Teaching English Grammar

 In a Communicative Way

本文首发于《学英语》2008年高中教师版第30期

1.0  Introduction

We have put educational reform on the agenda for years. In order to improve the quality of teaching, more and more Chinese teachers of English are trying to seek the best way of teaching our Chinese students  English, and they have already made great progress. Some teachers, however, still cling to old-fashioned methods of teaching English—Grammar Translation. They teach English only to help their students get high scores and enter college or university. To achieve their purpose they teach texts word by word by making narrow structural analyses, by translating, by talking endlessly about the usage of a word and grammar points in Chinese. This method generally consists of three steps:

1) Learning the grammar rules;

2) Giving a few examples;

3) Doing many written grammar exercises.

Students therefore spend most of their time on grammar. Their spare time, too, is often occupied by extra classes and homework, and the classes are often dominated by the teacher. In this way, students may indeed learn all the basic structures in English words during their six years of middle school education, yet they are not really learning English. They can hardly write a single correct sentence or communicate in English with their classmates and teachers, let alone native speakers. Therefore, it is vital essential to change this situation immediately.

In our country, grammar is necessary in learning English, but how to teach grammar in English teaching should be considered by our English teachers. In this paper, I will attempt to address the problem by looking at the Grammar Translation and negative effects it causes upon English teaching and learning. Then I will try to put forward a good method—teaching grammar in a communicative way and six concrete strategies to reform the present grammar teaching in middle schools.

2.0  Problems and negative effects of the Grammar Translation in English teaching.

2.1  No oral interaction

Grammar teaching is usually regarded as knowledge presentation. It is combined in the text and confined to explaining rules and doing exercises. In learning the text, the teacher often dominates the class. Thus the class can’t contribute to the students’ communicative competence. That’s why many Chinese students can not monitor their speaking with grammatical rules, though they could get high marks in a written test. For instance, they frequently use “him”, “her” and “Yes”, “No” by mistake when they communicate with people. Why? Because the traditional method—Grammar Translation does not allow students to practice speaking, which actually is very important to English teaching and learning.

2.2  Too much teacher dominance

Throughout a grammar translation class, the­­­­­­­­­ teaching is completely in charge, and the teacher is the centre of the class management, students are not involved in the least. They do not have the chance to do discussion or activities as pair work or group work among themselves. They are simply supposed to listen carefully and take notes. They are not active but passive in class.

2.3  Class atmosphere is boring

Usually this kind of class is extremely quiet and orderly. But students look bored, because there is little cooperation between the teacher and students. No one interrupts the teacher to ask any questions and the teacher gets little feedback from his or her students. The relationship between the teacher and students seems a parent-child one.

2.4  Students are unmotivated

It seems to me that students are forced to attend the class. The class is boring and uninteresting. No any other effective means in the teaching process is carried out but to give the students grammar rules and points. Therefore students usually regard English learning as a very difficult task. In class they possibly can’t help doing something else. Little by little they will lose interest in English for they are not motivated at all.

2.5  Grammar for grammar

Grammar and communication are considered unrelated. So grammar teachers teach grammar only for students’ grammatical knowledge, and pay much more attention to it in learning the text. As for speaking and listening, they are beyond their demand to the students’ high scores and their purpose. Consequently, the more grammar points students learn, the more they find communication becomes difficult.

3.0  Teaching grammar in a communicative way

3.1  The nature of Communicative Language Teaching

3.1.1  What is Communicative Language Teaching?

Communicative Language Teaching is a type of teaching method based on language skills which tries to develop the communicative ability of students as well as the knowledge of grammar. W. Little Wood writes “communicative language teaching may derive from an understanding of language not only in terms of its structure (grammar and vocabulary), but also in terms of the communicative functions that it performs”. (W. Little Wood, 1981)

3.1.2  Aims and principles

Communicative Language Teaching aims to produce efficient “communicators” from a beginner’s level onward. The central principle of Communicative Language Teaching is “learning by doing”. It emphasizes actual language use through which to develop the students communicative skills. Successful and realistic communication is more desirable than grammatically correct but meaningless utterances. It encourages the use of alternative techniques to make classroom situation of real foreign language environment

3.1.3  Theory of learning

When talking about theory of learning, three elements have to be considered. They are communication, talks and meaningfulness. Almost everything that is done must be done with a communicative intent, This encourages students to use the language a great deal through communicative activities, such as games and role-plays. Of course, during the process, the students must have a choice of what he will say without being tightly controlled. Tasks here refers to purposes. The activities need to be purposeful. Thus, the speaker can evaluate himself through the achievement of his purpose based on the information from his listener. Lastly, the learning activities must be meaningful. It is considered desirable to develop students strategies for understanding language and to promote their language learning as a result.

3.1.4  The role of the teacher and the students

The teacher is a facilitator of his students’ leaning. Thus he has many roles to fulfill. He is a manager of classroom activities. In this role, one of his major responsibilities is to establish situations likely to promote communication. During the activities he acts as an advisor, answering the students’ questions and monitoring their performance. At other times he might be a “co-communicator” engaging in the communicative activities along with his students. (W. Little wood, 1981)

Students, above all, are communicators. They are actively engaged in negotiation meaning—in trying to make themselves understood—even when their knowledge of the language is incomplete. They learn to communicate by communicating. Also they can be seen as their own manager due to teachers less dominate role in Communicative Language Teaching.

3.2  How to teach grammar in a communicative way?

Communicative Teaching can do a lot of good to learning. This can be seen from all above. Therefore, if our goal is to develop communicative skills, then our method should itself be communicative—that is, it should make our students to involve the exchange and negotiation of ideas and feelings about the learning process, with the teacher as co-participant, not dominant in class. This idea is very reasonable. In my teaching process, I tried it and got unexpected result. Then how could we put the idea into the practice of grammar teaching in Chinese English class? I would like to suggest the following strategies.

3.2.1  Motivating students

Harmer (1987, p3) points out, “Motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action.” Clearly motivation is particularly vital in English teaching and learning. As Ellis (1989, p119) argues, “There can be little doubt that motivation is a powerful factor in Second Language Acquisition.” To motivate my students, I give them re-presentation activities concerning the topic material. For example, when I presented “the omission of prepositions”, I designed two activities to motivate my students:

1) Discuss in pairs whether you have seen occasions where the preposition can be omitted and give some examples.

2) Work in pairs or groups of 3 – 4 students to discuss whether the underlined prepositions in the following can be omitted:

The discussion lasted for 30 minutes.

For two days he has stayed in bed.

Of what colour is your new shirt?

3.2.2  Using pair work

Pair work is a good idea for class management. As Harmer (1987, p206) says, “Pair work allows the students to use language and also encourages students co-operation which is itself important for the atmosphere of the class and for the motivation it gives to learning with others.” For example, instead of giving answers directly of grammatical exercises, I put my students into pairs to discuss the best answers. By doing so, the students not only found their solutions but practised their speaking as well. This is really like what the proverbs says—“killing two birds with one stone”.

3.2.3  Using group work

Compared with pair work, group work could be more attractive in a grammar class, students in groups could be exciting and dynamic provided the tasks were well-designed. Harmer (1987, p207) suggests, “Students will be teaching and learning in a group exhibiting a degree of self-reliance that simply is not possible when the teachers acting as a controller”.

3.2.4  Using individual work

Sometimes students need to work individually. In individual work, they learn at their own speed; focus on a specific question more carefully. And they feel relaxed. If one has a question, one can discuss it with one’s partner or bring it to a group to solve. If it still remains a question, the teacher may organize the class to deal with it until it is solved.

3.2.5  Giving students the chance to practise

Krashen (Ellis, 1989, p229) identifies two types of linguistic knowledge of Second Language Acquisition. That is “acquisition” and “learning”. Acquisition occurs automatically when the learner engages in natural communication where the focus is on meaning and where there is comprehensible input. Learning occurs as a result of the target language. According to this theory, grammar teaching is surely not only learning, but also acquisition. It is a conscious process which results only in “knowing about” the language. And the students cannot produce “the formal properties of the target language” automatically or spontaneously in authentic communicative situation. Clearly acquisition of a language is more successful than learning. Can learning turn into acquisition then? The answer is affirmative. Learning can become acquisition when it is sufficiently practised. Learning becomes acquisition in two ways:

1) Directly, by means of “intake environment” supplied by class.

2) Indirectly, by automatizing explicit knowledge through practice.

After presenting “were” form subjunctive, I divided the class into pairs to use the structure “If I were you, I would...” to give advice after hearing the partner’s problem.

3.2.6  Using games

Using games is another strategy worth following in a grammar class. Games increase students’ motivation and wake up a tired class, renew their energy especially in a grammar class. They ensure maximum participation for students: more students talk, less the teacher talks. And they contribute to a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom: students produce natural language in a non-stressful situation. Games can be used at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the class. This mainly depends on the class atmosphere and the topic to be dealt with. And they proved to be wonderful to use in a grammar class.

4.0  Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to reaffirm that the six strategies we discussed above are successful, which are based on the theory of Communicative Language Teaching. We have noticed that a dynamic and relaxed class atmosphere is formed; students are motivated and excited to such an extent that it could be hard to  stop them talking; more students are involved. No one is tired of a grammar class, and they don’t think the class is boring. The teacher is no longer a dominator but is an organizer, helper and co-participant, who walks about the classroom, monitoring and getting feedback easily. Above all, students practise speaking and listening while learning grammar. Therefore, teaching grammar in a communicative way is a good method in language teaching and learning. And it should be carried out by our English teachers. 

References:

[1] Harmer J, The Practice of English language Teaching [M], London: Longman, 1987

[2] Ellis R, Understanding Second Language Acquisition [M], Oxford University Press, 1989

[3] Penny Ur, Grammar Practice Activities [M], Cambridge University Press, 1988

[4] Raja, Teaching and Learning English [M], London: Longman, 1987