Classroom Grammar Teaching for Adult Learners.docVIP

Classroom Grammar Teaching for Adult Learners 　　Abstract As Wight （1999， p.33） pointed out to “know a language was to know the grammar of it”， hence grammar teaching is usually the main approach in second or foreign language teaching. This paper presents an analysis from three aspects to illustrate why classroom grammar teaching benefits adult learners. However， if grammar is overstated， some negative results will occur. Therefore a balance between grammar teaching and communicative skill teaching is need， as is a balance between accuracy and fluency. 　　Key words classroom grammar teaching， adult learners 　　中图分类号：G424 文献标识码：A 　　1.0 Introduction 　　Of many important questions facing the language teaching professionals， the most basic one must be grammar teaching. As Rutherford （1987） points out， for 2500 years the teaching of grammar had often been synonymous with foreign language teaching. During the last 25 years， the differences among major methodological approaches are mainly put on whether explicit grammar instruction plays an important role in the second or foreign language classroom （Celce-Murcia， 1991， p.352）. With the emergence of the communicative approach， which came into being in the mid-1970s， classroom grammar teaching was emphasized less than before， which made grammar taught directly to learners seemed as a thing which has been past. However， the fact is that experts and linguists hold different views towards classroom grammar teaching; meanwhile， teachers of English as a second or foreign language also hesitate not only to adopt any traditional pedagogy， but also to put creative approaches to use. One frequently-asked question is to what proportion that time should be put on grammar teaching in class. Nevertheless， the most continually used methodological approach in second language classroom―the cognitive code approach carefully sequence grammatical structures and lexical items （Celce-Murcia， 1991， p.461）. 　　Based on this methodology， this