Grammar and Communication: Can We Really Have One without the Other?

The following refections are little more than that: they represent the idiosyncratic experiences of a schoolroom novice in a German class, together with an attempt to view these experiences in light of published research and theoretical considerations. However, it would be surprising if the remarks below represent no more than an isolated case, without any echo among school language teachers in Australia. These refections of a beginner in the school classroom are concerned with how, and even if, grammar should be learned explicitly, and if so, to what purpose. After very many years teaching German language and literature in two Australian universities, I have in recent years been teaching the same two subjects in the International Baccalaureate program at an independent secondary school. German literature in the Baccalaureate course is taught only to native speakers of German at this school, thus there is scarcely any question of difficulties with language. The German language Baccalaureate course however is taught to non-native speaker learners in Years 11 and 12; such learners have typically taken a standard German course in the previous three years.