Everyone who learns English as a second language (ESL) knows how important grammar is. It enables a student to write or speak in a way that makes sense to the foreigner.

        For an ESL student, it is absolutely necessary to know some of the basic rules about grammar. Here in the United States, they are included, on a step-by-step basis, in the non-credit ESL Level 1 to Level 4 textbooks. In a typical Level 4 textbook, for instance, one will find the past perfect and the past perfect progressive, the future perfect and the future perfect progressive, gerunds, infinitives, reduced clauses (participles), modal verbs, direct speech and indirect speech, the passive voice, phrasal verbs, adjective clauses (defining and non-defining), real and unreal conditionals (the subjunctive mood), etc. ^[1]  

        What strikes me most about American ESL textbooks is that most of them, especially those for the beginners, center on grammar. The texts are often written to teach a specific subject in grammar. If, for instance, the subject is the gerund, the text is adapted to include a lot of gerunds. And if the subject is the subjunctive mood, then the text will include a lot of sentences in the subjunctive mood.

        Textbooks for Level 5 are different, so are textbooks for Level 3 and Level 4 written by some authors. While grammar is still important, texts are mostly taken or adapted from newspapers or magazines catering to no grammar subjects or rules. Every chapter or unit, however, does have a grammar focus.

        Having taught English in China and the United States, I have come to the conclusion that instructors in both countries know the paramount importance of teaching grammar. That is all very good.

        On the other hand, I have noticed a problem that exists in both countries. In the United States, the focus on grammar is a little overdone – to the degree that the final examination (known as the exit test) papers for all five levels focus primarily on grammar: out of 60 questions, 50 are related to grammar. Only ten are about reading, which takes the form of reading comprehension.

        The end result of all this is that grammar plays the role of a baton to which almost all instructors have to dance and that not a few students can pass one exit after another till they finish Level 5 yet they can hardly write or speak a single completely correct sentence.

        In China one finds lots of beginner level English teachers who are good at teaching grammar. But a few of them seem to be so addicted to grammar that they never teach anything without some grammar analysis. This goes so far that a teacher might try to analyze a sentence that had better be left unanalyzed. A simple example is “This dress is worth $30,” where an adjective takes a noun as its object. Another is “It is likely to rain tomorrow,” where it refers to the weather condition but the infinitive phrase to rain tomorrow defies a grammar analysis. ^[2]

        And that’s where my “unimportance of grammar” comes in.

        By the “unimportance of grammar,” I mean first that often enough verb patterns and usage, i.e, idiomatic ways of saying things in English are more important than grammar rules. The word likely in the foregoing sentence is just a case in point.   Let’s examine the difference between hope and expect to shed some light on what I calla matter of verb patterns. We can say “I hope (or expect) to get the job,” or “I hope (or expect) they will win.” (The use of expect indicates somewhat more confidence.) But we say “I expect you to come to the party,” not “I hope you to come to the party.” Many students make the mistake because of analogy.

        One special difficulty many ESL students encounter is whether to follow a verb with a gerund or infinitive or a preposition plus something else. Suggest and propose, for example, share the meaning of “putting forward an idea for consideration,” but we say “He suggested using the service of a third party,” but “He proposed to use (or, using) the service of a third party.” Chinese students often confuse persist with insist because both are translated into the Chinese word “坚持,” unaware that the former involves action while the latter merely expresses a strong opinion. And of course, they go with different prepositions. We say therefore, “Michelle Obama insists on her daughters doing the bed every morning” but “Obama’s daughters persist in doing the bed every morning.” All that is related to usage, a subject no teacher can exhaust however long he or she teaches. The students have to learn to use the verbs – and occasionally adjectives and nouns – correctly one at a time. There is no short-cut.

        All in all, Grammar is important, but it is not everything. Chinese students and other Asian students alike are usually good at grammar. They are advised to pay more attention to usage and verb patterns.

        Fundamentally speaking, all ESL students need to do a lot of reading. Those who have laid a pretty good foundation in their English study should switch their focus and read as extensively as possible. Only then will they develop a feel for the language and learn things related to usage and verb patterns unknowingly and unconsciously. In the end, they may not be able to do grammar analysis perfectly, but they can write and speak good English.