The Application Of CLT To Grammar Teaching In Senior Middle School

Grammatical knowledge is traditionally viewed as the most important so that formal instruction is made the goal of English language teaching, but the ability of using language is totally neglected. D. Hymes believed that linguistic rules were connected with language in use and proposed the concept of communicative competence, pointing out that the competent speaker must have knowledge of how to use language both appropriately and effectively.Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or Communicative Approach has begun and developed on the basis of the theory of communicative competence, and later communicative competence is made the ultimate goal of English language teaching. However, at present, in the practice of adapting CLT in Chinese English language teaching, there exist some misconceptions and misimplementation of doing it.It is really crucial whether grammatical instruction has its role in CLT in Chinese settings. There have been many noted functionalists, pioneers and advocates of CLT.They claim that in language teaching, grammatical instruction is not only indispensable but also of access to the teaching goal. Grammar teaching, if positively looked at, helps learners to become skilled in recognizing, analyzing and eventually mastering these elusive structural features which are an essential aspect of proficiency.In China, there are many scholars who point out that the adaptation of CLT in Chinese classroom does not mean the rejection of the grammar teaching or the traditional teaching methods, and the relation between communicative competence and grammar teaching is the one of the ends and means. And CLT does not mean one method but rather an approach, having varied and flexible methods in practice. The essential point of CLT is "using English to learn", or " learning to use English". For the case in China, it is more suitable to adapt the latter.This dissertation aims to explore the necessity and the function of the formal instruction in the adaptation of CLT to English Language Teaching (ELT) in China, and the theories and notions which Chinese English teachers should maintain, and then it puts forward the possible ways of formal instruction through communicative approaches, integrating language forms into language functions in order to make a change of the inefficiency of ELT in China's situation to a more efficient teaching objective: communicative competence. This dissertation also explores the adaptation of CLT to grammatical teaching by the instance of adjective teaching. In this way, the learners can consciously be aware of the communicative function of the language and they can systematically obtain grammatical competence.This dissertation consists of five chapters.Chapter One serves as an introduction, which indicates the objective of ELT, presents the current situation of ELT in China, and outlines the general structure of this dissertation.Chapter Two discusses the role of grammar in CLT, and the importance of teaching grammar.Chapter Three introduces CLT and the relationship between grammar teaching andCLT.Chapter Four gives an example of CLT in grammar teaching.Chapter Five serves as the conclusion of the thesis. It stresses that a complete and correct understanding and a positive adaptation of CLT are needed in the improvement of the Chinese current situation in ELT. For teachers a good recognition of the core of CLT and various techniques are indispensable. Besides, teaching grammar for a communicative purpose requires the teacher to combine the teaching content with language use.