英语论文Applying Communicative Approach in Grammar Teaching in Middle School.docx

英语论文Applying Communicative Approach in Grammar Teaching in Middle School.docx

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英语论文ApplyingCommunicativeApproachinGrammarTeachinginMiddleSchool

ApplyingCommunicativeApproachinGrammarTeachinginMiddleSchool

1Introduction

Grammarteachinghasalwaysbeenoneofthemostcontroversialandleastunderstoodaspectsoflanguageteaching.Therearethreemaintraditionallanguageteachingmethods,Grammar—TranslationMethod,DirectMethodandAudio—LingualMethod,whichhaddominatedtheFLTfieldforalongperiod.Thestatusofgrammarteachinginthesethreeteachingmethodswasdifferent.However,inChina,grammarteachingisalwaysthekeyteachingcontentinELT.Chinesestudentsspendyearsstudyinggrammar,butmostofthem,eventhestudentswhocangethighmarkintheexamstillhavedifficultiesinusingEnglishincommunicationeffectively.Thisinabilityreflectsthattraditionalgrammarteachinggreatlylimitsstudents’communicativecompetenceinthereallife,whichdepartedfromthegoalsofgrammarteaching.Therefore,CommunicativeApproachappearstobeamostpopularteachingmethodingrammarteaching.

CAoffersmoreopportunitiesforstudentstolearngrammarinaninterestingandactiveway.Understandably,therecamesomeproblemswhenCAwasfirstintroducedandappliedtotheChinesesituation.DifficultieswiththeapplicationofCAinclude,amongothers,lackofreallanguageenvironment,thelargenumberofstudentsinoneclassandsoon.What’sworse,someteachersareoftenconfusedbyaswarmofmixedmessagesabouttheplaceofgrammarteachinginthecommunicativelanguageclassroom.TheyevendoubtthatwhetherCAmayinvolveneglectingroleofgrammarteaching.ThepurposeofthedissertationistohelpteacherstounderstandtherightrelationshipbetweenCAandgrammarteaching,andtrytoexploreanoptionalEnglishgrammarteachingbymeansofcommunicativeactivitiesinMiddleSchool.

Intermsofthisdissertation’sstructure,followingthisintroductionchapter,chapter2willbealiteraturereviewofgrammarwhichfocusesontheconceptandthestatusofgrammar.Chapter3reviewsthestatusofgrammarteachinginthreetraditionallanguageteachingmethods.Thischapteralsopointsoutthattheimportanceandnecessityofgrammarteachingandanalysesthecurrentsituationofgrammarteachinginmiddlesschools.Nextinchapter4athoroughintroductionofCAisprovidedwhichhelpsthereaderstounderstandCAfurther.TheauthoralsodiscussestherightrelationshipbetweenCAandgrammarteaching.Chapter5emphasizestherolesofstudentandteacherinCA.ThischapterintroducessomepracticalandeffectiveapplicationofCAintheaspectsofcommunicativecompetenceandtheprocedureofgrammarteaching.SomeparticularcommunicativeextracurricularactivitiesarealsopresentedasexamplestoshowhowtoapplyCAtogrammarteaching.Theconclusioncomesinthelastchapter.

2Definitionofgrammar

Traditionally,grammarwasmostwidelydefinedas‘thestudyofsentencestructure’.Itwaswidelyknownthatgrammarincludestwoaspects,morphosyntax（form）andsemantics（meaning）whichincludesphonology（form）andsemantics（meaning）.

Morphosyntaxreferstothebranchofgrammarstudiedthestructureofsentences.Itmeans‘grammartellsushowtoconstructasentence（word,order,verbandsystems,modifiers,phrases,clauses,etc.）

Semanticstellsussomethingaboutthewordsandstringofwords—orIshouldsaymeaningsbecausetheremaybeseveral’（Brown,H.Douglas,2003:

348）.Forexample,hereisasentencewhichsoundsodd,althoughitisagrammaticallywell-formed.

Thisis2680239.Weareathomerightnow.Pleaseleaveamessageafterthebeep.

Thesentence‘Weareathomerightnow.’ispossible.Thatis,it’sgrammaticallywell-formed,butitdoesn’tmakesenseinthiscontext.Theformthespeakerhaschosendoesn’tconveytheexactmeaningthespeakerrequires.

However,asmoreandmorelinguistsfoundthatthesetwoaspectscouldn’treallyexplaintheessenceofgrammarwhichlimitedtheprocessofgrammarteaching,sotheytriedtogiveanewandcompletedefinitiontogrammar.Moreover,asamajorcomponentofcommunicativecompetence,whenmoreandmoreprofessorspaidmoreattentiontothecommunicativecompetenceofalanguage,grammaticalcompetencewasalsofocusedonbylinguists.Thenmanylinguiststurnedtoexaminewhatgrammarwasonceagain.Nowadays,theconceptofgrammarhasbeenexpanded.ManylinguistssupportthepointofviewofLarsen-Freemanthatgrammarisoneofthreeinterconnecteddimensionsoflanguage.Grammarembodiesthethreedimensionsofmorphosyntax（form）,semantics（meaning）,andpragmatics（use）.

（fromnet1）

Inthisnewdefinition,it’scleartoknowthatpragmaticsisanothernewandimportantdimensionofgrammar.

‘Pragmaticstellsusaboutwhichofseveralmeaningstoassigngiventhecontextofasentence.Thecontexttakesintoaccountwhereandwhatthecommunicationtakesplace’（Brown,H.Douglas,2003:

348）.TakingthepassivevoiceinEnglishforexampletoshowthepragmaticsofgrammar:

1）Aflowercasewasbrokenbytheboy.

2）Theboybrokenaflowervase.

Awriterdescribesaboybrokenmanythingsathomeoneday,oneofthethingswasaflowervase.Ifthewriterwantstostressthetreasureoftheflowervasewas,itmaybebetterforthewritertousesentence1.Onthecontrary,ifthewriterwantstostresshownaughtytheboyis,sentence2willbemoresuitabletobeusedforthewriter.Consequently,inordertoexpressinamoresuitableway,weshouldtrytousedifferentgrammarstructureindifferentcontexts.Therefore,grammarisreallyplaysakeyroleinusingonelanguage.

3Aliteraturereviewofgrammarteaching

GrammarhasbeenthefocusinthefieldofFLTforseveraldecades,buttheattitudestowardsgrammarteachinghavechangedseveraltimes.Thestatusofgrammarteachingindifferentlanguageteachingmethodsturnstobedifferent.Inthesethreemainlytraditionallanguageteachingmethods,Grammar-TranslationMethod,DirectMethodandAudio-LingualMethod,grammarteachinghadn’tbeendealtwithrightly.Inthesemethods,grammarteachingcouldn’treachitsgoalsanditsvaluehadbeendoubted.Thesemethodsdon’tputgrammarintherightplacewhichiscompletelydifferentfromCommunicativeApproach.Innextchapter,theauthorwilltalksomethingabouttherelationshipbetweenCAandgrammarteaching.Inaword,beingabasicteachingcontentinFLT,theimportanceandnecessityofgrammarteachingshouldn’tbeignored,althoughthecurrentsituationofgrammarteachingisnotgoodenough.

3.1Thestatusofgrammarteachingindifferentlanguageteachingmethods

Historically,theattitudestowardgrammarteachinghavechangedmanytimes.“In1622,asoneoftheearliesteducatorswhoquestionedthevalueofgrammarinstruction,JosephWebbe,aschoolmasterandtextbookwriterwrote:

Noonecanrunspeedilytothemarkoflanguagethatisshackled…withgrammarprecepts.’（ScottThornbury,2003:

14）JosephWebbe’sstatementofgrammarteachinghadgivenrisetoanumberofobjectionstogrammarteaching.Fromthe18thtothebeginningof20th,it’sknownthatgrammarteachinghadanabsolutelydominantstatusinFLT.Everythingfocusedongrammarteachingwasitsadvantagesandimportance.Butinthe1970,everythingturnedtobeopposite.Therewereaswarmofthecondemnationsofgrammarteachingasharmfulandunnecessary.Meanwhile,areviewofFLTabroadpresentsthatthestatusofgrammarandthewaypeopledealwithgrammarfluctuateindifferentlanguageteachingmethods.Accordingtothethreetraditionallanguageteachingmethods,GrammarTranslationMethod,DirectMethodandAudio-LingualMethod,thestatusofgrammarteachingisdifferent.

3.1.1ThestatusofgrammarteachinginGrammar-TranslationMethod

Grammar-Translation,asitsnamesuggests,tookgrammarasthestartingpointforinstruction.GrammarwasputinthecentralplaceofFLTandtaughtinadeductiveway.GTcourses‘followedagrammarsyllabusandlessonstypicallybeganwithanexplicitstatementoftherule,followedbyexercisesinvolvingtranslationintoandoutofthemothertongue’（ScottThornbury,2003）.Theaimofitwastoteachstudentstoknowthegrammaticalruleswhichwereexplainedandpracticedwithlotsofmechanicalexercises,andthenletthestudentsunderstand,readandtranslatethetargetsentencesortexts.Therefore,withthismethod,grammarteachingplayedadominantroleinFLT.Thestatusofgrammarteachinginthisteachingmethodwasveryhigh.

3.1.2ThestatusofgrammarteachinginDirectMethod

TheDirectMethod,the‘naturalmethod’,whichemergedinthemid-late-nineteenthcentury.Themethodholdsthatgrammarisimportantbutshouldbetaughtinainductiveway.Byclaimingtobea‘naturalmethod’,the‘DirectMethodprioritizedoralskills,andwhilefollowingasyllabusofgrammarstructures,rejectedexplicitgrammarteaching’（ScottThornbury,2003:

21）.Inclassroom,teachersdidn’tteachgrammarexplicitly.Thestudents,itwassupposed,pickedupthegrammarinmuchthesamewayaschildrenpickupthegrammaroftheirmothertongue,simplybybeingimmersedinlanguage.Therefore,thismethoddidn’tconsidergrammarteachingastheimportantteachingcontent.Inthatcase,thestatusofgrammarteachinginthismethodislowerthaninGrammar-TranslationMethod.

3.1.3ThestatusofgrammarteachinginAudio-LingualMethod

Audio-LingualMethodwasamethodwhichstayedfaithfultotheDirect-Methodbeliefintheprimacyofspeech,butwasevenstricterinitsrejectionofgrammarteaching.Thismethod‘deriveditstheoreticalbasefrombehavioristpsychology,whichconsideredlanguageassimplyaformofbehavior,tobelearnedthroughtheformationofcorrec