A Comparative Study Of Communicative And Grammar Translation Methods

Grammar plays an important role in English language teaching process.Grammar is the rule of language use,and it has positive effects on English language usage.Grammar is not only a system of rules but also has its meaning and use.That is to say,grammar has three aspects:form,meaning and use.English grammar teaching refers to teaching basic knowledge of grammar to make students gradually get rational knowledge and grasp the rules of language use.English grammar is the indispensable part of English learning.For a long time,English teachers teach grammar usually using the traditional teaching method in junior high school.Teachers explain the rules of grammar according to the textbook and students master English grammar rules by doing a lot of practice.In fact,the function of communication of grammar has been ignored.So based on the shortcomings of traditional grammar teaching method,communicative teaching method comes into being.The author regards modal verbs as an important part of English grammar,so she chooses modal verbs as a case and tries to point out the role of communicative teaching in English grammar teaching and the advantages for students' grammar learning.The study has been carried out in Zhuhai,Guangdong province.The teaching experiment lasted four months from March to July,2015.The 80 participants are from two natural parallel classes in Grade 8,Gong Bei Middle School.In the experimental class,teachers use communicative teaching method to teach modal verbs.Through analyzing the qualitative and quantitative data of questionnaires,interviews,and tests with the help of the software SPSS 17.0,the author wants to figure out whether the application of communicative teaching method can have better effects on improving students' communicative ability and learning achievement than grammar translation teaching method.Also,through the interview,the author tries to figure out what the advantages and disadvantages of the communicative teaching method are in students'view.In this thesis,first,the author will mainly review the theoretical achievements of the communicative teaching method which lay foundation for the research.Next she will introduce how this research is designed and carried out,involving the detailed description of research questions,participants,the instruments,and research procedures.Then she will analyze the results of the experiment,including the explanation of the three research questions in sequence.Finally,through analyzing the research results,the author wants to make some suggestions for front-line teachers to have a better understanding of communicative teaching method.Also,some limitations of the research are listed in order to improve communicative teaching method in further study.Based on the data analysis of the experiment,the following conclusions are drawn:First,in experimental class,students' English communicative abilities are improved more through using the communicative teaching method.Second,in experimental class,students' English learning achievements are improved more through using the communicative teaching method.Third,in experimental class,many students think that using communicative teaching method can inspire their learning interest and improve their confidence.However,there are also some disadvantages because of the unpractical design and unpractical implementation of the communicative teaching method.