A Probe Into An Application Of The Communicative Approach To The Teaching Of College English Grammar

The teaching of English grammar has undergone a long history and has providedthe main battle for the controversies and methodological discussions concerninglanguage teaching. From the past to the present, linguists and foreign languageteachers have been arguing on a series of problems concerning English grammarteaching, such as "Should English grammar be taught?" "How can grammar betaught?" "Is grammar acquired or learned?" "What's the effect of grammar teachingon language learning?" There are no completely right answers to these questions, andthe arguments have not come to an end yet. Grammar teaching dominated thelanguage teaching in traditional methods, such as Grammar-Translation Method,Direct Method, Audiolingual Method. Since the emergence of the CommunicativeApproach (CA), the position of grammar decreased and grammar teaching isneglected even is driven out from the foreign language classroom.Through theoretical analysis and study, the thesis makes a brief overview on fourtypical traditional methods in foreign language teaching in chapter one. Chapter twomainly focus on CA. From these approaches, we are able to have a generalunderstanding of the development of grammar teaching, which is helpful and valuablefor the present grammar teaching. Different perspectives on grammar lead to differentmethods of grammar teaching. Every kind of language does have its own innergrammatical rules, which are regularities people must observe when they speak andwrite. Thus, grammar is essential and indispensable to foreign language learning.However, grammar is not the end of foreign language learning, but a tool and aresource of foreign language learning. Grammatical competence should betransformedm into communicative competence and serve for communicativecompetence. Grammatical competence is neither an isolated system nor an obstacle tothe development of communicative competence. The former is the foundation of thelatter, the latter depends on the former.Applying CA into College English grammar teaching can better reflect theinterdependent relationship between grammatical competence and communicativecompetence as well as cultivate college students' communicative competence.Teaching College English grammar in CA should integrate the form, meaning andfunction;dealt with the relation between accuracy and fluency properly;conductlearner-centered lessons;produce meaningful context;arouse students' grammarawareness and so on.There are still plentiful problems in China's College English grammar teaching.For example, some College English teachers think Communicative Approach meansgrammar-free and ignore another form of communication—written form;students'negative attitudes to College English learning;the lack of English speaking andculture context in China;objective limitations of China's educational context, etc. Inview of these problems as well as students' real requirements, this thesis probes somefeatures and needs of non-English majors via a questionnaire. Based on this study,teaching College English grammar in the communicative way is put forward, whichaims to explore an effective and efficient approach to teaching College Englishgrammar so that the quality of China's College English teaching and learners'comprehensive proficiency in English can be improved.