An Experimental Study On The Application Of Inquiry Learning To English Grammar Teaching In Senior High School

English is a kind of widely used, public and popular language. And in China, We regard it as one of the most significant subjects of the school education at all school periods in almost all areas. Especially in senior high school period. Grammar is one of the most difficult and important points of English learning in senior high school, according to a lot of researches of English grammar teaching by some researchers at home and abroad. Under the New Curriculum Reform(NCR) and new college entrance examination reform, they request new change in grammar teaching. Moreover, the living and contextual changes of college entrance examination need proper adjustment in English grammar teaching and learning. English grammar teaching need adjust the development of new reform and renovate new learning style and learning methods, only by doing this can the learning goals be achieved.In China, the teaching of grammar always keeps the way of the traditional teaching model, which regards the teacher-centered as the main teaching model, in which students can just accept knowledge passively. However, we should concern that there are two questions, grammar teaching methods and the importance of grammar teaching. We should not concern one and ignore the other. Inquiry learning is a good way to change the traditional teaching pattern. It is a kind of learning pattern, which advocates students to learn independently, improve their cooperative spirit, and discuss with others under the guidance of teachers. Through this process, we hope students can analyze and solve problems independently. In order to explore the effectiveness of inquiry learning, the author plans to do a teaching practice in the English class.There are two questions to explore in this paper. First, if students’ interests towards English grammar learning can be cultivated under inquiry learning. Second, whether the difficulties in the grammar learning process can be solved through inquiry learning. Classes 1 and Class 2, altogether eighty-two students, from Xingtai Foreign Language School in Hebei province, participated in the research as subjects. They were students in Grade One. There were 42 students in Class 1 and 40 students in Class 2. Class 1 was the Experimental Class whose students were taught under the guidance of inquiry learning method and Class 2 was the Control Class which was taught under the grammar-translation method by the same teacher.The experiment lasted 20 weeks(a semester). There was a pre-questionnaire and a pre-test in the beginning of the experiment, and at the end of the experiment, there was a post-questionnaire and a post-test. Through the analysis of the results of the questionnaires and tests presented between the students in experiment class and control class, we can see that the students’ ability in English grammar of the experimental class is much better than those in the control class after one semester’s experiment. And the difficulty in the students’ grammar learning process has been solved. So this method gets great effectiveness in English grammar learning.The research have proved that the application of inquiry learning in English grammar learning in senior high school is effective and applicable through the analysis of a lot of teaching cases from students and teachers. The good effect is also a powerful attack towards the opinion of giving up teaching grammar. This paper is just the author’s own opinions according to the teaching practice. And there are some limitations, such as the breadth and depth of the research and the applicability and so on. So we need continue our reaching research.