The Application Of The Guided Discovery Method In English Grammar Teaching In Middle School

From 1930 s to 1950 s,structural linguistics was dominant in the United States.Structural linguists focus on the analysis of language form and consider language as a complete system of symbols.Influenced by structuralism,language was defined as a set of structure / rules system from 1960 s to 1990 s.As a result,Grammar-translation method was then popular in our country.English classroom teaching mainly centered on the boring grammar rules,reading and translation,and the deductive method was widely used to teach grammar.The traditional deductive method of teaching grammar pays too much attention to the explanation and teaching of grammar structures and neglects the cultivation of students’ ability to use the language.Since the 1990 s,the communicative approach to language teaching has been introduced to China.Language is defined as a tool for communication,and more attention has been drawn to the use of language rather than the usage of language.However,the adoption of communicative language teaching does not mean the cancellation of grammar teaching for EFL learners in China,but involves how to teach grammar(Cheng,2013).The present study attempts to introduce the guided discovery method in grammar teaching in middle school.Adopting this new method,the teacher creates situations and guides students to participate in the discovery activities of grammatical rules by communicating with each other.In this way,both the form and the meaning of language are consolidated.In the meantime,students’ interest in English and desire for knowledge are expected to be aroused.An experimental study is conducted by the author to investigate whether the guided discovery method of teaching grammar can help improve students’ interest,their learning autonomy,and their English achievements.74 students participated in the study,from two separate classes in the same middle school.For the control class(Class 2),the traditional deductive method was used to teach grammar,while for the experimental class(Class 3),the guided discovery method was adopted to teach grammar.Data were collected from preand post-questionnaires of learning interests and learner autonomy,and from pre-and post-tests of English.Also,interviews were carried out with 6 selected students to get more detailed information about the changes of their grammar learning interest and learner autonomy.The data from the questionnaires and tests were analyzed by statistical software SPSS16.0.The results of the data analysis show that: 1)the guided discovery method is helpful to improve the students’ interest in English grammar learning.2)The guided discovery method is helpful to the improvement of students’ autonomous learning ability.3)The guided discovery method can significantly improve students’ academic performance.Finally,implications are drawn and future research is suggested to enlarge the sample size as well as the scale of participants.