1.2 Tacit vs Focal Grammar Knowledge

• Educated native English speakers have the tacit internal grammatical system (Hartwell's Grammar 1) and knowledge of linguistic etiquette (Grammar 3) that ensures they speak and write grammatically and appropriately.

In other words, you know what is right and what is wrong by instinct. However, you may not be able to explain the reasons behind. For example, if you hear a child saying "I goed there yesterday", you know it's wrong and the correct sentence should be "I went there yesterday". But if being asked why, how would you explain?

• Grammarians and non-native speakers of English possess explicit analytical knowledge of grammar (Grammar 2).

We may not speak or write with the perfect grammar, but we know the grammatical rules and can explain why a sentence is right or wrong.

• For pre-service English teachers, writers, and editors, acquiring Grammar 2 and school grammar (Grammar 4) can raise their metalinguistic awareness of grammar and help them improve their spoken and written communication skills.

School grammar is mostly about prescriptive rules that formal writing and speaking should follow.