Experimental Research On The Learning Of Grammar In Normal University

Since the inception of the communicative approach, traditional teaching of grammar in foreign language teaching has been ignored. Many scholars believe that the teaching of grammar does no help to foreign language learning and that any form of grammar teaching is not necessary. But in recent years a large number of empirical studies have shown that in order to understand and use the target language appropriately grammar learning is essential. Thus the focus of grammar teaching has inverted from "teaching or not" to "how to teach".The present study has compared the relative effectiveness of two types of instruction (i.e., deductive instruction and inductive instruction) on the acquisition of three grammatical items (i.e., inversion, subjunctive mood, non-finite verbs) for Chinese freshmen of English majors in normal university. Inductive instruction involved learners' rule-induction from examples given to them, while deductive instruction involved learners' learning rules through formal statements. A pre-test, an immediate post-test and a delayed post-test were administered in the investigation. Based on the pre-test, two groups among four classes the author taught were formed. Thirty-one students from two of the four classes were assigned for inductive treatment, thirty-one students from the other two classes were arranged for deductive condition. The paper-and-pencil production performances of the two groups of learners receiving different types of exposure (inductive versus deductive) were compared on both immediate and one-month-late delayed post-tests. Results of T-tests on the raw scores obtained on both tests revealed that no overall significant differences for these two types of treatments existed. Implications for the classroom, limitations and defects of the research and future research are also discussed.