On The Combination Of Grammar-Translation Method And Communicative Approach In English Teaching Practice

The last 30 years has witnessed a steady improvement of English Language Teaching (ELT) in schools. However, ELT in many of China's schools is still far from being satisfactory, and unable to meet the needs of the political and economic development of the country. Most of middle school learners found it hard to communicate even in simple English after spending 900 hours in English class. The teacher-centered, book-centered, Grammar-translation method and audio-lingual method have hampered the effectiveness of both teaching and learning. During the last 3 decades, there have been significant developments in the theory and practice of English teaching in the world. More emphasis has been put on the use of the language for purposeful communication. Although adoption of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in China was not accidental, it met with considerable resistance. After noting the obstacles faced by Chinese English teachers who have tried to implement the Communicative Approach, the author in this paper offers two models for integrating the Communicative Approach with traditional teaching method. The author designed two teaching models—reading class model and listening class model, assisted with multimedia technology, attempted to combine the advantages of these two teaching approaches, to develop students'listening, speaking, reading and writing. The conclusion comes that in the context of China, English teachers should combine the advantages of Communicative Approach and Grammar-translation Method in classroom teaching.The paper is chiefly composed of four chapters, together with the introduction and the conclusion parts.The introduction part gives a brief description of the current situation of English teaching in China. At the same time, it presents the background of Communicative Approach and the purpose of writing this paper.Chapter 1 further describes the status quo of learning English as a foreign language in China, and obstacles in applying CLT in China.Chapter 2 offers literature review that provides the theoretical basis of two teaching methods—Communicative Approach (CA) and Grammar-translation Method (GTM), and makes a brief comparison between the two methods, including their clear definition, basic features and their limitations and aims. It also involves the definition of competence to reveal the key to communication.Chapter 3 focuses on the application of CA and GTM. Two teaching models—reading class model and listening class model, assisted with multimedia technology are designed. The aim is to combine the advantages of these two teaching approaches, to develop students'listening, speaking, reading and writing.Chapter 4 reveals problems and limitations of these two models, and further development of them in the future.The last chapter serves as a conclusion of the thesis.