Formal grammar study is important in schools above the elementary level because it can lead to improved understanding of the nature and functions of language. Although newer grammars, based on structural linguistics and transformational-generative grammar, have not met the needs of the schools, their potential should not be ignored with a return to traditional grammar. Instead, concepts from various grammars can form an eclectic grammar based on a unified theoretical system in which the output (sentences as well as graphic and other linguistic forms of expression) results from the appropriate syntactic and phonological elements supplied by the operative and expressive components. (The text includes a diagram of the theoretical model.) (JM)