This is a balance question for me. I have studied language in courses that I thought taught someone all about the language, but not how to use the language. This is actually one of my big criticisms of many classroom language classes.
However; I also came up from an engineering background, and have a lot of working relationship with engineers in East Asia. This means that the way my mind works, in order for me to be satisfied, not only must I know the right answer, but I must know WHY that answer is correct. When I study language, I don't mind making a mistake, and I don't mind someone correcting me, but I want to fully understand why what I said was wrong, and how to make it right. This always leads me to grammar in language study.
I also understand colloquialisms, and how native speakers often speak incorrectly, but naturally. That's fine in my mind, too, so long as I understand both what is correct, and what is natural to someone's ears, and why.
But following my normal path of thinking, I got into a discussion with someone today who thought I was just trying to show off my "cerebral tickle spot" by pointing out why an answer was grammatically incorrect, and going into depth on that. He didn't think that was necessary with students who he didn't think were on that level.
However; also having worked with many engineers from and in Asia, I typically find the people I work with understand English grammar quite well, with a few exceptions like the use of English definite and indefinite articles. I find they've studied it as much as American students have, and so I can discuss things like predicate nominatives or gerunds and expect to be understood. Usually, I think these students are asking for something more, but need this as a basis.
But now that I've been challenged, let me throw the question open to you, and I would like a wide variety of answers.
How important is grammar to you in your study of a second language? Would you be satisfied with a teacher who did not discuss grammar in depth? Does it help your confidence with the language if you don't know why something that sounds correct is correct? Or what if you find you are using something that is incorrect? (You can include times when you know it is incorrect, but use it purposefully.) And if someone like me goes into a lot of detail on grammatical points, is that helpful in your study, or is it something you generally do not want to go into? (Are you a quick answer person? or do you like to understand in more depth?)
I'm curious what others besides those from my kind of background think. It might be interesting if you put your background when you answer, too. :)
At the end it's all about a balance. You can't load a beginner with tonnes of rules, but you can't skip them completely. In an ideal situation though, a teacher has to personalize things and adapt the balance to needs of a particular student. Like in your case Steve, it seems as if you have a rational mindset and you prefer to get a logical explanation for every case. On the other hand, people with, let's say, a creative mindset would be bored with exccessive explanation for every sentence. I think these people usually have different approach to connect things, not only with a pure logic but also by associations, sensations and feeling. The good teacher should see the difference and apply the right balance of grammar, practice and etc.
Studying grammar is very important,
But also it's very important to start using the language even if your grammar still not good, or just basics,
Start to use the language ( start to speak and practice ) even with not correct grammar,
& in the same time keep learning the grammar, and correct your language using,
Peter, I think that's a pretty good summary, and I think that there is no substitute for speaking to improve your speaking. I think we're saying the same thing, there.
I have an interesting story from one of my personal Korean teachers that may go along with this. This teacher was a lady about my age (so not a young teacher) who came to our home to teach me one on one. She was one of the best language teachers I ever had. She was very analytical, and so always had a very satisfying explanation for why I needed to change something ... including some very humorous explations.
When I complemented her on this, she told me that the first time she got the chance to teach a Korean class, she prepared the lesson straight from the book, and taught it straight from the book. At the end of the class, she asked if anyone had any questions, and one older student raised his hand. When she called on him, he asked her why some verbs ended in "iyeyo" and other verbs ended in "yeyo."
She had never stopped to think about it, but it was top of mind for a new learner. She couldn't answer, and had to promise to bring the answer back. When she went to some of the other young teachers and asked them the question, they couldn't agree on the answer, either. At that point, she realized just speaking naturally didn't qualify her as a teacher, and she started to think much more analytically about why Korean people spoke as they spoke. From my experience, she did a lot of very good thinking before she became my teacher.
Grammar (the theory) is important as speaking (the practice). Personally I think the second is most important maybe because I don't very brave for studying rules. Besides I've studied english (grammar I mean) as a second language since I was 5 and I don't speak english yet, which I remain convinced that the practice is much more important.
Sum it up, study grammar is fine, but the grammar study itself will not help your speaking as you expect. That's is my experience.
