native speaker. It takes time and repetition, but point-of-view stories give
you the most effective training for spoken grammar mastery.
The Psychological Benefits
We have discussed the benefits of point-of-view stories to your English.
These are significant. However, the psychological benefits of these stories
are perhaps even more powerful.
For most learners, abstract grammar study is one of the most painful
aspects of studying English. Most people find grammar study to be boring,
confusing and frustrating. Many dread the idea of trying to memorize yet
another grammar rule. Most English learners have bad memories of grammar
lessons and grammar tests.
Grammar study has a way of making intelligent people feel stupid. They
study and memorize countless conjugations. They analyze the use of English
articles, prepositions, countable and uncountable nouns. Yet, when it’s time
to actually speak, they find themselves constantly making mistakes. Even
though they “know” the grammar, they struggle to use it. “What’s wrong
with me?” they ask themselves. “I know this.”
They are not stupid. They have simply confused knowledge with skill.
Leave grammar knowledge to the professional linguists. Your job is to
acquire grammar skill intuitively, and point-of-view stories are the best way
to do that.
Practice Exercise
Here’s a fun way to create your own point-of-view stories. Find a simple
story about something that interests you. The story might contain a few
words or phrases that you don’t understand and have to look up in a
dictionary. However, it should be easy. Five new words is the maximum that
should appear in the story.
Now, show this story to your English teacher, or an English-speaking
friend. Ask them to rewrite the story from different points of view. They will
write different versions for at least the past, the present and the future. After
