This part is written for Dutch who want to learn a new language, if you are not Dutch you can put your mother tongue instead of Dutch.

I regard language as a system that consists of building blocks. If you want to learn a second language, you will need to know the names and the functions of the building blocks of the Dutch language (or of your mother tongue). The building blocks are the parts of a sentence when sentence parsing and you need to know their names and in which sequence they stand.

I call the parts within the building blocks word classes. Having knowledge of the grammatical terminology (building blocks and word classes) of your own language, makes you aware of the structure of your own language. This makes it much easier to learn the structure of the language to be learned. If you have a thorough knowledge of language structure, you will have a toolbox with the right tools to solve your own language problems in the language to be learned. With the result that you know which building blocks or word classes you are dealing with.

If you want to look up information independently about your language problem (question) you need to know the names of the building blocks and word classes in the language to be learned. Once learned, you can apply this basic knowledge as starting point for every language to be learned.

Why should you learn this?

You will always need grammar when learning a foreign language. Grammar is found in all four parts of foreign language learning: speaking, reading, listening and writing. You need grammar to understand the structure of the language to be learned and to apply it in the language to be learned. Once understood the structure of your own mother tongue with accompanying terminology, a foreign language is easier to be learned. Moreover, you will discover the differences and similarities between your mother tongue and the foreign language.