I agree with you. Learning to understand the spoken language is the most difficult aspect. Pimsleur helps with this. It gives you an early view through that win

I agree with you. Learning to understand the spoken language is the most difficult aspect. Pimsleur helps with this. It gives you an early view through that window, so you can see what it's like to understand the spoken language, and prepares you for understanding the language in the wild. I think the choice of whether to use a grammar or not depends on the student. If you're a beginning language learner, then it may be best to put it off. If you understand the concepts of declensions and conjugations (and the different tenses, moods, etc. typically encountered), then a grammar can be a quick way to get the lay of the land. One of the first things I do is to learn the personal pronouns, articles, and conjunctions (short work). Then I'll look at "to be" and "to have" (at least for the Indo-European language family). That way, when I start listening, I've got some scaffolding upon which to start building my understanding. This is one of the few areas where learning a language as an adult has an advantage over the immersion of a child--you can use your cognitive capabilities to take a short cut.