Combining Grammar-Translation Method And Communicative Approach In Foreign Language Teaching Of Higher Vocational Colleges

Teaching English aims at cultivating students' linguistic competence and communicative competence. In order to achieve those purposes, English teachers should not only help students have a good command of linguistic knowledge, but also focus on skill training, and involve students in communicative activities.The eclectic language teaching approach that incorporates Communicative method into Grammar-Translation approach has been tested to be good and efficient. First, since this approach gives attention to the importance of grammar teaching and meanwhile provides learners with more chances to practice speaking English in pairs and groups, even during the transmission of grammar knowledge, learners who are taught with this approach can express themselves in a clearer way, with more accuracy and fluency. Second, the various classroom activities can stir up the learners' creative usage of the target language and stimulate learners into giving active responses in class, which is a key to the success of classroom language teaching.Foreign language, a compulsory basic course in higher- vocational colleges, has its own practical and professional features for teaching. However, it has long been taught in the same way as that in the institutions of higher learning and therefore the teaching is not as effective as expected. Currently it is hard to achieve the training goal as required for the higher-vocational college students. By reference to both of the advantages of languages teaching in the foreign countries and the characteristics of the training goal for the higher- vocational colleges, this thesis presents a method for teaching foreign language—the combination of grammar-translation teaching method and communicative teaching approach. It aims to find out a new effective language-teaching mode. The teacher should follow several principles in his teaching when s/he uses two kinds of teaching approaches simultaneously in the class: principle of teaching according to students' ability, principle of communication, principle of practicality and principle of the full development of students' language competence. The teacher should also arrange the teaching contents in a proper way, adjusting the difficulty of language points and communicative training and setting an authentic and attractive situation for the students.