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Some teachers love grammar, with all the rules and complications. Other teachers prefer to avoid this topic because it can confuse a lot of English as a second language students. From the student's perspective, you find similar view points: some students love grammar and are completely dedicated to understanding its intricacies, while others are more focused on idioms, expressions and learning what are common words that native speakers use. As with many other things that we have to take into consideration when teaching a foreign language, how much time we spend focusing on developing that specific area depends on the preferences of both the students and the teachers. However, its importance can't be denied. Grammar is the foundation of the language and makes up most of what is necessary to use the language. Having said that though, as teachers, how we decide to teach that aspect of the language comes down to what the needs of the students might be and the way that they learn. Even though every student needs to learn the grammar at some point, how much they learn and how quickly they learn it will usually be determined by the needs and goals of the student and what type of learner they are. As we know, we can have different types of students. Some can be very talkative and very motivated to participate, while others can be very passive and will tend to avoid participating in any class activity. In every lesson and in every class, it all comes down to the balance between the way the teacher has decided to give a particular lesson and the different students that are involved in a that particular class. However, if you are well prepared as a teacher and structure your classes according to what types of students you have and what strengths and weaknesses you have detected in them, then teaching grammar shouldn't be a problem. As with any course, you need to constantly evaluate your students throughout it in order to verify that lesson points have been learned and that the students are progressing. You should also do this before beginning any course in order to determine the approach that best suits the students that you will have and promote an environment of growth and development. If you take these things into consideration, you will know if your students will respond well to learning specific grammar rules and then memorizing them in order to put them to use later on, or if they will understand them better by trying first to become familiar with ways of using the grammar and then analyzing the specifics of the rules and conditions involved in the theory. When teaching English as a second language, it is always advisable, as with any course of any topic, to first prepare for the particular students you are going to have. Whilst this is usually done in the first class, or first few classes, you could also do this by assessments. Either way, the idea is to understand your students' learning processes and look for ways of aligning their language needs with the lesson points. That way you will find the balance and make every class as interesting for them as you can and progress will be achieved much more smoothly. If you are teaching grammar, vocabulary or other, the results will be the same if you follow this advice.
