The Re-interpretation Of The Grammar-Translation Method From The Perspective Of Jakobson’s Semiotics Theory

In the long history of foreign language teaching, numerous foreign language teaching methods have been tried. As the most ancient foreign language teaching method, Grammar-Translation Method (GTM) experienced its most splendid period from the 1840s to the 1940s. But it fell into the lowest ebb with the popularizing of the Communicative Approach (CA). For a long period, GTM has been broadly regarded as old-fashioned and out of date, but it is surprising that GTM has the most powerful vitality among so many teaching methods. Even in the prevalence of CA, GTM has still been widely used, which reason is worth exploring. Through reviewing the research results of some domestic and foreign scholars, it is found that most of the researches on GTM focused on the teaching patterns, paying attention to the method and function of GTM while few scholars concentrated on the nature of language or proceed from the perspective of semiotic. Based on Jakobson’s intersemiotic translation theory, this thesis is aimed at solving the following two questions:(1) What’s the manifestation of GTM in the present English teaching and learning? (2) Based on the theory of semiotics, how can we benefit from GTM and get better teaching results?The experiment includes three parts. Firstly, carrying out questionnaires and interviews among 124 students and 16 teachers to investigate their cognition and attitudes of GTM. The data are shown in different forms of charts; secondly, through classroom observation, the author recorded the application of GTM in different classes; thirdly, the analysis of the examination through which we can have a clear idea of GTM in evaluation.Based on the intersemiotic translation theory put forward by Jakobson and combined with Steiner’s topological theory, it is found that there is a certain basis for the popularity and compatibility of GTM. But at the same time, with the change of the times, GTM should also be improved to adapt to the language teaching environment and goals. On the basis of inheriting the essence of the traditional teaching method, we can rekindle its past glory.