The Romanian language's grammar often poses difficulties for students, a fact evident in the Baccalaureate and National Evaluation exams. It's not just the young who struggle; adults also show gaps in their understanding, as seen on social media.
In an era of rapid communication and social media influence, understanding grammar is crucial. Following essential rules can help children improve exam scores and adults avoid embarrassment in social or professional settings.
To explore why grammar is so challenging, how it can be learned logically, and how it should be taught more effectively, we spoke with Corina Popa. She is a university lecturer and doctor at the Center of Excellence in Image Studies within the Faculty of Letters at the University of Bucharest, and the initiator of the "Grammar School" educational project.
Corina Popa explains, "Grammar is not just a list of rules, but also a way of thinking about and within a language." Many students are taught to memorize definitions instead of understanding how the language works. This makes grammar seem dull and rigid, when it is, in fact, a logical map of the language. If you don't understand the relationships between words and the logic behind structures, you can easily get lost, especially in morphology and syntax. Students should be encouraged to observe the mechanisms of the language, ask questions, and test grammatical hypotheses. In other words, they should move from a passive model – where the rule is memorized – to an active one – where the rule is understood, applied, and discussed. Only then does grammar become a functional tool of thought and not just a subject to be checked off on an exam.