On Senior Middle School English Grammar Teaching In The Framework Of Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been widely explored and studied by many researchers and experts in the field of English language teaching, especially in the teaching of grammar. However, there have been many studies conducted on the use of CLT based on the settings of TESL (teaching English as a second language). As we know, in China, in many schools, English grammar is still taught in the traditional way, and there are few studies in number that specifically deal with grammar teaching with CLT. Hence, based on the Chinese EFL teachers’ understanding of English grammar teaching, predominantly the difficulties and challenges they face in the implementation of CLT practices in the Chinese context, the study aims to the exploration of practical and appropriate ways of grammar teaching in the framework of CLT in senior middle school ELT. And the author wishes it could be helpful to a better teaching of English grammar in senior middle schools.This study first presents an overview of English language grammar teaching in China, and then discusses the definition and principles of CLT, which is followed by a brief history of the approach. In addition, it also presents the difficulties and problems which appear in English grammar teaching--they are the influence from the traditional Grammar-translation Method, the effect of mother tongue, the out-date grammar teaching materials, and the results of seeking the temporary benefits for the passing rate of the National Matriculation English Test (NMET), all of which lead English teachers to the neglect of the social characteristics of language in their teaching of English grammar. Moreover, the author also simply refers to the definition, place of grammar teaching as well as its relationship with Communicative Language Teaching. What’s more, review of the existing literature related to communicative competence, as well as how it functions in CLT is presented.What position the grammar teaching takes in English teaching, how to teach English grammar in the framework of CLT, whether grammar is taught by teacher, or acquired by learners, and which are the difficulties in English teaching--all the problems will be tried to solve in the thesis. It is known to all, if learners purely learn grammar, which will decrease their competence of using language. But, if teachers combine grammar teaching with communicative language teaching, which will not only let students learn the meaning by the form of sentences, get the competence of correctly dealing with language, but also develop the learners’competence of communication eventually.In a word, grammar teaching in senior schools should take the use of language into consideration, learners should combine the form of language with its meaning organically, and teachers should guide students to the grasp of grammar’s function of expressing meaning.(Minister of Education,2003,65)...