Developing Grammatical Competence For Non-English Majors

This dissertation is intended to explore the necessity, significance and methods of the development of grammatical competence of non-English majors. To carry out the research, statistic analysis and material analysis are involved.It was found out that the non-English majors had a poor command of grammatical knowledge. Since the popularization of communicative approaches, which puts too much emphasis on listening and speaking and ignores or even avoids grammar teaching, grammar seems to have become obsolete in some people's eyes.The research begins with definitions of grammar and grammatical competence. While grammar includes phonology, morphology, lexicon, syntax and discourse, grammatical competence deals with two aspects: grammar and the ability to use it. The theories related to grammatical competence -input, interlanguage and communicative competence- are reviewed. Krashen's Input Hypothesis is intended for language acquisition, not for learning. He insists grammar can be acquired through comprehensible input, especially in the form of listening. However, either acquisition or learning needs input and grammar cannot be acquired naturally by the learner himself. Interlanguage, the second language learner's independent language system which has features of both the first and the second language but is neither, is transitional and permeable so that it permits the learner to revise it constantly until eventually reaches the target language competence. Interlanguage discloses the inner workings of language learning. Special attention should be paid to the prevention of fossilization. It is Hymes whofirst coined the term communicative competence. Canale and Swain develop the new pattern of communicative competence which includes four components: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, strategic competence and discourse competence. Grammatical competence is the basis of communicative competence. Without grammatical competence, there is no communicative competence.To understand the freshmen's actual grammatical competence and the present conditions of grammar teaching both in middle school and at college, a questionnaire has been designed and statistic analysis and material analysis are employed. It was found out that non-English majors are lacking in grammatical knowledge and poor in grammatical competence. In middle school, there is a tendency of weakening of grammar teaching while at college, much attention is paid to vocabulary. So many problems arise, poor listening and speaking abilities, frequent errors, passive and dull classroom and finally poor communicative competence.Based on analyzing theories and the freshmen's grammatical competence, the dissertation attaches importance to combining theories with practice. It is explored how to supply comprehensible, interesting and meaningful, sufficient, and roughly tuned input to the students. Interlanguage provides information about how the students are going on with language learning, which helps the teacher decide the optimal input for them. And error analysis is of great help to judge whether there is fossilization among the students and to work out solutions. To develop communicative competence, various kinds of communicative activities should be carried out to create opportunities to develop grammatical competence.The dissertation has introduced some concrete methods aimed at developing grammatical competence for non-English majors. Some methods are teacher-centered while others are student-centered. Speaking, reading and writing provide chances for the application and practice of grammar competence and are under the guidance of the latter. It is unnecessary and impossible to neglect listening and speaking for the purpose of the development of grammatical competence. The problem is how to balance and integrate them.The author has a firm belief in the importance of formal accuracy to the development of communicative competence. And the significance of developing grammatical competence for non-English majors is empha...