The Application Of Communicative Teaching In Grammar Courses In Senior High School

The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is accepted by teachers in differentcountries. However, in China’s English language teaching, there are somemisunderstandings. Some think that this approach can only be used to teach listeningand speaking. They either neglect grammar teaching or hold the view that CLT andgrammar teaching are contradictory to each other. Meanwhile, the status of grammar isquestioned. In order to develop the learners’ communicative competence, some evenpropose that grammar is not important and should not be taught in the classroom. In fact,grammar teaching is not only indispensable but also of the access to the teaching goal. Itis obvious that the challenge we are facing is not to decide whether to teach grammar ornot, but to explore how to teach grammar more effectively. Applying CLT to grammarclass is of great importance to develop the learners’ communicative competence andlanguage learning. The application of CLT in Chinese classroom does not mean therejection of grammar teaching. The relationship between language teaching/learning andgrammar teaching/learning should be that of the results and the courses.This thesis makes an empirical study on the feasibility of CLT in grammar class insenior middle school in China. Its aim is to probe into the different ways of CLT ingrammar class, helping Chinese senior middle school teachers discover more effectiveways in their teaching of grammar, and to promote learners’ ability of using language. Inthe experiment, two classes in an ordinary senior middle school were randomly selectedas Experimental Class and Control Class. The two classes were taught by CLT andtraditional method (i.e, Presentation，Practice and Production) respectively. The data ofthe achievement test at the beginning of the experiment showed that they shared asimilar level of their general English proficiency. The pre-test made before theexperiment stated that there wasn’t any distinction between the two classes in theirgrammatical competence in the subjunctive mood and the noun clause. The post-testconducted after the experiment identified that there was significant difference in termsof their grammatical competence in the noun clause and the subjunctive mood betweenthe two classes. The scores of the learners in Experimental Class were higher than thosein Control Class. Different teaching methods result in different learning results. As aresult, we can draw the following conclusion: applying CLT in grammar class in Chinese senior middle school is feasible; CLT is more effective than the traditional (PPP)method, since it can bring about great progress to learners in their grammar learning.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter one is the brief introduction to the whole thesis. It begins with the problemsof the current English grammar teaching in senior middle school, then the researchquestions are addressed and the significance of the study is pointed out.Chapter two is the literature review. Theories related to the present research arecovered. It starts with the understanding of foreign language teaching (FLT). Then thetheories illustrates that grammar teaching is extremely important and necessary forforeign language teaching, and should be integrated into the Communicative LanguageTeaching (CLT) framework. At the end of this part, the thesis discusses the four mostinfluential CLT models in English grammar class.Chapter three is the research design. It makes an empirical study on CLT in grammarclass in Chinese senior middle school in terms of the subjects, instruments, the approach,the design, the procedures, data collection and analysis. The study employs acommunicative technique, which creates opportunities for learners to use the targetlanguage by providing them with the designed communicative grammar tasks andvarious kinds of context concerning grammar. It is an investigation of the effect of CLTin English grammar class with an aim to examine the relationship between the teachingmethods and learning outcomes.Chapter four is the results and discussion of the experiment. Through the analysis ofthe results of the language tests and the questionnaires of the same class, this chaptergives the readers enough proof that CLT can be used in grammar class in Chinese seniorclasses, and that CLT is more effective than the traditional (PPP) method, since CLT canbring about great progress in learners’ grammatical competence.Chapter five concludes the thesis. Applying CLT in grammar class in Chinese seniormiddle school is feasible and effective. The author stresses that a complete and correctunderstanding and a positive adoption of CLT are needed in the improvement of thecurrent Chinese English grammar class. For English teachers, a good recognition ofCLT and different kinds of techniques are indispensable. Besides, teaching grammar inCLT requires the teachers to combine the teaching content with the language use, tointegrate the language structures with the language functions, so that they can speed upthe learners’ improvement of their grammar learning, and reach the teaching goal of developing learners’ communicative competence.