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In retrospect it scarcely seems surprising that learning to underline a modal verb, such as "can", "should" and "may", does little to help students use them effectively in their own writing.
回过头来看，学会划出情态动词（如“can”，“should”和“may”）对学生在自己的写作中有效运用它们几乎没什么帮助这一点似乎并不令人惊讶。
These words are anyway grasped by tiny children without the need to know what they are called.
小孩子不管用什么方法其实都能掌握这些词，而且不需要知道它们被叫作什么。
This may tempt the conclusion that the teaching of grammar should be shelved altogether.
这可能会引出语法教学应该被完全废除这样的结论。
But there are reasons to reform it rather than scrap it.
但相较于废除，我们更有理由对其进行改革。
Understanding of language is part of a wider education in what makes human beings human.
对语言的理解是更广泛的教育的一部分，即什么使人成为人。
How concepts are turned into sounds, and how those sounds combine to form propositions, commands or questions, are issues that have occupied many linguists in philosophy departments.
概念是如何转化成声音的，这些声音又是如何组合成观点、命令或问题的，这是哲学系的许多语言学家一直关注的问题。
What they reveal about the mind has exercised psychologists and cognitive scientists.
它们揭示了关于心灵的什么？这一问题一直困扰着心理学家和认知科学家。
There are practical reasons to ask children to grapple with grammar, too.
让孩子们努力学习语法也有实用方面的原因。
One is that an explicit knowledge of it will make learning a foreign language easier.
其中一点是明确了解语法会使学习一门外语变得更容易。
Even if you did intuit how to make subordinate clauses in your native languages as a toddler -- just without instruction -- getting to grips with them in German or Russian in later years is simpler if you know how to define and spot them.
即使你在很小的时候凭直觉就知道如何用母语造出从句——在完全没有指导的情况下——但如果你知道如何定义和辨别从句，那么在长大之后掌握德语或俄语里的从句就会更简单。
As it is, many English-speakers come to understand grammar by studying a foreign language, rather than the other way round.
事实上，许多说英语的人是通过学习一门外语来理解语法的，而不是反过来。
For grammarians keen on the jobs of the future, the field of natural-language processing is booming.
对于热衷于研究未来工作的语法学家来说，自然语言处理领域正在蓬勃发展。
After many years of poor results, technological wizards have devised programs for automated translation, speech recognition (as in dictation software) and other services that are actually usable, if far from perfect.
在多年的不理想的结果之后，技术奇才们已经设计出了提供自动翻译、语音识别（如听写软件）以及其他服务的程序，这些程序虽然远远算不上完美，但实际上是有用的。
These tools may rely more on knowledge of artificial intelligence than of the subjunctive, but linguistic expertise still matters, and may give budding programmers an edge over rivals whose best language is Python.
这些工具或许更多地依赖于人工智能的知识，而不是虚拟的知识，但语言专业知识仍然很重要，并且它可能会使新手程序员比那些只擅长编程语言而不懂其它语言（最擅长的语言是Python）的对手更具优势。
Grammar could still be taught better.
仍然有更好的教语法的方式。
One small study showed improvement in some students when concepts are linked concretely to writing tasks.
一项小规模的研究表明，当概念与写作任务被具体地联系起来时，一些学生的表现会有所提升。
Even so, it may never be easy to point to a widget-output increase that results directly from improved tuition.
即便如此，要说明一小部分的提升和教学的改善有直接关系可能从来都不是一件易事。
A cook does not need to know chemistry to make a delicious sauce.
厨师不需要懂化学就能做出美味的酱汁。
But the science of how words combine to make meaning is fascinating as well as fundamental.
但是，有关词汇如何组合在一起表达意义的科学既是令人着迷的，也是必不可少的。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
