We need to listen to Eric Herman more carefully. He has repeatedly said here that teaching grammar is just fine as long as it supports CI. In my own CI world, since I was trained by Susan Gross, I have always thought of grammar in pop up terms where you avoid all use of grammatical terms and just say “this means that” to the class and move on with more input.
Zach Al Moreno this morning supported Eric’s position in a conversation, by saying (here roughly paraphrased):
“Limited explanation of discreet grammar concepts can support reading.”
“CI in the first semester primes the brain for the grammar systems that are coming later.”
So let’s not feel so guilty if our grammar pop ups last more than four seconds, or if we feel energy from the students that they want to “do some grammar”. Grammar in support of CI is good teaching. And speech and writing when the kids are not forced to do it is good teaching. Zach pointed out that Krashen has seen value in speech output in that other students get to hear more input. This is a complete reversal of my position here on this PLC for the past several years.