A Study On The Compatibility Of The Grammar-translation Method In College English Teaching

In the long history of foreign language teaching, numerous foreign language teaching methods and approaches have been tried. As the most ancient foreign language teaching method, the Grammar-Translation Method had experienced its most splendid period from the 1840s to the 1940s. But it has also fallen into the lowest ebb with the popularizing of the Communicative Approach in the 1970s in the foreign language teaching field. For a long period, the Grammar-Translation Method has been broadly regarded as old-fashioned and out of date. It has been criticized for many reasons, such as using mother tongue as the instruction language in class, overemphasizing grammar teaching and learning, neglecting speaking and listening, etc. In fact in the history of the Grammar-Translation Method, the critique on it has never been stopped, but it is surprising that the Grammar-Translation Method has the longest history and the most powerful vitality among so many teaching methods and approaches. Even in the prevailing of Communicative Approach, the revised Grammar-Translation has still been widely used in the world.By examining the three main components of the Grammar-Translation Method, we find that they are just the central parts of foreign language teaching activities. Vocabulary is the foundation of language and it plays an important role in language building. Grammar is one of the most important parts of language. Translation is an important skill and technique. To prove the effectiveness of the Grammar-Translation Method, the author makes a survey of the characteristics of the Grammar-Translation Method among 188 students and 20 teachers of two universities. The result of the survey shows that the Grammar-Translation Method is still popular among students and teachers. The result of the survey also strongly refutes what some people have thought that the Grammar-Translation has been dated.To prove the teachability of grammatical rules, the author makes a study of"but" attributive clause in 100 sophomore non-English majors. The results show that the experimental group who receive explicit teaching of"but"attributive clause make bigger progress than the controlled group who do not receive explicit teaching of"but"attributive clause.As we know, there is no single teaching method that can guarantee the successful language teaching. The purpose of the thesis is just to prove the compatibility of the Grammar-Translation Method in college English teaching. In the practice of foreign language teaching, we should not abandon it completely; what we should do is to improve it and make the best use of it to get better results of foreign language teaching.