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王　海

摘要:这篇文章主要围绕语法在语言教学中所起的作用展开论述,同时说明了人们进一步认为在语法教学中可运用交际法的原因。文章通过详细的推理,运用比较的方法加以分析和论述,体现了教师在帮助学生理解掌握语法有关知识的过程中所起的作用,同时也强调了以学生为中心的课堂教学的重要性和语法教学中交际法运用的程序和策略。

关键词:语法 交际法 学生为中心

1.Introduction

At present, based on the theory that English should be taught as a tool of communication, the communicative approach is considered by many teachers to be a good way to teach or learn English. Therefore, the CA is gradually prevailing in language classrooms in big cities and some coastal areas in our country. As a result, grammar in such classes has become unfashionable.

Actually, teachers have never really abandoned grammar when teaching English. One reason is that a large percentage of the university entrance examination is based on grammar, or at least connected with grammar. The other is that most teachers believe that grammar input helps students to learn the language. So it is necessary to teach grammar in language classes. Therefore, the problem is how to use broadly communicative activities in helping students to find out the way of learning about grammar instead of only being taught about it.

Unfortunately, the present textbooks provide very few ideas for interesting and meaningful grammar practice. Usually there are either communicative activities designed to develop general fluency, or grammatical exercises mostly based on uninteresting manipulation of forms. Therefore some teachers take it for granted that the CA is of no use in teaching grammar and grammar should be taught in the traditional way—Grammar Translation Method (GTM). Obviously, GTM has advantages in teaching grammar, but in fact, thought the CA is based on language use, it is practical and useful in teaching English grammar.

2. The aim of grammar teaching

Grammar is often misunderstood in the language teaching field by the students. The misconception lies in the view that grammar is a collection of arbitrary rules about static structures in the language. Further questionable claims are that the structures do not have to be taught, learners will acquire them on their own, or if the structures are taught, the lessons that ensue will be boring. Consequently, communicative and proficiency-based teaching approaches sometimes unduly limit grammar instruction.

It is true that some learners acquire second language grammar naturally without instruction. For example, there are immigrants to the United States who acquire proficiency in English on their own. This is especially true of young immigrants. However, this is not true for all learners. Among the same immigrant groups are learners who may achieve a degree of proficiency, but whose English is far from accurate. A more important question may be whether it is possible with instruction to help learners who cannot achieve accuracy in English on their own.

It is also true that learning particular grammatical distinctions require a great deal of time even for the most skilled learners. Carol Chomsky (1969) showed that native English speakers were still in the process of acquiring certain grammatical structures in English well into adolescence. Thus, another important question is whether it is possible to accelerate students' natural learning of grammar through instruction. Research findings can be brought to bear on this question from a variety of sources (see Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991). Pienemann (1984) demonstrated that subjects who received grammar instruction progressed to the next stage after a two-week period, a passage normally taking several months in untutored development. While the number of subjects studied was admittedly small, the finding, if corroborated, provides evidence of the efficacy of teaching over leaving acquisition to run its natural course.

With regard to whether instruction can help learners acquire grammar, they would not have learned on their own, some research, although not unequivocal, points to the value of form—focused instruction to improve.

3. The role of grammar in language teaching

Grammar is described as a science which teachers' the proper use of letters, syllables, word and sentences and so on; or which treats the principles and rules of spoken written language.

According to this definition, the aim of English grammar is to teach those who use English language to express their thought correctly, either in speaking or writing. Without grammar, it is hard to say that people can communicate efficiently and correctly.

From this point of view, grammar is of great help in learning a language. However, when one talk about learning a language, she/he means acquiring language competence, especially communicative competence, which is defined by Chomsky as the ability to produce sentences which are grammatically correct. Canale and Swain once make a model in which communicative competence has three major components:

①Grammatical competence,

②Sociolinguistic competence,

③Strategic competence.

Thus, grammatical competence is one of the competences that make up communicative competence and perhaps the basic one, so in order to learn a language, one should first know why grammar was once at the core of language teaching in English classrooms for so long a time. And it is still at the core of learning and teaching in most English in our country.

The remaining problem is how to teach grammar for communication, and which method or approach is the most efficient and effective. For many, it is thought that by concentrating on communicative activities, the grammar will be naturally acquired through the process to communication. However, some still think that the traditional method——GTM is more useful in teaching grammar. In order to show the difference clearly, the following is a comparison of GTM and CA.

4.Comparison

In the GTM class, the teacher dominates the class. She/He is the center of the class management. Everything is placed to meet the needs of the teacher in order to teach the necessary item of grammar in the class. The teacher determines everything, such as how to present the grammar terms; even the students' answers to the questions are required to be in line with what the teacher has taught, otherwise a lot of explanation will be forced into the teaching process. Usually, in such a class, the teacher gives a lot of explanation about forms and rules of the target language. Relatively speaking, the time for the students practicing is very limited. Even if there is some practice, it will be firmly controlled by the teacher and often carried out by means of translation. Therefore, the students are not involved in class. They do not have the chance to discuss or carry out activities, such as pair work or group work among themselves. The activities are only between the students and the teacher. The students are simply supposed to listen to the teacher who explains the rules of grammar in details and take notes. As a result, the students are not active. The whole process of such a class is the teachers filling the students with grammar of the target language. Although the class is orderly and quiet, the dull atmosphere and boredom often make the students sleep. Even some naughty ones often read novels in class.

Such is the GTM class, orderly and quiet, but dull and teacher-centered. Consequently, the more grammar the students learn, the more they find communication becomes difficult.

On the contrary, in the CA class, all the students are led into a situation or a problem and a task in which requires everyones participation. They are the center of the class and everything is planned to meet their needs. The teachers dominance in such a class in greatly reduced, and her/his main role is to respond to the students need. If it is necessary, the teacher even become a participant, moving about in the classroom, taking part in the conversation, discussing with the students. In such a class, the students are so interested that they actively take part in every activity. In this sense, the CA class is learner-centered.

5.Conclusion

In conclusion, grammar is very important in helping students master the target language. Without grammar students will feel their English becomes fluent but at the same time very inaccurate. Those who consider grammar is not useful and efficient for the students to communicate have probably overlooked that grammatical competence is one of the competences which make up communicative competence. Those who take it for granted that grammar should be learned in the GTM and that the CA has no use in learning grammar do not really know that there is a bridge between the CA and grammar.

When grammar is considered as a meaning resource, it will be obvious that in teaching grammar, the CA is more applicable than the GTM. If students are asked to tell about something related to themselves, most tasks and exercises which are connected with the old methodology can be made communicative.

In order to use the CA properly in teaching grammar, one should pay attention to the following strategies involved in the process:1.Student-centered;2.Teacher's role as manager as well as informant; 3. inductive;4.informal setting;5.encourage activities among students and between teacher and students;6.stimulate students to find out the rules of the language rather than to teach them what they are.

If these strategies are well used in grammar classes, students will be interested in learning grammar. Many kinds of communicative activities such as pair work and group work can be combined, so that a relaxed classroom atmosphere is formed. In this way, while learning grammar, the students will also acquire communicative competence. This is really killing two birds with one stone.

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