Today, the main focus of research on grammar teaching in foreign language teaching is how to conduct grammar teaching。 “How to create an effective grammar teaching has been an important and urgent topic in the study of foreign language instruction”(He 27)。
English grammar teaching refers to “the traditional grammar written by grammarians in the 18th century with prescriptive method。 Because the grammar teaching used by both native and foreign students comes from this tradition, the grammar collectively referred as traditional grammar。 It emphasizes on language accuracy and integrity。 In addition, it pays attention to the written language and literary masterpiece”。(Huang 99)论文网
In history, there are lots of methods and approaches in teaching English grammar。 Changes in language teaching methods throughout history have reflected recognition of changes in the kind of proficiency learners need, such as a move toward oral proficiency rather than reading comprehension as the goal of language study; they have also reflected changes in theories of the nature of language and language learning。
Among all kinds of grammar teaching methods, explicit grammar teaching and implicit grammar teaching arouse the most attention。
2。1 Grammar Teaching Method
Grammar is a rule of language use, which has a positive guiding impact on language practice。 So to master and apply the knowledge of grammar plays an important role in language competence。
English teaching is pided into two kinds。 One is that the key to learn English is to cultivate the sense of language, and grammar learning is not necessary。 People with this view insist that English speakers who have fluent oral English, but are not familiar with grammar knowledge, especially when running across tense。 This is because English is their mother tongue。 As we learn Chinese, without contact with grammar, we are able to use it well。 As a result, language environment is very important。 English for senior high students in our country, who didn’t grow in an English environment, is just a foreign language。
Another argument is that if you want to learn English well, you must master grammar, and teaching should be centered with it。 For high school students, though there being no foreign language environment, they need to speak English correctly and understand the rules of English grammar。 In the past two years, with the reform of the college entrance examination system, the English test paper has added more grammar items and increased the proportion of the scores。 College entrance essay is focused on the use of grammar too。 So English grammar teaching is necessary。(Wei 58)
If we compare English learning to building a house, then the vocabulary is brick and tile, and grammar is its beam。 For high school students, the better you grasp grammar, the easier you will learn English。 So grammar is very important in English teaching。
On one hand, grammar is the basis of improving oral ability。 The ultimate goal of learning English is not to cope with the college entrance exam, but to use it in real life。 Grammar knowledge is an indispensable part in oral practice, and language ability is closely connected with communicative competence。 Without grammar as a foundation, oral ability can not be improved, and the final communication skills will also be affected。
On the other hand, grammar teaching is required in the Chinese environment。 In high school, most English teachers are Chinese。 Therefore, high school students lack the opportunity to communicate in English with others。 So it is difficult to grasp the skills of learning English through language practice。 In addition, English and Chinese are different in many ways。 Chinese aims to express meaning but not the way how to express it, and we can use various ways to represent the same meaning。 However, English focuses on the form of expressing so that we must master grammar rules to better use it。(Shi 13)