How important is grammatical knowledge? How can we balance grammatical accuracy with communicative fluency? Can grammar even be taught? These questions have been debated for as long as language has been taught. Two recent articles provide new insight on the role of grammar in language classrooms.

Grammar Can Be Taught (Without Hurting Fluency) 

Research conducted by Mochizuki and Ortega (2008) revealed that teaching grammar to students results in more accurate speaking in communicative tasks. Furthermore, the students who studied grammar performed as well as the control group in measures of fluency. This groundbreaking study offers hard evidence that studying grammar will help students improve their English significantly. 

Grammar Should Be Taught 

It is not enough to know that grammar can be taught. The question remains whether it should be taught. Shiotsu and Weir (2007) found in their study that grammatical knowledge is more important than vocabulary size for understanding English. These two studies show that a well-rounded curriculum must have a grammar component. This is critical both for students ability to understand English and for their ability to use the language.

What This Means for You and Your Students 

Two approaches to grammar textbooks logically follow from these findings. Either a streamlined and flexible "direct grammar" approach like that in the Azar Grammar Series, or a robust 4-skills approach like that in Focus on Grammar will result in the biggest improvements in student accuracy and fluency.

References

Mochizuki, N. & Ortega, L. (2008) Balancing communication and grammar in beginning-level foreign language classrooms: A study of guided planning and relativization. Language Teaching Research. 12 (1): 11-37. 

Shiotsu, T. & Weir, C. (2007) The relative significance of syntactic knowledge and vocabulary breadth in the prediction of reading comprehension test performance. Language Testing. 24 (1): 99-128.