Vocabulary is more important than grammar.

Vocabulary is a powerful tool for communication. Even if the learners do not use
the grammar, they can convey meaning through the use of vocabulary. The following
conversation that I carried out with a native speaker colleague proves this:
M: Gunaydin! Nasilsin?
A: So you started speaking Turkish.
M: (smiles) Biraz
A:What other words do you know?
M: (thinks a little) Yesil zeytin
A: Interesting! Why did you want to learn it?
M: In Real you say it and they show the place. I learnt cay, seker....
A:Do you feel the need to learn anything else?
This conversation came to an end with hid answer to my conversation. “ No I
don’t need to. I can survive with words. He later told me that he carries a dictionary with
him to look up the words. When he is in trouble, he looks them up and tells it to the
shopkeepers. Thus, as he stated he carries a dictionary not a grammar book with him.
Another example to prove the superiority of vocabulary over grammar is
represented in the following statement.
“Il fumo ostruisce le arterie e provoca infarti e ictus.”
The statement above is in Italian. It is taken from a packet of cigarette. I do not
know anything about the Italian language. However, having read this sentence, I did not
experience any difficulties. In order to understand this sentence, I found same sounds in
Turkish such as “infarti e ictus” and same sounds in English, such as “provoca.” I did not
try to work out any grammar. That is, I did not focus on the form of the sentence. I tried
to understand the sentence just by looking at the individual words. I looked at the words
and my brain immediately found similar words. Thus, the networks in my brain helped
me link words to each other and come up with the meaning of this sentence.
The third example which shows that vocabulary is more important than grammar
is reflected in newspaper headings.
BOMB ATTACK – 20 PEOPLE KILLED
 The heading is not grammatically correct; it consists of collocations. All the
important information is given through these collocation. I can easily understand this
heading without having to read a sentence such as “ There was a bomb attack in which 20
people were killed.
A final context where vocabulary proves to be more useful than grammar is the
classroom. In the classroom, when I am pre-teaching or teaching vocabulary, the learners
try to make connections and relate the words to their background knowledge. I always
keep in mind that the lexical system allows us to continually make new links. Also, as
teachers we should be aware that vocabulary comes with its grammar. That is, the
vocabulary items appear in chunks and with their collocations. Thus, we should aim at
teaching vocabulary with their collocations, not in isolation.
However, in teaching a grammar point, I do not think that links are formed very
quickly. That is, I feel that although we can draw schematic representations of words that
are related, we can not do the same thing for grammar. In the classroom, we usually deal
with grammar through comparison of different structures. These comparisons along with
the comparisons the learners make with their L1 lead to confusion. Such comparisons are
not done for most of the vocabulary items. Thus, the learner who has difficulty with
which tense or form to use constructs a sentence which is grammatically incorrect, but
which has a meaning thanks to the vocabulary added to it.
In grammar teaching, we also talk about vocabulary: function and content words.
Function words refer to grammar words which do not carry a meaning such as “ do”and
“am.” These function words only help one to understand the other words. However,
content words take over the responsibility of conveying meaning. That is, the important
words tend to be content words. We can use our lexical tool-kit to create new words by
putting words together or changing the part of speech to convey meaning. Thus, even
with an incorrect word form or ungrammatical sentence we can ensure that the listener
understands what we mean.
When we are speaking to someone, even if we blend words, make errors while
selecting the words or use a similar sound instead of another one due to a slip of the
tongue or experience a tip of the tongue phenomenon, we expect the listener to fill in the
gaps having heard the beginning of the word. The listener finds the rest before the word
is finished. Since we are constantly generating lots of connection, we understand the
message. Corpus linguistics helps us to identify common patterns of structure, collocation
and phrases. It gives us information about the use and meaning of words. Thus,
concordance lists are important. By providing our learners with chunks of language, we
can help our learners to use language automatically. Thus, even if they do not know
certain structures, they can produce vocabulary chunks through which they can convey
meaning.
At the beginning and throughout the course, I beleived that vocabulary is more
important than grammar. I still believe that vocabulary is important. However, there may
be some grammar items which are necessary for establishing communication and
enhancing comprehension especially when the tests reflect the need for the learner to use
grammar knowlege. The necessary structures should be taught to the students since we
are aiming at success in exams. At elementary levels, teachers tend to simplify their use
of language through mothese. They try to utter comprehensible words which enable the
learner to understand what is being said. Although some motherese use may be
beneficial, overuse of it might neglect grammar totally. The use of motherese and thus
neglecting the grammar was the only point that challenged my belief that vocabulary is
more important than grammar.
In conclusion, I believe that presentation and practice of vocabulary are very
important. The words in the word lists should not be seen as items to be memorized or
translated as it might be the case when dealing with the form of a grammar item. Rather,
the communicative power of the lexis should be made explicit through the use of contexts
and collocations. All in all “ a small child simply uses language. He does not learn formal
grammar.... Yet he learns the language perfectly. I t is equally unnecessary to use
grammatical conceptualization in teaching a foreign language” (Stern, 1970: 57-58 qtd in
Brown, 1994: 49).

Brown, H.D. (1994) . Principles of Language Learning and Teaching.

New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents