The Basics of the English Language

Native speakers routinely and effortlessly speak their own language. They don't talk in terms of subject, verb, predicate, direct or indirect objects and so on. They learned that practice from the time they started speaking their language -from their parents and their peers. Their minds then were empty and like a dry sponge that absorbed anything and everything that came in touch with it! They imitated and repeated everything they heard. It was only later on in school, as they studied the basics and the syntax of their own language did they come to realize and see why they talked in the manner they did and why their spoken sentences have been understandable all along. An adult, however, acquires a second language a little bit differently. His mind quite simply demands the "rationale", the "how and the why" of an understandable symbolic sentence. It starts by learning the basics of a language first and foremost, before any attempt to construct phrases and sentences -let alone speak in the language -can begin. This text was written with those thoughts in mind. The language used is simple -not simplistic -something that an adult learner can easily read and comprehend. The principles are explained in easily understandable words -all supported by imitate-able examples. The short stories given at the end of some chapters are narratives a learner can easily absorbed, relate and enjoy. The text encourages him to tell those same stories to himself/herself or to their children using a mixture of his/her own words and words taken from the stories. It is a great builder of self confidence as the learner tries to speak in his newly acquired second language.