Research on Grammar Teaching in Senior Middle School.doc

高中英语语法教学研究Research on Grammar Teaching in Senior Middle SchoolAbstract: The current English curriculum reform puts emphasis on the cultivation of students ability of using language while neglecting the teaching of grammar. This research discusses the importance of grammar teaching, investigates the problems in the current English grammar teaching and gives a detail analysis of the methods which not only solve the problems but also improve students comprehensive ability. 120 students and 20 teachers in Shi Hezi No.1 middle school were chosen to attend a quantitative survey of a close-ended questionnaire. Key words: English grammar；grammar teaching；teaching approach摘要：新课程标准注重学生语言运用能力的培养但对语法教学有所忽视。本文讨论了语法教学的重要性，调查了当前英语教学中存在的主要问题，并研究和探讨了可以解决当前发现的问题且有助于提高学生能力的几种教学方法。调查以问卷的方式进行，受试者为石河子第一中学的120名学生及20名英语教师。关键词：英语语法；语法教学；教学方法ContentsI. Introduction.1A. Basic concepts of grammar.1B. The importance of grammar in learning a foreign language.1C. The situation and requirements of grammar teaching at present.1D. The reason of making the research.1II. Literature review.2A. The Grammar-Translation Approach.2B. The Direct Approach.2C. The Audio-Lingual Approach.3D. The Communicative Approach.3E. Task-based Approach.3F. The features of current English teaching.4III. Research of the paper.4A. Subject.4B. Procedure .41. Questionnaire design.42. Questionnaire investigation.53. Data collection.5C. Results of the investigation.51. Results from the students.52. Results from the teachers.63. Results from the textbook.6IV. Efficient methods of present grammar teaching.7A. Carrying on task-based grammar teaching under the communicative law.7B. Teaching grammar in the context under situational approach.8C. Developing more ways of testing grammar.10V. Conclusion.11Works Cited.12I. IntroductionA. Basic concepts of grammarLanguage is the chief means by which the human personality expresses itself and fulfills its basic need for social interaction with other persons. And there is a system of rules, which organizes words into sentences. The set of those rules is called the grammar of the language. Grammar organizes the vocabulary and as a result we have sense units. The subfields of the modern grammar are phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. But the usual interpretation of grammar is limited to the structural organization of language. B. The Importance of Grammar in Learning a Foreign LanguagePaul Roberts writes: “Grammar is something that produces the sentences of a language”. In order to understand a language and to express oneself correctly one must assimilate the grammar mechanism of the language studied. Indeed, one may know all the words in a sentence but yet fail to understand it, if one does not see the relation between the words in the given sentence. But if one has a good knowledge of the language structure，one can easily guess the meaning of the unknown words in the sentence. No speaking is possible without the knowledge of grammar, without the forming of a grammar mechanism (李 12).C. The situation and requirements of grammar teaching at presentThe current English curriculum reform puts emphasis on changing the tendency of overemphasizing the explanation and transmission of grammar and vocabulary knowledge while neglecting the cultivation of students ability of using language. In teaching practice, however, there has been a phenomenon of overemphasizing the teaching of speaking while neglecting the teaching of grammar (Liu 1). As a result, students trained in this way can communicate in English to some extent but can not use English accurately, fluently and appropriately. D. The reasons of making the researchWith the rapid development of economy, more and more people begin to learn English, but when they are asked to write or speak, they can not avoid making mistakes in various ways. Thats because grammar is not given due attention in the teaching practice. And this issue is especially prominent in the western area of China, where education is not so developed as in other places. Accuracy is as important as fluency, but without grammar, students can not speak English in a correct way. So it is necessary to make the research to explore some methods to help improve the English teaching. II. Literature ReviewIn the field of English Language Teaching (ELT), the notion of teaching methods has had a long history. Different methods hold different views, and each method has its own advantages, but all of them have made great contribution to the English teaching. This part of the paper will elaborate the methods and approaches which are well-known in the history of ELT and also influential in China. A. The Grammar-Translation ApproachThe Grammar-Translation Approach, as its name suggests, took grammar as the starting point for instruction (Liu 10-12). Grammar-Translation courses followed a grammar syllabus and lessons typically began with an explicit statement of the rule, followed by exercises involving translation into and out of the mother tongue. It provides students with a clear understanding of the grammatical rules as well as an ability to comprehend written text, but it usually results in an inability on the part of the students to use the target language for communication. In addition, the monotonous teaching style tends to make students lose interest in foreign language learning.B. The Direct ApproachThe Direct Approach, which emerged in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, prioritized oral skill while rejecting explicit grammar teaching. During that period, linguists emphasized that speech, rather than the written word, was the primary form of language. Language teaching was based on phonetics and a scientifically established coherent grammar. The emphasis was on sounds and simple sentences and direct association of language with objects and persons of the immediate environment, for example, the classroom, the home, the garden, and the street (束 10). The direct concern between the target language and the real world contributes to the learners ability to think in the target language, and the emphasis on pronunciation, intonation and spoken language can effectively develop students ability to understand and speak the target language. However, its rejection of the students mother tongue leads to the failure in understanding abstract and complicated concepts. Students are apt to make grammatical errors in speaking due to the lack of explicit explanation in the teaching process.C. The Audio-Lingual ApproachThe Audio-Lingual syllabus consists of a graded list of sentence patterns, which are grammatical in origin. These patterns form the basis of pattern-practice drills, the distinguishing feature of Audio-Lingual classroom practice. The major objective of language teaching is for the students to acquire the structure patterns. The Audio-Lingual Approach encourages students to use the target language to communicate, which enables them to develop their speaking ability. The pattern drills give beginning learners great help in learning and memorizing structures. But the mechanical mimicry and repetition make students lose the initiative in learning. And knowledge of structures alone is insufficient for actually using the language in real life situation.D. The Communicative ApproachThe Communicative Approach advocates that language is not just bits of grammar, it also involves functions such as greeting, apologizing, agreeing and persuading and so on(chen 22-23). It sees language as a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning. The goal of this approach is to develop learners ability to communicate in target language. Students often engage in many activities to adjust the use of target language in different social contexts and the teachers primary role is to facilitate communication. It largely contributes to the development of students communicative ability, but its tolerance towards the students errors may result in the lack of accuracy in their spoken language. E. Task-Based Language Teaching(TBLT)The focus of TBLT is on the task rather than the language. A task is an activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding language, for example, drawing a picture while listening to the description. It emphasizes the learning process, during which the students complete real life tasks in order to develop the communicative ability in the target language. The central principle is learning by doing, and students success is judged in terms of whether the tasks are performed. TBLT provides students with a real need to use the target language and therefore is beneficial to the development of their communicative ability. But it is undoubtedly a demanding method. The teacher must be proficient in the target language. F. The features of current English teachingThe English curriculum reform that began at the beginning of this century has so far brought about many changes. To begin with, teachers now agree that the aim of teaching is to foster students ability of using the language rather than to transmit the knowledge about the language. Students thus play an important role in the English classroom by participating in language practice and problem solving activities. Another important change is that teachers are more flexible in teaching. Few teachers use the text book in a rigid manner (周, 102). They make various adaptations to better achieve the teaching aims. Apart from the flexibility in using materials, many teachers adopt different teaching methods for different aims and contents.III. Research of the PaperA. Subject120 students aging from sixteen to eighteen in senior grade two and 20 teachers in Shi Hezi No.1 Middle School were chosen to finish the questionnaire. All the students chosen began to learn English when they were in elementary school, grade three. Half of them are from the classes of science while the other half from the classes of art. All the students and teachers were chosen randomly.B. Procedure1. Questionnaire designThe questionnaire was designed in Shi Hezi University with the help of a professor in English department from 9th to 10th October, 2009. Questionnaire 1, which consisted of 15 questions, was for the students, while questionnaire 2 including 9 questions was for the teachers. Most of the questions were multiple-choices and one open question was included in each questionnaire. The questions were designed from three aspects: students, teachers and textbooks which are supposed to investigate the condition of English grammar teaching and learning in middle schools at present, including the students and teachers attitude towards English grammar, the importance of grammar in learning English, and whether the text book is useful for learning grammar and so on. All the questions can be seen in the Appendix.2. Questionnaire investigationThe investigation was conducted in Shi Hezi No.1 Middle School in January 10th, 2010. 120 pieces of questionnaires (100 pieces for students and 20 pieces for teachers) were handed out and 118 pieces were received back.3. Data collectionThe data is collected by the author herself with the help of a computer.C. Results of the investigation1. Results from the studentsQuestion numberrate of the answers()Questionnaire1ABCDE16.7834.748.4732.2017.79234.7432.2015.2517.79321.1836.4432.2010.17461.0111.0127.96051.6920.3466.1011.86610.1646.6136.446.78761.0127.968.472.5489.3235.5929.6625.42910.1646.6136.446.781066.1020.3411.861.69Table 1a. Almost all the students think grammar is very important in their English learning, and they should pay due attention to it.b. Most of the students dont have a good command of English grammar, which lead to their low score in the examination and greatly influence their abilities of reading, speaking and comprehending.c. A large amount of the students feel English grammar boring and difficult to learn, although they are aware that grammar is very important in their English learning. And having no interests is one of the reasons of their poor learning.2. Results from the teachersquestion numberrate of the answer()ABCDEQuestionnaire11149.1521.1816.9412.711247.4527.1919.495.93Questionnaire2193.336.6600223.3366.6601036.66106.662056.66416.667013.330616.6666.6616.66076016.6613.33108033.332046.66Table2a. Most of the teachers think grammar teaching is significant and necessary, as grammar can help improve the students other abilities, such as listening, speaking and writing.b. The present syllabus is to change the tendency of overemphasizing grammar and try to cultivate the students comprehensive ability. It advocates acquiring language naturally. To some extent, grammar is downplayed.c. Some of the teachers teach grammar in a flexible way but more of them teach in the traditional way. They think the traditional way is the quickest to improve students mark.3. Results from the textbookquestion numberrate of the answer()ABCDQuestionnaire11417.7929.66502.54Questionnaire2533.334016.6610Questionnaire115Open-minded questionsQuestionnaire29Table3a. From the students, the textbook they use now has colorful content and interesting, but doesnt do much help to their grammar learning.b. From the teachers, the textbook focuses on improving students comprehensive ability, and grammar is not an important part.V. Efficient Methods of Present Grammar TeachingA. Carrying on task-based grammar teaching under the communicative law1. Introduction of task-based grammar teachingOne approach to teaching language that has attracted a lot of attention over the past twenty-five years was task-based approach for learning and teaching. In task-based approach, the focus of classroom activities is on the task, and at last on meaning. The advantage of the task-based approach is that during the task the