It is widely accepted that teacher cognitions--what teachers know, think, and believe--play a significant part in teachers' decision-making processes. The present study investigated the specific cognitions that 74 Dutch undergraduate and postgraduate student teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) had on grammar instruction and how these interfaced with learner-oriented cognitions. Ten focus group interviews were held in which the necessity of grammar instruction, its role in the foreign language (FL) curriculum, and different approaches to grammar teaching were examined in relation to student teachers' perceptions of their learners. The results show that the participants considered explicit, systematic, and isolated grammar instruction a necessary condition not only for linguistic correctness but also for advanced communicative competence. Moreover, complex interactional patterns were identified between cognitions on meaning- and form-focused approaches on the one hand and learner characteristics on the other. Conceptions of the position and role of grammar in the FL classroom were found to be mediated by student teacher perceptions of learner autonomy, motivation, intellectual capabilities, needs, and instructional preferences. Awareness of these patterns may assist foreign language teacher educators in uncovering how their students operationalize grammar teaching, thereby creating opportunities to engage in deep, reflective processing of topics raised in grammar teaching courses and their link to teaching practice.