Years ago, when I was a beginning teacher, I was assigned to teach English grammar in middle school. The principal came by and found me teaching diagramming-I got called out for it. She said that "research" has proven it's a waste of time-that a "whole language" approach was much better and that the students lost their "creativity" when forced to learn "unnecessary" grammar rules. Well-I also taught German as a foreign language, and the kids had absolutely no comprehension, since they didn't .know a subject from a verb from a direct object. . .The idea is that if they speak the language, they can write it. My grandfather grew up speaking German as a child, but couldn't read or write it. Whenever he got a card or letter from a relative in Germany, I got a call to come over and read it to him. I didn't have to translate-just read. Now-if you also take out the spelling component, how will any one even be able to read it??? I know that as a teacher, I used to feel stressed when the students "creatively" spelled whatever they needed to write, especially when a word was spelled correctly in the typed question they were answering.