How to Improve the Interest for Learning English Grammar

陳芳芳++王倩++鞏方玉

1. Introduction

Grammar as rules of using words and making sentences， plays an important role in teaching English. Teaching grammar can better help students understand the nature of the language and make students clear about how language is formed， and give them a sense of applying over what they are learning. In grammar teaching， how to arouse students interests for learning English grammar is a question that every teacher has to think of.

2. The Definition of Grammar

Notions of grammar have changed over the years from the origination of grammar， therefore， different linguistics has defined it in different ways.

A description of the structure of a language and the way in which linguistic units， such as words and phrases are combined to produce sentences in the language. It usually takes into account the meanings and functions these sentences have in the overall system of the language. It includes the description of the sounds or a language （Long man 1987： 201）.

It is considered that language is a type of rule-governed behavior. Grammar， then， is the subset of those rules that govern the configurations that the morphology and syntax of a language assume. These rules are a part of what is known automatically by native speakers. The communication requires that their language conform more closely to the rules of English grammar used by native speakers. （Cele-Murcia， 1988： 35）

3. Traditional Grammar Teaching Method

Translation was used as a language teaching method long before. This teaching method was called the Grammar-Translation Method. On the basis of taking oral language， this approach regarded imitation as the dominant factor and attached importance to intuition without consideration of theory. The 1960s saw the height of the development of the Audio-Lingual Method. It spread in all parts of the world and enjoyed a high reputation in the world FLT circle. During this period， grammar teaching was ignored in the circle of language teaching.

4. An Effective Approach of Teaching Grammar- Situational Teaching Approach

（1） Teaching in English- to create a good English environment

English class is the main venues for Chinese students. Teachers try their best to speak English from the beginning can help students develop a good habit of thinking and expressing in English.

（2） The creation of scenarios， the import issue

“The best interest of learning is the interest of learning materials.” In order to arouse students interest of learning materials， teachers must seriously study materials and see if the material itself can cause the interest of students. According to materials related to the content， using words into topics.endprint

（3） Scenario demo

Demonstration scenarios using audio-visual equipment， multimedia， graphics， physical aids to enhance the image of the visual effects and stimulate students interest in learning. In the activity based on the picture， the abstract syntax knowledge become concrete so that the lower difficulty of learning grammar. At the same time it inspires students interest in learning so that they learn faster.

（4） Role –play activity

When teaching grammar by using role-play activity， first， learners should read the new text and learn about the main idea of the text. In the course of reading text， teachers should let students pay attention to the grammar knowledge of the text. Second， divide the students into several groups， each group has appropriate number of students in order to play the roles. Third， tell the actors to play according to the rule—applying the grammar knowledge， and then let each group perform one by one.

5. Conclusion

Grammar teaching plays an important role in English teaching， but there still exists some problems in grammar teaching. Accordingly， grammar teaching should be improved and effective methods must be explored. Its important for teachers to remember that different text should have different teaching activities.

References：

[1]Celce-Murcia.M.Techniques and Resources in Teaching Grammar.Oxford University Press，1988.

[2]Canale，M.and Swain，M.Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing.Applied Linguistics，1980（1）.

[3]Hymes，D.On communicative competence.The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching.Oxford：Oxford University Press，1972.

[4]Longman，M.The least a second-language acquisition theory needs to explain.Long dictionary of contemporary English，1987.

[5]Mckay，S.Teaching Grammar：Form，F(xiàn)unction and Technique.Prentice Hall International Group，1967.

[6]Thornbury，S.How to Teaching Grammar.Cambridge：Cambridge University press，2003.

作者簡介：陳芳芳（1984-），女，山東臨清人，講師，研究方向：英語教學。endprint