How to teach grammar: sitting on the fence.

I've learned or attempted to learn three languages in my life so far.  English is my L1.  I learned French in high school and one class of German in university.  Right now I speak very little French, and remember only a few words of German, and much of the grammar rules of French and German are well beyond me.

My schooling was in the 60's and 70's, so there was quite a bit of focus yet on proper grammar. I vaguely remember some drills and worksheets in early school with less focus on learning (and more using) in high school.  I myself like rules and form and function, so was quite fine with that.  French was a lot of vocabulary and grammar with very little conversation practice.  By the time I took German in university, there was more emphasis on speaking, but still a large amount of grammar. The conjugation of verbs and sentence structure seemed to be a large part of the course, both of which seemed rather complicated to me.

So what is the best way to teach grammar in current practices?  Thornbury (1999) outlines a number of different historical arguments and methods, both for and against the formal teaching of grammar.  He suggests that teaching grammar rules are necessary for fine-tuning language from the written to the spoken, increasing linguistic competence, allowing for noticing of language to increase acquisition, breaking language down for digestability, transmitting knowledge about language, and satisfying learning expectation for grammar rules.  Those arguments for not teaching grammar are to learn by doing (experiential learning), developing grammar through our communicative competence, natural acquisition rather than formal learning, learning using chunks of language, and learner expectation of using conversation for learning grammar.
Thinking back on it now I believe that I would have retained more of the languages had I used them more in the classes in conversations, with a more practical approach to the language.  I think a balance between language acquisition through grammar teaching and natural language learning is required when teaching/learning a new language.  I have seen many people who have learned English through a mostly written experience and they have good grammar, but are greatly lacking in conversational skills. I have seen students regress in conversation skills when they advance to a class where the focus is more on writing and less on conversation.  However, I have also seen students who have picked up language only through daily conversation and listening, and many have terrible grammar. They tend to just pick chunks of language they know without the appropriate adjustment for tense, adverb, adjectives, etc.  So, a balance of grammar teaching and natural learning through conversation and listening is what I think is necessary for most learners.

Brown and Lee (2007) suggest that current approaches are a balanced methodology where grammar becomes a part of the overall teaching perspective, where techniques:
“-are embedded in meaningful, communicative contexts,
-contribute positively to communicative goals,
-promote accuracy within fluent, communicative language,
-do not overwhelm students with linguistic terminology,
-are as lively and intrinsically motivating as possible.”
They suggest that teaching grammar is essential and expedites the learning process.  I very much agree with this. Now the important aspect of this is how to practically incorporate grammar skills into our learning plans. That is what we are about to learn!


References:

Brown, H. D. and Lee, H. (2007). Form-Focused Instruction. In Teaching by principles: An
interactive approach to language pedagogy, 3rd Edition (pp. 419-442).

Thornbury, S. (1999). How to teach grammar, Chapter 2: Why teach grammar?