Teaching grammar

Candidates for the IELTS test are measured by how well they can communicate. If their communicative ability is inhibited by poor grammar or lack of vocabulary then this will affect their score. There is a lot of debate between English teachers concerning teaching grammar. Some teachers hold to the "communicative approach". This approach was put forward by Dell Hymes in the mid-1970s and further championed by Stephan Krashen. They feel that teaching grammar rules to students actually hurts their communicative ability by causing students to be overly focused on rules.

As the IELTS test measures communicative ability all the examiners I know recommend the communicative approach to prepare for it.