On the problems and countermeasures in middle school English grammar teaching

山西省忻州市第三中學(xué) 王秀全

1. The importance of grammar in English teaching

Grammar, the rules of language formation,coming from the usage of a lot of spoken and written forms of language,shows the rules of word variation and formation of sentences. To know grammar helps the students to develop the ability to understand and use English .The aim of studying English is to put it into use including listening,speaking,reading and writing. Grammar is essential for English teaching and learning.

As for the Chinese students who study English without being in real English context. It is impossible to learn English well unless they have the knowledge of grammar. During the teaching process , grasping the rules in English is beneficial for improving English studying efficiency and promote the ability to use English in spoken and written forms. In middle school ,students’ logical thought grows fast and they are eager to learn grammar well to get grades in English. Therefore teachers should offer more helps with their grammar study. And it is necessary for teachers to give efficient grammar lessons.

2.Present situation and analysis of English grammar teaching in middle school

2.1 Decontextualized learning and mechanical imitation

At present,the most common method many teachers adopt is that teachers teach grammar principles and students practice as much as possible . Though some teachers try to avoid teaching principles directly, they also give examples ,then let students imitate and do pattern drills in person or in group. The class atmosphere seems very active,but after a period of time ,the effect becomes terrible . Because without being in specific context,students can not understand it completely even forget it later.Naturally , plenty of mistakes appear in spoken and written English.

2.2 Valuing communication and ignoring grammar

In the process of the new curriculum implementation,some teachers only emphasize the importance of developing students’ communication ability and wrongly think that of the English teaching in middle school,language knowledge ,especially grammar is not essential.Meanwhile ,they believe that new curriculum implementation means paying less attention to grammar. Due to this , they give up teaching grammar specially. As a result ,many students can not express themselves correctly.And they even can not write some sentences without any mistake in grammar.

2.3 Stress language intuition and weaken grammar

Language intuition is a kind of people’s capacity of comprehending and reacting to the language . It appears only when you are proficient in the language using . Those who have powerful language intuition have powerful comprehensive ability.Based on this point ,some teachers think that students should recite every passage they learn in order to gain so-called language intuition ,which they believe can help students to learn English well . However ,although students recite plenty of things ,they don’t really know the sentence structure and sometimes the meaning of it. Let alone what is main clause and what is subordinate clause. They just can have a kind of feeling that which sentence is right or which word is proper in the sentence ,but they can not use it correctly ,namely , speak or write it properly. Their language ability is limited to lower level.

2.4 Be separated from reality and memorize grammar mechanically

In teaching process ,teachers ask the students to write down the rules they learn in the class and let then bear the rule in mind , telling them that they learn English until they remember the rules . Even some students learn by writing the rules for many times . It is no use to memorize English grammar mechanically if you the students want to improve their language ability.

3.English grammar teaching countermeasures in middle school

3.1 Teaching English grammar in specific language context

Grammar is a combination of rules from language usage.While teaching ,teachers should pay attention to form and usage of language. Let students grasp linguistic form first and know the meaning . But the aim of studying grammar is to learn to use it properly.

People’s communication often happens in some language context,so English grammar teaching should happen in some specific language context combining with listening , speaking ,reading and writing teaching.Also ,teachers should teach the grammar using some other measures.such as, showing pictures,playing records,and so on. All this can raise the students’interest and make them want to express their thoughts freely.

3.2 Using a variety of activities in English grammar teaching

Teachers can use all kinds of activities rather than only by learning by heart ,such as ,using role-playing in tense practice dialogue exercise. Besides,making up a pithy formula is a good way to remember some rules.What’s more,teachers can resort to multi-media facility ,which can make the grammar lesson more colorful and create a vivid studying environment for English grammar learning.

In a word,grammar is a necessary and vital tool of grasping a language ,and English teaching can not go without grammar teaching. Teachers should pay proper attention to English grammar teaching to improve students’ ability to listen,speak,read and write.