Languages are obviously controlled in the brain, but it happens at a near sub-conscious level, just like walking. I, too, often use driving as analogy (but in a different way). Just like walking, the physical ability to drive a car smoothly comes from lots of practice driving, not conscious knowledge of the rules of the road. The latter is obviously important, but one could know every word of the rulebook and not be able to drive worth a damn. The same is true for knowledge of grammar. As I saw in Japan, many Japanese native speakers (including English teachers) had memorized massive amounts of knowledge about English grammar, but were not able to apply it in speaking. This is the difference between declarative and procedural memory (you are promoting the former, while the latter is what really matters when it comes to acquiring a foreign language.)

“Language ability cannot be taught. It can only be learned. Most schools, educators, and parents have come to believe that they have to ‘teach’ children both native and foreign languages. This reveals a basic misconception about language, which has been thoroughly debunked by researchers far smarter than I, including Steven Pinker of Harvard, and Stephen Krashen of University of Southern California. In a nutshell, their research shows that human language is an innate physical skill akin to walking. You were not ‘taught’ how to walk; you figured it out through trial and error. Your ability to speak your native language is the same.”

I disagree with those allegations. Are you saying that teaching languages is unnecessary and teachers of languages are not needed? Your comparison of learning a foreign language to learning to walk is wrong, because learning a language is a mental process of developing language skills (not a physical process), and learning to walk is a physical process that involves developing a physical ability. I can draw a really valid comparison in this regard. Can you safely drive a vehicle on the road without knowing theoretical traffic rules? Will you learn traffic rules while driving on the road? So you must know theoretical traffic rules before practical driving on the road. Grammar rules can be compared to traffic rules; grammar rules have a similar role for learning and using a foreign language successfully and correctly to reduce mistakes and misunderstanding. Without adequate knowledge of traffic rules a driver can easily cause an accident or can endanger traffic safety. Fortunately grammatical mistakes don’t have such potential serious consequences as traffic violations do.