Improvement Of The Grammar-Translation Method Under The Guidance Of Communicative Approach

Both the Grammar-Translation Method (G-T) and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which are the most effective and major foreign language teaching methods that have been widely used at present, have great effects on FLT. The former has a long history, though it endures defamation and enjoys praise at the same time, and it still holds an evident advantageous position in the foreign language teaching of our country. The latter is the most popular theory in modern world, despite its great difference from traditional teaching method, it assimilates something good and useful as well. It reveals the social function of language, and brings to light that the essence of language teaching is to regard the cultivation of communicative competence as the core of FLT, pointing out the directions for LT for the first time.Traditional G-T puts emphasis on grammar, reading is both its goal and its technique, so it is also called "reading translation" . But we find that this method makes very limited use of language resources that the instructional materials offer. As it lacks a step of "using language" , there remains a big gap between comprehension and communicative competence.CLT "makes communicative competence as its teaching aim" , and views " reality " as one of the teaching principles, but as the result of the lack of some necessary conditions, such as, social cultural language situations and teaching education, it must be united with traditional method before some actual effects can really be achieved.CLT is best considered an approach rather than a method, which has a great directive significance for the teachers to reform their teaching. In this thesis, we grasp the principle of "using language to learn it", which is one of the most important viewpoints in CLT, advances a reformed model to the G-T method, ie, on the basis of the G-T method, the learners should have onemore step------translate it into the original text from its Chinese translatedtext. This kind of translation is not spoken but written, so that you can compare it with the original text to find the errors yourself and correct them yourself. In order to avoid confusion, we name the model, retranslation. Of course, we shouldn't limit to translation, after grasping linguistic competence, the ultimate goal is to improve linguistic performance.The theoretical significance of this thesis is to discuss whether thereversion from LI to L2 at the level of discourse can contribute to the cultivation of thinking in English, foster the thought of making full use of English, and acquire as many language sources as possible from teaching materials, thus taking a further step towards the communicative competence.The practical significance of this thesis is to prove that this model is available and effective among the medium middle school students by doing many surveys and researches, and what's more, it conforms to the present actual conditions of the FLT in China.This thesis consists of 5 chapters:Chapter 1 is Literature Review.Chapter 2 makes some comparisons between G-T method and CLT from the aspects of theoretical basis, teaching principles, roles of teacher and student, etc, and draws a conclusion that it is necessary to reform the G-T method under the guidance of communicative approaches.Chapter 3 proposes the scheme of reforming the G-T method, that is, to add the step of retranslation on the basis of traditional G-T method, and points out with the communicative approaches as its supporting theory, it is really a good choice suitable for the current situation at home.Chapter 4 is about investigations. By doing case study, we have made full preparations for the scheme. Then, we have conducted an experimental research within one of our class, proving that our scheme is a studying strategy that can improve the learners' communicative competence.Chapter 5 discusses the teaching principles that have been drawn from the experimental research, and describes how the specific teaching procedures realize its approach in classroom behavior through classroom illustration of the reformed teaching model.