Some parents claim that their children learned English so well that by the time they realized it, they were already speaking perfectly. They also say Minecraft and YouTube have already taken over the role of the language teacher.
In my opinion, YouTube and Minecraft won’t teach them the perfect infinitive, subordinate clauses, or the correct use of time clauses.
I haven’t even mentioned participle clauses, subject and object clauses. No, the YouTube user won’t understand these without grammar explanations and practice.
I know several twenty-year-olds who have been living abroad for years and still don’t understand the difference between the present perfect and the simple past, and they mix them up.
And before someone has an objection, it’s a myth that these structures aren’t used. Well, I’ll tell you, native speakers use them a lot.
By the way, if language learning takes a backseat because of AI, the result will be a more stupid society.
Personally, I want to read in a foreign language myself, not have a machine translate for me. That’s an indirect, second-hand experience, completely different from understanding it firsthand.
Oh and while a language teacher can explain grammar professionally, the Texan farmer working in the cornfields or the Indian market rug merchant who speaks English cannot.