you can plug the new words into the existing
charts.
It is just like a car mechanic has 100's of tools, many of which he never uses.
Sometimes though, a customer comes into the shop with a specific car problem that
can only be fixed with the tool the mechanic does not often use. In that instance, the
tool becomes very valuable. So it is with the charts too.
I cannot stress enough the importance of a good dictionary. A good dictionary will
have the correct pronunciation (not an approximation of the correct pronunciation
like you will find in the cheap dictionaries.) Those kinds of dictionaries do not
promote accurate pronunciation. You will end up speaking the target language like
you speak your own language. A good dictionary will use the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) or its equivalent. There is nothing worse than trying to learn a
language and not knowing how to pronounce the words.
The dictionary will also have good example sentences and various uses of words with
other words. I often use these sentences as my DNA to construct charts.
Let's say that I want to learn all the ways that I can use the word “take” in English. I
want to make a chart, but my dictionary only has a few entries. This is where a
collocation dictionary comes in handy (A useful one in English is Collins Cobuild).
Under the entry “take,” we can see all the ways it is used (see the “take” pdf for an
example.)
Next we integrate this new information into the charts that we already have, or we
can make new ones. It doesn't matter. It all depends on your learning goals. We can
take one example sentence and expand it, or we can integrate the several meanings
(or phrases) into existing charts.
Now, why do we use the collocation dictionary? We use it, because it saves us hours
of wasted study time. We learn how the words are actually used. The DNA comes
ready made. It is the difference between eating dinner at a restaurant or having to
prepare, cook, and then clean up by yourself. I don't know about you, but I would
rather have someone else do all the work.
If we can integrate several different meanings or phrases of the same word into the
same chart that is great. We can't always do that. It is beneficial if you can get
several of the meanings into one chart. That way you can compare and contrast the
meanings together. You will learn a lot faster that way.
I want to talk a little about grammar books too. Most grammar books will give you a
decent knowledge of the language. I wouldn't spend too much money on them. For
our purposes we are interested in grammar books that will take a lot of the work out
of making charts. I would buy a grammar book for reference—something that is not
too complicated.
The most important book to get though is a good course book that has drills. I am
talking about substitution drills, completion drills, comparison/contrast drills that
force your brain to think in the target language. Due to space requirements, these
books almost never give you enough to develop fluency, but they are extremely
useful. With these kinds of books you can develop hundreds of charts to practice in
a matter of days. Actually, just five charts would keep you busy for a week or two.
You'll know one when you see one, because there will be a grammar explanation
section and then pages full of drills.
Many of these courses have dialogues. I personally don't recommend memorizing

the dialogues in those courses. Practicing with the charts is 10 times better than
memorizing dialogues, because you aren't learning the DNA when you do that. I
personally use dialogues for listening activities, or for pronunciation practice.
Practice with the charts and you'll be able to make 100's of your own dialogues while
the regular student can only recite was he or she has memorized. Your choice!
I hope this book helped you understand how you learn languages better. If you have
any questions you can email me at shawn@englishmasteracademy.com .

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“How You Can Learn Any Language In A Fraction

Of The Time You Spend Learning By Traditional

Shawn Glenn Ongley

Grammar Is More A Habit To Be Practiced Than

In my thinking, grammar is a habit to be practiced, more so than rules to be learned.

Now the “grammar is rules to be learned” approach is ok if you are interested in

This is a foundational question, because if language is a habit to be practiced, then

The challenge of learning another language is that there is sometimes a wide

Is A Formal Knowledge Of Grammar Really

Let me show you an example. In this example I am a student learning English. I

Now we will practice present and past tense.

Today I have 10 yellow pencil(s) but

That would be a waste. My whole goal is to learn the underlying grammatical

Now we will practice present and past tense.

he has a few big

On a little piece of paper I would write:

Today I have 10 pencils.

Now we will practice present and past tense.

-This evening I have 10 yellow pencils.

Next page please.

Now we will practice present and past tense.

Or you can change column 5. Do as you like.

Now we will practice present and past tense.

This evening I have a lot of yellow erasers.

See the chart on the next page, please.

I am a teacher at heart, but not one by education. My college background was in

My Spanish teacher, William Kromer, was an excellent teacher. He gave me a love

How The Grammar Chart System Helps You Destroy

I (am) usually run(s) in the park but

you (are) sometimes jog(s) at school

I (am) usually run(s) in the park but

you (are) sometimes jog(s) at school

I usually run in the morning.

I (am) usually run(s) in the park on Fridays but

He sometimes runs in the morning on Fridays.

I (am) usually run(s) in the park on Fridays but

He sometimes rides a bike in the park on Saturdays.

I (am) usually run(s) in the park on Fridays but

These are the results:

I (am) usually run(s) in the park but

you (are) sometimes jog(s) at school

He is running right now.

I (am) usually run(s) in the park on Fridays but

Practiced together it would look like this:

My students at www.englishmasteracademy.com benefit from my doing all the work

“Stop Studying English And Start Training Like An

“Before I went to the movies, I had already done my homework.”

Let's make a chart: The example sentence is on the top.

Because This Newly Formed Habit Is The DNA For Speaking An

Or you can practice it this way:

The next time I practice this, I just substitute column 4.

“Before I went to the movies I had already done your housework.”

“Why Learning Grammar As A Generative Principle

The Only Way To Develop Creativity With A Language Is By

IF YOU CANNOT SPEAK THESE SENTENCES WITHOUT THINKING...IF YOU

I don't know how many times I have heard the excuse:

Lesson 2: “There is” and “There are”

Most importantly, it becomes a generative principle. This principle HAS A MUCH

Make Thousands of Sentences By Learning Just One Principle

Next page, please.

Why is this important? It is because when we practice the various combinations

THE FUTURE HARVEST WAS IN THE SEED

For those of you who want to learn English, I recommend my site: