Parts of Speech

When the idea of the traditional eight parts of speech comes to mind, flashbacks to sitting in the back row of my middle school English language class flourish through my brain. I don't remember too much about them today, however I do know that it was drilled into my brain until we could fully understand and use them all. The eight parts of speech: such a key component of language, yet such a complicated piece of my learning career. Out of all eight of the parts of speech, the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection, the ones that I remember the most are the verb and the noun. I am not quite sure how such basic ideas of language can be so complicated to actually explain. My previous days of schooling were definitely not the most challenging or puzzling. So how is it that I use these in depth concepts in daily conversations? I honestly think that in my earlier school days, we simply discussed all of these eight parts of our language and never actually were shown how they are all connected. As I look back now, the approach to teaching the basic patterns of the English language, such as these key parts of speech, have never been too effective. These parts of speech constantly keep being brought up in my daily life yet somewhere along the lines, we get caught up in simply knowing the parts of speech rather than being able to use them effectively on our pieces of written work. All of these great facts have no purpose if we are unable to use them in our daily lives. Reminiscing back to this seemingly simple concept really does stress how important proper grammar and knowing how to make the eight parts of speech useful truly is. As a student entering the world of learning again, the importance of being a good writer and being well-spoken increasingly influences my life. To be a good writer is one thing, to honestly know what you're trying to portray through your work is a completely