An Investigation Into The Current Situation Of English Grammar Teaching And Learning In Senior High Schools

Recent decades witness the fluctuation of grammar's position in English teaching.Whether grarmar is important and how it should be taught has been hotly debated.In English teaching in China,the grammar-translation method has held a dominant position for a long time.In view of its downsides,a series of foreign language teaching methods have been introduced into China.With the development of practice,foreign language teaching researchers and English teachers gradually realize that it is wrong to stick to a single teaching method to the extreme.A single teaching method has both benefits and downsides in cultivating students,English ability in all aspects.Therefore,the researchers began to explore a combination of varied teaching ways and teaching elements to provide guidance for grammar teaching.And the problems in grammar teaching have been transformed into the problems of what to teach and how to teach.Through classroom observation,questionnaire and interview,this paper investigates the present situation of English grammar teaching in senior high schools,including the contents and ways of teaching,as well as the attitudes of teachers and students towards current grammar teaching and learning.In addition,the paper measures students' grammatieal competence by means of grammar test paper and makes a correlation analysis with students' English curriculum achievements accordingly.Then,with the help of interviews,the author explores the influence of current gramnar teaching on students9 grammatical competence and the relationship between students,grammatical competence and their comprehensive English competence.The participants of this study are 287 senior grade 2 students and 27 English teachers from three senior high schools in Wuhan.It focuses on the following three issues:1)What are the contents and ways of grammar teaching in high schools presently?2)What are students' and teachers' attitudes towards present grammar teaching?3)Under the present situation of grammar teaching,what is the correlation between students' grammatical competence and their comprehensive English proficiency?The main findings of this study are as follows.Firstly,English grammar teaching in senior high school is implemented according to the curriculinn standards and syllabus.The teaching content is based on the gramnar knowledge required to be mastered in senior stage and compulsory education stage.In the process of teaching,teachers choose teaching methods flexibly and comprehensively according to different grammar points.Teachers design activities to cultivate students' awareness of mastering meaning and use of grammar structures consciously.Secondly,both teachers and students recognize the importance of grammar,gramnar teaching and grammatical competence.Teachers deem that it is difficult for students to master effective grammar learning methods,so teachers have the obligation to take their own responsibility to improve students' interest and efficiency in learning grammar.Students wish,for one thing,teachers can review,summarize and compare the grammar points in order to help students consolidate their knowledge systematically;for another thing,teachers set up more situation-based activities and communicative tasks(such as videos,pictures,games,dialogues)in class to help them use grammar better.Finally,teachers' consciously paying attention to the form,meaning and use of grammar,to a certain extent,improves students'grammatical competence.There is a significant positive correlation between students'grammatical competence and their comprehensive English proficiency.Based on the above findings,teachers can attach more importance to the effect of"Comprehensive Method" on students' English proficiency and improve their own grammar teaching so that students can develop their overall abilities with the basis on dealing with the college entrance examination.