On English Grammar Teaching in Senior School

郭 芬

[Abstract] This paper illustrates two basic principles for grammar teaching and suggests English teachers should make students enjoy the grammar teaching.

[Key words] grammar teaching

I.Introdution：

English grammar helps the student communicate appropiately in different situations，and at the same time it enhances students’ communicative competence.However，the student himself can’t meet the goal without teacher’s adequate grammar paractice.Moreover，grammar plays an essential role in aquiring literary taste，“Grammar is eminently a means of mental training;and while it will train the student in subtle and acute reasoning，it will at the same time，if rightly presented，lay the foundation of a keen observation and a correct literary taste.“ ①（www.about.com An English Grammar，1896，by W.M.Baskervill & J.W.Sewell）In my view，grammar teaching should base on E and A principle.Meanwhile，English teachers should make students enjoy the grammar teaching.

II.Tow Basic Principles for Grammar Teaching

It is the E and A principle：how efficient they are（the E-factor）and how appropriate they are（the A-factor）.

III.Make Students Enjoy the Grammar Teaching

3.1 English Grammar Teaching Should Not be Teacher’s Lecturing Platform And Teachers Should Make Grammar Teaching Communicative

“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they themselves have disvovered than by those which have come into the minds of others.” We can often hear students describe their grammar lesson with words like：complicate，difficult，tired，boring.Once the teacher came in with a pile of grammar exercises，the students will not be interested.That is because grammar teaching has been a teacher-based platform，where teachers are devoted most time to doing masses of grammar exercises，mechanical explanation and neglect the communicative activities between students.As a matter of fact，teachers should not be the leading role of the platform，and grammar knowledge can possibly be taught in a communicative way，not necessarily by lecturing，which creates no information gaps to make communication available.In an English class，the role of a teacher is of great importance，but he or she is more than a grammar lecturer;more oftenly，he or she is a role-director，（while his or her students act as the leading roles in the class），who is skillful at directing and conducting，works hard to urge the students to participate in the communicative activities，offering each student an eaqual chance to join in the classroom activities and ensuring each of them to experience the joy of successful communication.Besides，the grammar teaching should not be isolated only depending on grammar itself----language is context-sensitive，so is grammar teaching in context，which，to put it another way，grammar teaching can be communicative.Our teacher processes grammar teaching by creating enough communicative opportunities to make students believe studying what grammar is possible in different contexts brings pleasure and make them involved and experience the great success of understanding and using it.And only in this way can our teachers stimulate students’ interest of studying English grammar.Generally，it can be penetrated into all meaningful fields in a communicative way，including listening，speaking，reading and writing.

3.2 Encourage Students to Apply Grammar Knowledge----Experience the Happiness

“Surely our noble language，with its enormous vocabulary，its peculiar and abundant idioms，its numerous periphrastic forms to express every possible shade of meaning，is worthy of serious study，apart from the mere memorizing of inflections and formulation of rules.”（www.about.com An English Grammar，1896，by W.M.Baskervill & J.W.Sewell）.We all know that we learn a language，but we can’t say we master it unless we use it.It is the same with English grammar.And the “serious study” is not the study itself.It means to use it after we learn it，not to remember it only.The grammar knowledge，no matter what it is about，should be applied into practice.In this way students can easily have the sense of achievement，and of course be interested and motivated to study further.The encouragement can be from listening，speaking，reading and writing.The following is a good example written by a student to well employ grammar knowledge in writing：

Dear Tom，

I feel so happy to have heard from you.Now let me tell you something about my hometown Xijiang City.

Xijiang City，on the bank of Yangtze River，is a beautiful and comfortable place to live.In recent years，a lot of new buildings，big factories and highways are available for people，which makes her economy develop rapidly.However，where there is a boom city，there are social problems.The first thing that goes wrong is water pollution.And air pollution is serious，so is the crowded traffic.

Developing city as my hometown is，I hope she is processing in a harmony and environmental way.A nest is to a bird what my hometown is to me.I love my hometown！

Best wishes to you！

Yours

LiHua

We feel the student’s strong passion for English from the lines，for she has tried using almost every possibly-learned grammar point in her composition，sentence structures（it counts nothing，right or not），for example.And we can obviously sense the happiness from the grammar she learned

IV.Conclusion

To sum up，this paper provides two basic principles for grammar teaching，and suggests how to make students enjoy the grammar teaching，including making teaching communicative and making students experience the happiness of grammar teaching.

Reference：

①On the Importance of Grammar Teach諾貝爾論文網(wǎng)（http：//www.lwenwang.cn）

[1] Scott Thornbury，How to Teach Grammar[M].Charlbury，Oxfordshire，UK，Bluestone Press，2003.

[2] Littlewood，W.Communicative Language Teaching [M].Cambridge：Cambridge University Press，2000.

[3] Stern，H.H.Issues and Opinions in Language Teaching [M].Shanghai：Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，1992.