I think you and Martin are perhaps missing the point I was trying to make

Whether you are learning a second language right now or at school learning your native language, how many people in say, 20 years from now, will still remember what an 'adverb' is (insofar as the definition of an adverb) etc

Sure, they are important while we are LEARNING and even more important when we are TEACHING, but I guess my main point was the question of what is more important - How we use it or Why we use it?

The good Dr demonstrated a sentence predicate, essentially in a linguistic form, and while we teachers should UNDERSTAND it, do you think it's really necessary to TEACH our students to understand it in the way the Dr demonstrated?

I'll be one of the first to admit that if ANY kind of 'educational facility' employs FT's without a TESOL certificate then they deserve all the 'dancing monkeys' they get, but for the purposes of this discussion, I guess I am not so much talking about our ability to teach this stuff, I'm talking about the ability of these 'dear little students' to learn it............and I guess we all know the answer to that...........