It depends on how one teaches grammar (there are other ways than boring ways :) , we all know it), the purpose of the course (what if it is an exam preparation course?), and the level of the students. 

 

Grammar is the skeleton, while vocabulary is the meat to go onto it.

 

At Beginner level I don �t let them worry about grammar too much - it is important to overcome the barrier at this stage and untie one �s tongue.

 

However, an intermediate student or an advanced student should have more regard to English grammar as correct speaking shows just how much quality one �s got in their speech.

 

If a student can quickly and confidently say "My mom like going movies" at beginner level - well done! If an intermediate student says the same fluently and confidently - hmmmmm....

 

Overteaching grammar makes the process boring;overcorrecting mistakes hinders the learning.

Teacher: Give me a sentence that starts with "I."
Student: I is the ...
Teacher: Stop! Never put "is" after "I." Always put �am � after "I."
Student: OK. I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.
But teaching a language without it �s grammar is like flogging a dead horse.It leads to nowhere.

Have a nice day

 

I agree with you Ihai, but only at beginner level, as lana has just said.

 

 With Intermediate students I �m  strict and with advanced students I �m exremely strict, in both cases particularly with basic grammar points. One thing is to have a beginner say, for example, "She like go the cinema" and another completely different thing is to have an Intermediate student making those mistakes and as for the advanced level, for me, it �s just out of the question.

 

Now I also agree with Harim 100% - the problem, in this particular situation I described above, is "how", "what" and "when" to correct the student. If the students are roleplaying a dialogue at the restaurant or whatever, or they are making an oral presentation on a book they have read, of course no one is going  to interrupt them to correct anything! That �s why we record their presentation to be able to do it later... or if we don �t recort it, we use a speaking evaluation grid in which we take notes  under the heading "grammatical accuracy".

 

But one thing is for sure, we have to find a way to go back to the stuctures the students had problems with. Those structures must be learnt, because the older you get,the higher the level,  the more unacceptable are the mistakes you make.

 

And, just to finish, I also agree with Harim on how important it is the way you teach grammar and how much you teach. We must not forget that grammar  is a tool to communicate. Students learn grammar to speak, to write, to listen and to read better.

 

 So, if we teach it out of context and based totally on drilling, our students will have the knowledge, but not the competence. They will be able to fill in the gaps with the correct form of a verb, but they won �t be able to use that knowlege to communicate, which means they haven �t aquired the competence.

 

An example: students write the "s" in the simple present , 3rd person singular, in a grammar exercise - cross the wrong one out, multiple choice, filling in the gaps, whatever - so they already have the knowledge, they know the rule. However, when they are doing a reading task, answering  a question, they don �t write the "s", they write "she like"; when they are writing a text they write the same "she like". What can we infer from this? The students had the knowledge, we have seen him/her solve exercises correctly in class, but out of that context, when he is not being drilled, he doesn �t know how to use that knowledge and he fails, he makes mistakes, because he hasn �t got the competence to do so. And that �s why I worry so much about the way we teach grammar, because there is indeed a stage in every grammar lesson for drilling, but then we have to go a step further and practise it according to its main purpose - to develop the students �  communicative  competence.

 

 I �ve already written about this in this forum, so I �m not going to repeat myself. Here �s the thread in you case you �d like to have a look:

 

 

Have a wonderful Sunday!

mena

 

I agree it is all about HOW we teach grammar--I recently caught myself falling into the grammar trap with a couple of my groups and have been trying some new strategies to climb back out.  My motto is "If you aren �t making mistakes, you �re probably not trying."  I believe (remember I am not teaching for any qualification tests, I am structly teaching English to be used everyday and in business) that the most important thing is communication--that we understand what one another are saying.  Sometimes the mistakes we make in a foreign language can actually be endearing and improve the communication process.  I found while teaching in German that I would misspronounce words that I knew how to say properly.  My students had fun laughing over how I wouldn �t roll my Rs for example--it made them more open to the whole teaching process.