What is the real value of understanding grammar? I've never thought that it had anything to do with avoiding superficial "errors." Just as a person who understands terms like mammal and reptile is likely to pick up more from a visit to a zoo than the guy who lumps all animals into the same category, a person who understands the terms noun and verb, subject and predicate etc. is likely to absorb more from language -- or so it seems to me. If this is true, there should be a higher correlation between the understanding of grammatical terminology and general vocabulary than between knowledge of other terminologies and general vocabulary. I'm wondering if anyone in ATEG knows of any research bearing on this hypothesis. Or if anyone has any thoughts on testing it empirically. (Thought you might enjoy a sentence fragment!) Great conference, btw.