I only studied a couple things about Japanese grammar before going full immersion, but they seem to be the only things I still struggle with, even though for years I've been correcting myself every single time I make those mistakes.
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There is evidence that grammar study interferes with native-like acquisition of some grammar “rules.” See eg Rothman (2008).
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I wonder if this happens when the grammar “rule” is formulated by the learner. When I’m learning a language, I have the habit of noticing linguistic phenomena and making explicit hypotheses about them. Could that be counterproductive?
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I’m not sure. Rothman looked at ppl who had had explicit grammar teaching early on.
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Like, “oh, it looks like that suffix makes it plural,” or “hmm, the word order changes after that adverb.” It’s really hard for me *not* to think like this, but what I wonder is whether I should encourage or discourage this type of metalinguistic processing in my students. 2
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My guess is that formulating that rule yourself probably interferes too. What probably interferes though is not the fact that you EVER learned/noticed the rule, but rather whether you access that knowledge often, for example by trying to speak before you've really acquired it.