What predicts the basic English abilities of the junior high school students? In this paper, I focus on the ability of rearranging words of basic sentences from a junior high school textbook into a correct order. The present study found which grammar items of the basic sentences played the key roles in deciding the total score of the word order test of basic sentences from a junior high school textbook. This disclosed which grammar points would play key roles in separating good learners from slow learners. Based on this survey, I developed teaching methods for slow learners to overcome their difficulties in studying English.