“Why are we learning this grammar?”

This is a question I get asked sometimes and I was asked again recently. It usually concerns an area of grammar we are studying. In this case, it was the present perfect (I have been to Brazil / I have been studying English for five years etc).

The question really made me think. I think the crux of the question was, what role does grammar play in the communication process? Aren’t speaking and making yourself understood the most important things? 

Are speaking and grammar mutually exclusive? I would say no.

My answer in the case of the present perfect was that this is important in identifying a link between the past and present, in a way the simple past does not. So that is why we are learning this, as, without this knowledge, there could be confusion regarding time.

Learning grammar here makes communication clearer for the receiver and helps you articulate exactly what you want to say. The better your grammar, the better you can be understood.

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