When we want to learn English, whether it’s to recall our memory because we haven’t studied again for a long time, or it is just about to start at all, we are often faced with dilemmas and questions about which one is better to study: grammar or speaking? Basically, there are many methods studied in learning English. Although different, the goal remains the same, namely being able to speak English. However, grammar or speaking “debates” often occur, at least according to personal experience belonging to an English community. Many members join the community with the intention of learning or deepening their English language skills. In it, there are those who say that speaking up is very important because they will quickly be able to use English at least in daily use. The new “problem” appears when the writing session. Many do not use grammar properly. Then, does it mean that grammar is more important first? The answer can vary. 

The grammar itself is very synonymous with English. This is because the rules of grammar in English are called grammar. English is a language with a complex grammar. There are at least 12-16 tenses in English which are used to describe different times and conditions. With so many rules, it’s not surprising that we find it quite difficult to learn them. The advantage of learning grammar at the beginning is that we can know when and what conditions can be used when we want to speak English. As we know, English has different verbs according to the adverbs of time. If Indonesians use the word eat all the time, then English does not. The root word “eat” which means “to eat”, will change to “ate” if you eat it yesterday. Not only there, there is also “eaten” for the third form of “eat”.  

By learning grammar at the beginning, we can also learn better speaking. With mastery of grammar, speaking will be more focused in rules and language. This will certainly make it easier if you want to speak publicly in English or speak directly to foreigners. Talking about the advantages will be followed by the disadvantages. Learning grammar at the beginning may be more time consuming. This is because of the complexity of the grammar in English. 

Speaking means to speak. That is, whatever will be said in communicating in English is speaking. Of course, if we use the original language such as Indonesian, we can master speaking in Indonesian. It’s different if you must speak in English. We certainly have difficulty if we rarely or never practice speaking in English. Based on experience in the English community, learning to speak at the beginning will give you the advantage of being mentally strong to start and communicate using English. With speaking practice, usually people can insert Indonesian (mixed) if they don’t know the vocabulary of a word. This is very natural because of course there are many vocabularies that have not been mastered considering the many words in English. 

Learning to speak at the beginning also provides benefits for participating in events in the English community. Because the English community uses 100% English, at least all members should be able to try to speak English even if it is mixed with Indonesian for words they don’t know. 

In learning English, there are many different methods that can be used to achieve this goal. However, for “debate” which one is better, all methods certainly have pluses and minuses if you only study one section for a long time, such as the grammar section or speaking only. All aspects of the English language should be studied for the best results.