Which is more helpful for learning English, watching drama or doing grammar exercises?

Which is more helpful for learning English, watching drama or doing grammar exercises?
Many students are used to doing one thing when they learn English in school: completing grammar exercises. One of the main reasons why teachers distribute these exercises to students and make them complete them is simple: there are not enough educational resources to do small class teaching.

Grammar practice has the advantage of focusing on one topic, and through repetitive exercises, students become familiar with the pattern of a sentence or phrase, which is less confusing to them and easier to remember. Some students have studied English for years, but they have not mastered some basic sentence patterns, for example, they do not know how to distinguish between does, do and is verbs, for these students, mechanical exercises are also useful.

However, grammar exercises have their limitations: since each exercise often covers only one grammar topic, such as simple present tense, simple past tense, and present perfect tense. Students may not be able to put this knowledge into practice when they are done. This is because speaking English fluently requires students to be able to use different areas of knowledge, not only grammar, but also communication skills, vocabulary, pronunciation, and general knowledge, etc. The complexity of different situations in real life also involves complex factors such as human feelings, tone of voice, interpersonal relationships, the situation, and each person’s personality. Even after completing the grammar exercises, students may only be familiar with the composition and form of a certain part of a sentence, but may not be able to match the real-life situation with the grammar and pronunciation knowledge and apply the knowledge they have learned. Moreover, these exercises will make the students less interested in learning because they are to some extent detached from the reality.

For example, I watched this British comedy movie with my students a while ago, and the boy in the movie was teased by his schoolmates. Guess how his classmates laughed at him? Instead of saying How silly he is! or What a silly boy!, it was Look at him! Because the drama puts English knowledge in the scene, and because the drama has a story, it also allows students to be more interested in learning and to remember what they have learned more deeply.

Of course, there are limitations to learning English from a drama: even a short dialogue involves different areas of knowledge, and what the characters say is not only superficial, but also has a chance to use satire and other techniques to express deeper meanings.

So which of the two learning methods is more effective? I would say that grammar practice and drama are two different types of learning materials that complement each other, just like food and medicine with different attributes. Students should use both materials in the right proportion to each other in order to learn English well. Another tip is to be careful to choose movies and dramas that are appropriate for your level so that you do not get bored halfway because you do not understand them.