An Empirical Research On Application Of Clt To English Grammar Teaching In Senior Middle School

During the course of English teaching in middle schools, grammar teaching is always a focus argued about by English researchers and English teachers---Is it necessary to teach grammar? Which approach or method to grammar teaching may help the students improve the effects of learning a foreign language and enhance their ability to use the foreign language? Especially since the Standards of New National English Curriculum has been adopted, this problem is becoming more obvious. The Standards of New National English Curriculum puts stresses on cultivating students'integrating skills, such as listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities. It seems that grammar teaching is of no use. In addition, the adoption of the Approach of CLT has also an effect on grammar teaching to a certain degree. So the argument about grammar teaching in the framework of CLT is becoming more heated. The empirical research is carried out just concerned about the issue whether grammar teaching is necessary and whether grammar teaching in the framework of CLT contributes to students'mastering the grammar knowledge more effectively than in traditional method. In order to learn about this, the author investigates three representative schools (an ordinary senior middle school, a vocational middle school, and a key middle school) through questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. The investigating result indicates that many teachers think the traditional methods are not satisfactory for students to master grammar knowledge, but the application of the Approach of CLT can help students master grammar knowledge more effectively and improve their ability to use it at the same time. However, because they know little about CLT, they seldom apply it to English teaching, and even sometimes use it, the result is not satisfactory. In view of this circumstance, the author does an experiment on teaching grammar in the framework of CLT to prove whether CLT is really more effective for students to master grammar knowledge than traditional method and whether CLT can improve the students'ability to express themselves freely, properly and fluently.In the experiment, the subjects are 40 students chosen from Grade One in an ordinary school. They are divided into two classes. One is the experimental class; the other is the control class. The experimental teaching content is the Attributive Clause. During the six-week experiment, traditional methods are used in the control class while the approach of CLT is adopted in the experimental class. The experimental result indicates that the approach of CLT can not only contribute to the mastery of grammar knowledge more effectively but also enhance students'interest in learning grammar and improve their communicative ability. However,the experiment in the thesis is only a tentative teaching, in which the subjects are only 40 students with high English level. So problems like: Is the Approach of CLT suitable to students with English 0 level? Is the Approach of CLT workable to grammar teaching in large class? Is the approach of CLT proper to the present model of National University Entrance Examination etc are not taken into consideration. I hope further researches are carried out in the future by researchers and English teachers who are interested in the issue.The difference from other researches is that the investigated scope is wider, three kinds of schools--- an ordinary senior middle school, a vocational middle school, and a key middle school are investigated. The result of investigation shows that the issue whether grammar teaching is necessary and whether grammar teaching in the framework of CLT contributes to mastering the grammar knowledge more effective than in traditional method not only exist in ordinary senior middle school and vocational middle school, but also exist in key school. The issue is really worth doing research and the experimental result can be applied in all kinds of senior middle schools.