ANALYSISTHENECESSITYOFCOLLEGEENGLISHGRAMMAR TEACHING

【Abstract】Teaching college English for almost 16 years， the writer finds that many ofhis students have a poor understanding on English grammar （EG）. This was proved by students’ compositions. From the perspective of teachers and students， this paper tries to restate the necessity of EG teaching and learning. Then the writer tries to provide some strategies for EG teaching and learning.

【Key words】English grammar； teaching； attitudes

【作者簡介】浦春莉（1977.02-），女，漢族，云南宣威人，碩士研究生，紅河學院外國語學院，講師，研究方向：英語教育。

“Grammar swings in and out of favor， impelled at one end of its cycle by the observation that grammar lessons aren’t very effective （so perhaps we’d better stop giving them）， and at the other by the realization that not teaching grammar isn’t very effective either （so perhaps we’d better start doing it again）.”（Swan， 2001， p203） EG faces such a big challenge that English teachers should pay more attention to it.

EG refers to the inner rules system which forms the structure of English as a language. It shows how the language elements combine and form sentences. “As grammar opens the door to every department of learning， a knowledge of it is indispensable； and should you not aspire at distinction in the republick of letters， this knowledge cannot fail of being serviceable to you， even if you are destined to pass through the humblest walks of life.” （Samuel Kirkham， 1820） Grammar knowledge will improve students’ writing ability. The most important benefit is that students will obtain accuracy of language production. It not only has a beneficial influence on students’ writing ability， but also can make students understand the writing process. In a word， grammar is not just related to writing， but much more than writing. First， it’s a necessary part of English learning. If students know little about English grammar， they can do nothing when they are required to indicate sentences. And if students know little about EG， they will have bad performances in examinations. When students know well EG， they may communicate well than they don’t know the EG rules.

Moust HU students are from rural families. Some of them are even minorities. Their ethnic mother tongue has deep influence on their English learning. Most of them don’t have a good English learning environment， much less can they learn EG well. EG is also the most difficult task for students. Some of them can not even write a complete sentence. It leads to that some English teachers are afraid to assign students homework of writing compositions， because the students will make many grammar mistakes in their work. It’s a tough task for English teachers to grade their work. The author selected one of her students’ writing as an example.

“Money for our people， there is no one but knows， money is a good thing， it can give me？ Bring some what we want， rich we could do something we like to do， for example， traveling， shopping， etc.So we should make good use of our money， using it to do something meaningful. Money is no person does not love， no people don’t like， money for society of development is very important， but although very important， but it will also become invisible cold-blooded killer， so we want to a correct view money， not for the money lost their lives.”

“I think， as long as one alive will need the money， but one cannot live only for money. Money is living conditions， but not the only life in human society also there are a lot of things more important than money.”

It shows that the student know little about none， pronoun， adjective， verb， adverb， and sentence patterns. They can’t use subject， predicate verb， object， complement， attribute， adverbial correctly. Sentence tense and mood are also a big problem. A workman must sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well. This Chinese proverb tells that whatever we do， the strategy is very important. This applys to EG.

1. Students’ learning attitude toward EG

The writer made a survey among 120 non-English major freshman students of HU to know about their attitude towards EG. The following sentences are written by students. The same sentences are omitted.

EG is the most difficult task. It gives some rules to turn out sentences. It’s useful. EG is boring. EG is very difficult for me to learn. I don’t know how to learn EG. I’m not interested in EG.. I did hardly know English grammar because I hate it. English grammar is a big problem for me. English grammar is not like Chinese but it’s important. If you are not learning grammar very well， you can’t learn English well. It’s difficult to remember the English grammar rules and it’s a big challenge to use it. When having grammar classes， I want to sleep. English grammar is the key to successful English learning. EG is the rule of English. It’s complex. EG let me feel headache. I hate EG， but I don’t know why. Maybe it’s boring and I have small grammar knowledge. EG is as important as words. It’s necessary to memorize EG. To me， EG is dull and abstract. It’s difficult for teacher to teach and boring for me to learn. Grammar is a monster.

Those sentences shows students have the expectation to learn EG well. They think EG is very important and is a necessary part of English learning. The words are used most often by the students to describe EG are difficult， dull， tedious， boring. So， there are two things can’t be ignored： the first one is that they have the expectation to learn EG well； the second one is that it’s difficult for them to learn it well.

How to solve the contradictions？ Both the students and the English teachers have some things to do. For teachers， they should think twice. Why the students can’t learn EG well. It must have something to do with the teaching method. The traditional EG teaching method is that： instructors introduce the rules of English grammar. Students put the rules down. And then the students do finish some grammar exercises by using the rules.

For students： the grammar rules are just introduced by teachers. They are so abstract and boring. The rules are just rules. They are not absorbed by students. Most students can’t learn grammar rules well. They take the course just because it’s required. Until when the students are required to write English sentences and compositions， they realize that their EG is so poor that they can’t even know how to show their ideas by using respectable EG. Most of them can’t associate the grammar with English learning. The effect of the grammar course can’t be perfect.

2. English Teachers’ attitude toward EG

College students have finished at least six years English learning during their junior and senior middle school. Teachers think t’s unnecessary to place great emphasis on college EG teaching. Second， teachers don’t find the strict reality of the students EG ability. Finally， most college English teachers are non-native educators of English. It’s quite difficult to obtain a higher teaching efficiency. Grammar expert regards EG like this， “The student in the composition of English is early led to believe that the road to mastery of his language is to memorize a set of disjointed rules and regulations， whose painstaking and generally uncompromising application then constitutes good writing.”（Spangler， 1956） Most teachers focus on developing students’ listening and speaking ability. They put little emphasis on grammar teaching. Grammar teaching is also a challenge for teachers， because grammar is complex both to teachers and students. What’s more， it’s abstract. For many years， the author wrote the grammar rules down on the blackboard and expected students to take the rules down. How did this method work？ Just a few students seem to have interest in it. Most of them seeme bored and out of mind. Grammar is not a pleasant task for both. It’s time to shift grammar teaching strategy. After reading the article the battle against AIDS， the author was enlightened. So the method of training teenagers to teach their peers was adotped. After implementing this method for almost one year， the author get the following tips： Students learn more from what they teach to other students.It reinforces what they’ve learned.Students would like to listen to students than teachers.Students won’t take much pressure.Students learn more when they prepare for the lectures.Students will be active learners in the teaching and learning process.Various methods can be used in EG learning and teachering.

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