An Exploration On Senior English Grammar Teaching In The New Curriculum Criteria

English grammar teaching has long been a controversial issue in the history of foreign language teaching. English teaching in our country has been greatly influenced by foreign language teaching theories. The grammar-translation method and the audiolingualism have ever been popular. For a long time before the use of new textbooks, the shortage of teachers, out-of-date teaching facilities and large-scale classes all made English teaching lay much emphasis on the teaching of grammar rules but ignore the cultivation of the students' communicative abilities. However, since the adoption of new teaching materials, the communicative approach has become the mainstream of English teaching, so grammar teaching has been weakened. Students' speaking and listening abilities have been improved but meanwhile their language comprehension ability and writing and reading abilities have declined. Under such circumstances, English teaching has again taken grammar teaching seriously and has begun to explore ways of improving grammar teaching. The new curriculum criteria has clearly pointed out, English teaching should not pay too much attention to the explanation of grammar rules and vocabulary and ignore the cultivation of students' practical ability of using language. It proposes learner-centered and task-based teaching methods; it advocates students' experience, practice, participation, cooperation and exchange to develop students' comprehensive language ability and to promote students' integrated language abilities through grammar learning. Therefore, what grammar teaching now is most concerned about is what methods will be most beneficial to the students' communicative ability.Based on the idea that grammar teaching should serve cultivating students' communicative ability and learning from the experience of others as well as of the author's own teaching practice, the author wants to find the answers to the following two questions: How can grammar teaching be combined with communicative teaching? How can different teaching methods be made use of to involve the students and encourage them to learn actively in order to be helpful to enhance the students' interest and achievements?This thesis explores grammar-teaching methods in senior middle school through the combination of theoretical exploration and action research. With the extensive consultation of data and profound analysis of the current trend of grammar teaching abroad and the present situation and problems existing in grammar teaching in our country, combined with results of the experimental study on the grammar teaching methods of two classes from July 2007 to January 2008, the present study answers the two research questions and puts forward some suggestions for new methods in grammar teaching under the new curriculum criteria. Grammar should be taught in the process of students' completion of tasks, in students' exploration, in the situation, in contrast and induction and in games so as to be helpful to the solving of the existing problems in grammar teaching, which are hopefully to be preliminary insights for the further researches on English grammar teaching in middle school.