A Study on the Application of Communicative Approach in English Grammar Teaching.doc

交际教学法在英语语法教学中的应用a study on the application of communicative approach in english grammar teachingtable of contentsabstract in english1key words in english1abstract in chinese1key words in chinese2i. introduction2ii. the traditional english grammar teaching methods3iii. the communicative approach51. definition of communicative approach52. some features of communicative approach6iv. the application of communicative approach in english grammar teaching71. the principles of applying communicative approach in english grammar teaching72. four models of applying communicative approach in english grammar teaching10v. conclusion15 reference books15 abstractas china entered wto, chinese have more and more opportunities to communicate with foreigners. nowadays english teaching has become an important task, communicative approach has been the mainstream in english language teaching in china. the approach which helps realizes the goal of learning languages is using the new-learned language to communicate with other people in real life. in this paper, the author tries to analyze the present condition of english grammar teaching, and then gives a general introduction of the communicative approach so as to discuss the application of this kind of method in the english grammar teaching. this paper emphasizes that the application of communicative approach will improve students interests of english learning efficiently and help them communicate better, finally make them be the right talents needed in the new century.key words: communicative approach, english grammar, application摘 要随着中国加入wto，同外国人交流的机会大大增加了，这使得英语教学成为一项重要的研究课题。在中国的许多外语教学法中，交际法已成为主流。它体现了学习语言的目的，即能在现实生活中用所学语言和别人进行交流。本文首先分析了英语教学的现状，然后对交际法做了综述，以此为理论依据来论述交际教学法在英语语法教学中的应用，强调交际教学法的应用利于提高学生的学习兴趣，使其能更好地用英语交流，成为新世纪社会真正需要的人才。关键词：交际法；英语语法； 应用i. introduction owing to the traditional grammar-focused, teacher-centered and task-based classes in china, english is thought to be something dry and abstract or a subject similar to other subject that the student are learning. what the student needs to do in class is just to concentrate on teachers lecture, which always focuses on vocabulary and grammar explanation. as a result, many students cannot open their mouths to speak english despite they have learned english for several years. under the “reform and opening-up policy” and with china entry to wto, english is becoming a hit in china. in line with the national policy and current situation, the reforming of educational system in china is progressing with times and the tendency of quality-oriented education is taking to end. at present, traditional methods are widely used in grammar teaching in china, but the approach has already showed its shortcomings and limitations. at first, there is little or no attention to pronunciation. the assumption is that language consists of written words and of words that exist in isolation, as though they are individual bricks that could be translated one by one into their foreign equivalents and then assessed according to grammatical rules into sentences in the foreign language. second, it is text-bounced and confined to only two skills-reading and writing; it is not a communicative activity because it involves no oral interaction. third, it is not suitable for classroom work because the students must do their own work; it is also time consuming and wasteful. fourth, it is associated with different language, with literary or scientific texts, and is not suited to the general needs of the language learner; and the use of mother tongue is required, and this is not desirable. in the word, the traditional grammar teaching method is to teach students grammar rule after rule. the students have to remember the dull rules in mind, but they cannot use them freely. when they are speaking a foreign language, they have to stop from time to time to think of the sentence structure and the grammar rules in order to anther, perhaps it is unimaginable to stop for a moment to have some time to think about something and then speak continuously. what they should do is trying to speak fluently and make the language receiver understand them. in the traditional teaching of the grammar, the center of the process is the teacher, and the teacher controls every students action as possible as he or she can. the students are the passive receivers, because they cannot think and speak freely. what they have to do is to remember the rules the teacher taught them.communicative approach is an approach to language teaching which emphasizes the meaning and usage rather that the form of language and aims at developing the learners communicative competence in foreign language teaching and learning. because of the features of possibility、 feasibility in foreign language teaching and leaning. because of the features of possibility, feasibility, appropriateness and performance and the advantages of communicative approach, it is a recommendable approach to bring about success in english grammar teaching.ii. the traditional english grammar teaching methods1. the inductive methodin the inductive method, the teacher induces the learners to realize grammar rules without any form of explicit explanation. it is believed that the rules will become evident if the students are given enough appropriate examples. for example, in order to present the two forms “this is “and “these are”, the teacher will first hold up a book, saying” this is a book.” he will do the same shoeing other objects. then the teacher holds up several books and says” these are books.” after several similar examples, it is hoped students will understand” theses are” is used with plural forms of nouns. then students are invited to apply the newly learned structure to produce sentences with given visual aids of verbal prompts. the teacher tries to say nothing except to correct when necessary. finally, but optionally, the teacher may elicit the grammar rule from the students.2. the deductive methodthe deductive method relies on reasoning, analyzing and comparing. first, the teacher writes an example on the board or draws attention to an example in the textbook. then teacher explains the underlying rules regarding the forms and positions of certain structural words. the explanations are often done in the students native language and using grammatical terms. sometimes, comparisons are made between the native language and the target language or between the newly presented structure and previously learned structures. finally the students practise applying the rule to produce sentences with given prompts.the deductive method is often criticized because: 1) it teaches grammar in an isolated way; 2) little attention is paid to meaning; 3) the practice is often mechanical. how ever, this method is not without merits. first, it could be very successful with selected and motivated students. second, it could save time when students are confronted with a grammar rule which is complex but which has to be learned. third, i may help to increase students confidence in those examinations which are written with accuracy as the main criterion of success.3. the combination of inductive and deductive methodpennington (2002:92-93) proposes a synthesis approach to grammatical pedagogy. she emphasized that grammar teaching should be “collocational, constructive, contextual and contrastive”, which can serve as useful guidelines for teaching grammar.by collocational, it means that the grammar should be built on collocational relations between individual lexical items and their subcategories. therefore, more teaching time should be devoted to semantic structure of the lexicon and of the connected discourse rather than higher order grammatical rules. by constructive, it means that ones knowledge of grammar is built bit by bit, which closely model the way language is leaned and used. a constructive grammar would offer learners a way to build elements that can be continually added in sequence. language use would be instructed as a problem-solving activity carried out in time, with communicative decisions at one moment linked to those that precede and follow. by contextual, it means that elements and structures are taught in relation to their context. syntactic and lexical choices are explicitly related to pragmatic ones, and to social and cultural contexts. the focus is on how the speaker and hearer create and negotiate meaning in that social and cultural context. finally, by contrastive, it means that grammar involves drawing the learners attention to contrast the differences between the target language and other languages, and between sets of similar features and items of the target language (i.e. simple past and present perfect tenses in english or sets of lexical items with overlapping meaning, such as “watch, look, see”, which have different collocational relations). in this way, learners can be introduced to the minimal differences between languages, as a starting point for considering the more extensive differences that stem from individual lexicons and the meaning of individual words.iii. the communicative approach1. definition of communicative approachcommunicative approach came into being in the 1970s in the west. in china, it is first introduced in 1980s.it is an approach to language teaching emphasizing the meaning and usage, rather than the form of language, which aims at developing the learners communicative competence in foreign language teaching and learning. hymens (hymes, d. 1972.), defines that the communicative competence consists of four components: possibility-the ability to produce grammatical sentences, feasibility-the ability to produce sentences that can be decoded by the human brain, appropriateness-the ability to use correct forms of language in a specific social-cultural context, performance-the fact that the utterance is completed. in hymens view, the learners need acquire not only grammatical knowledge but also ability to use the language appropriately. the aim of language learning is to acquire the ability to perform a repertoire of speech acts so as to take part in speech events. that is, learning language is learning to perform certain functions.2. some features of communicative approach2.1 communicative approach studies and considers language from a socio-cultural point of view. in this view language is used for different purposes or functions. language teaching is not only the teaching of the grammar rules or knowledge but also a development of “the rules of the use” or the learners ability to use the language to communicate. so this is quite different from the traditional grammar-based approaches.2.2 it lays emphasis on developing the communicative competence.it takes into great consideration the needs of the students. and teachers in communicative classroom will talk less and listen more; they become active facilitators of their students learning. the teacher sets up the exercises, and step back and observe, sometime acting as referee, monitor or just like one of students. a classroom during a communicative activity is far from quiet. however, the students do most of speaking, writing and reading and frequently the scene of classroom during a communicative exercise is active, with students leaving their seats to complete a task. students may find they gain confidence in using the target language in general. students are more responsible managers of their own learning.2.3 it concentrates on useful and necessary language rather than simply on language form. it starts from language meaning and language function develops students listening speaking, reading and writing ability. therefore, the students not only gain some knowledge of foreign language but also can use that knowledge to communicate with different people in different places effectively and appropriately.2.4 it is students centered teaching method.it is students centered teaching method, so it sets the goal of teaching english according to the students real needs. in terms of the goal of teaching, educationists will chose the teaching contents and will operate proper teaching method. in this way, the students will actively engage in english learning with strong motivation.2.5 it emphasizes the authenticity of teaching material.it emphasizes the authenticity of teaching material, namely all the teaching material will be chosen from real life or the material should be closely related to real life and the organizing of teaching activity is operated around the real life for completing real task. in this way, the teaching process becomes communication itself. and students can learn english only in communication.iv. the application of communicative approach in english grammar teaching 1. the principles of applying communicative approach in english grammar teaching1.1 teachers should try their best to create english environment. at present, it requests teachers to create english environment. making students have the habit of thinking in english is an aspect of cultivating students communicative ability in english teaching. if the teacher gives lessons in their mother tongue in class, it will lack of language environment and students have to think or act in their mother tongue for that they are afraid of making mistakes or they cannot read. in their written work or spoken work, they make many english sentences made by the way of thinking in their mother tongue. the reason of this situation is that when they write out or speak out sentences, they translate it from their mother tongue after thinking in their mother tongue. so it affected seriously the accuracy and fluency of language expression. so the teachers should try their best to create english environment and relate those grammar points to the real things that will be expressed. but it is necessary to use students mother tongue in grammar teaching. it is different from other courses, so we should use students mother tongue when it is necessary. besides that, teachers should make sure that the core of teaching is communication. teaching is a communication between teacher and students. communication in teaching is the process of sharing or exchanging opinion, feeling and information between teacher and students. teacher and students are the center of teaching and their relationship is equal, cooperative and negotiable. in teaching, the differences between teacher and students are that of their role and mission. teacher is director, helper, monitor and referee. students are more responsible managers of their own learning, and they should learn actively. teachers should develop students learning effectiveness though optimizing the teaching process. teaching is not just the process of teachers teaching or students learning, but it is the result of cooperation between teacher and students. so teacher should make sure that the goal achieving effectiveness of teaching is completed by the cooperation and communication between teacher and students.1.2 teacher should teach in context. in most textbooks, usually the grammar is very often presented out of context. students are given isolated sentences, which they are expected to internalize through exercises involving repetition, manipulation and grammatical transformation. these exercises are designed to provide learners with formal, declarative mastery, but unless they provide opportunities for learners to explore grammatical structure in context, they make the task of developing procedural skill-being able to use the language for communication-more difficult than it needs to be, because learners are denied the opportunity of seeing the systematic relationship that exists among form, meaning, and use. teachers need to help learners see that effective communication involves achieving harmony between functional interpretation and formal propriety by giving them tasks dramatize the relationship between grammatical items and the discoursed contexts in which they occur. in genuine communication beyond the classroom, grammar and context are often so closely related that appropriate grammatical choices can only be made with reference to context and appropriate grammatical choices can only be made with reference to context and purpose of the communication” if learners are not given opportunities to explore grammar in context, it will be difficult for them to see how why alternative forms exists to express different communicative meanings. for example, getting learners to read a set of sentences in the active voice, and then transform these into passive following the passive voice. however, it needs to be supplemented by tasks that give learners opportunities to explore when it is communicatively appropriate to use the passive rather than active voice. 1.3 the grammar teaching should integrate with reality, well explanation and more practice. a variety of grammar forms serve for real expression. when teachers teach a grammar point, they should try their best to express its real usages. it is not effective if grammar is taught on isolation, so teachers should teach it in the language scene as much as possible. students learning interest will get inspired in real language situation or simulated teaching environment, and they will accept or understand the grammar points easily. based on above, the teacher lead students properly, encourage them to represent boldly and freely, and also encourage them to communicate by using their newly learned grammar points. in this way, the students will realize the real value of using grammar points, and their initiative and consciousness will be strengthened. in a word, students will not feel boring, when they study grammar knowledge in a real language scene or simulated language environment. on the other hand, it is easy to