Teaching in Japan, Is There Grammar on the English Center Test?

Today, I want to talk about the English Center Test and grammar.

If you do not know what the Center Test is, and you teach in Japan, you need to learn.

There is a myth that grammar is important to do well on the Center Test.  This is wrong.  Students only need to be familiar with using English and be able to read well.  Detailed English grammar knowledge is not necessary to do well on the Center Test.

Let me give you some proof that English grammar knowledge is not on the Center Test.  There are two sections that are often considered to be related to grammar.  Let’s look at each.

There is one section that has grammar-related questions, worth 40 points, 25% of the test.  This is a lot, but actually, this section is testing vocabulary and English usage more than it is testing grammar.
Let’s look at some of the questions:

Here is the first question from the 2012 English Center Test.  This is from part 2.

Question:

Some companies have ___________ a new policy of using English as the official in-house language.

1. absorbed   2. accompanied  3. adopted  4. appointed

Is this a grammar question?  What skills are at use here?
It is simply vocabulary and usage.  You have to know how to properly use the phrase, “adopt a policy.”  You have to be able to use this phrase.

Only knowing the meaning of absorbed, accompanied, adopted, and appointed is not enough for a test-taker because the examinee cannot be sure which one will fit with “policy.”

Grammar knowledge is useless in the question.  Knowing that “have” is a modal and adopt is a verb will not help a test-taker.  Knowing that policy is an object will not help.

Here is another one, the second one:

Could you show me how to make my mobile phone ring differently ________ who is calling me?
1. depending on   2. in spite of   3. on behalf of   4. relying on

This is also is not a grammar question.  It does not matter if you know that ‘differently’ is an adverb or that ‘show’ is the verb.  That will not help you answer this question.

Again, we can see that in this section, you need to know what the meaning of the four phrases are.  It is not enough to know only the meaning of