WangXiuyun（BusinessForeignLanguagesDepartment，WuXiInstituteofCommerce，JiangsuWuxi，214063）
Abstract：Astherulesbywhichwordschangetheirformsandarecombinedintosentences，grammarplaysanimportantroleinlanguageteachingorlearning.However，inthepastdecades，therehasbeenacontroversyovertheplaceofgrammarinthecommunicativeclassroom.Isgrammarstillneededinthecommunicativeclassroomsinceithasalwaysbeenonthefocusoftraditionallanguageteaching?Theanswerisaffirmative.JustasUr（1996）pointsoutiflearnersregardgrammarasameanstoimprovemasteryofthelanguagenotasanendinitselfandlearnitconsistently，grammarisveryusefulandhelpfultolearners.Thispaperfirstlystatestheimportanceofgrammarandthediscussestherelationshipbetweengrammaticalcompetenceandcommunicativecompetenceandaddressestheroleofgrammar.FinallyprobesintothemainmethodsofEnglishgrammarteachinganditsvaluetolearners.
Keywords：grammar；communicativeclassroom；place
I.Theimportanceofgrammar
“Masteryofgrammarisbasicandnecessaryforanylanguageuser”（Harmer，1983）.“Grammarisabasis，wecansayitisashortcutoflanguagelearning”（Alexander，1989）.Whenalearnerbeginstolearnaforeign/secondlanguage.Firstly，heshouldlearnthepronunciationofawork，spellingandknowitspartofspeechandthenneedtoknowthedifferentfunctionsofitsoastouseitcorrectly.Foreign/secondlanguagelearningisnotlikelearningmothertongue，itisoftenlacknecessarylanguageenvironment.Grammaticalsystemstudyistheimportantcomponentoflanguagestudy.Itisameansofacquiringlanguageandusingitcreatively.Itiswidelyacceptedthatthepurposeoflearningalanguageistocommunicate.Lackingofnecessarygrammaticalknowledgewillinfluencecommunicativecompetence.Moreover，grammariscloselyrelatedtothefiveabilities.i.e.Listening，speaking，reading，writingandtranslation.Forexample:（1）Iamnotasinger.（2）Iamnotsinger.Ifwedonotknowgrammar，wewillnotbeabletodistinguishthemeaningsofthetwosentences.Anotherexample:（3）Hewentontopointoutmistakesinthepaper.（4）HewentonSaturday.Withoutgrammaticalknowledge，itwillbeimpossibleforyoutoknowthefunctionsofthepreposition“on”.Soitisthroughgrammarthatlearnerscancorrectlyunderstandanduselanguage.Moreover，Grammarisoneoftherulesandcriterionsthatisusedtoassesswhatistrueorwhatisfalse.Iflearnersdonotmasterthissetofrules，theywillnotbeabletounderstandandestimatetheothersorcommunicatewithothers.Sogrammaticalstructuresandformalrulesneedtobelearned.GrammarislikeaMap-Teacherasguide（HalisCetin）.Additionally，someoneelseregardsgrammarasabuilding'sframeworkandlookswordsasbrickstobeusedtobuild.Eventhoughyouhaveenoughbricks，ifyoudon'tknowhowtousethesebrickstobuildupthebuilding，thesebrickswillbeuseless.Similarly，supposeyouhavelearnedalotofwords，butyoudon'tknowhowtoputthemtogethertoexpressyourselfwhilecommunicatingwithothers，thatistosay，youdon'tknowgrammar.Arethesewordsstillusefultoyou?Theanswer，ofcourse，willbenegative.
II.Therelationshipbetweengrammaticalcompetenceandcommunicativecompetence
Communicativecompetenceistheabilitytoexpressoneselfandunderstandotherscorrectly.Itismadeupofgrammaticalcompetence，sociolinguisticcompetence，discoursecompetenceandstrategiccompetence（Canale&Swain，1980/1983）.Inforeignlanguagelearning，understandinglanguageiscrucialtodeveloplanguagecompetenceandcommunicativecompetence.Languagecompetenceistheconditionandbasisofcommunicativecompetence.Andlanguagecompetencecannotseparatefrommasteryofgrammaticalstructure.Inaword，languagecompetenceandcommunicativecompetencehavecloserelationshipwithagoodcommandofgrammaticalrules.But“Thesimpleprovisionofmeaningfulinputwhichiscomprehensibletothelearner…whileclearlynecessary，isnotinitselfsufficienttopromoteproductiveuseofamarkedformalaspectofthesecondlanguageinaclassroomsetting”（HarleyandSwain1984:309）.Therefore，grammarshouldbelearnedandparticularlyusedinclassroomcommunication（Peny，2005）.LittleWoodeverstatedthecommunicativeroleoflanguagecanberealizedonlybygrammaticalsystemandcreativelyusinggrammaticalsystem.Ofcourse，grammarshouldbelearnedonthebasisofproperlanguageaccumulation.Currently，inChina，manyprimaryschoolsandEnglishprivateschoolsteachgrammartotheyoungchildrenwhohavenotmasteredtheirmothertongue，althoughsomeofthemhavealreadyrememberedcertaingrammaticalrule，inmostcases，theydonotreallyknowhowtouseit.Becausetheyaretooyoungtohaveenoughpreparationforlanguage.
III.Theroleofgrammarincommunication
Inthegenerallyaccepteddefinitionofcommunicativecompetence，grammaticalcompetenceoccupiesanimportantpositionasamajorcomponentofcommunicativecompetence.Togetherwithdiscoursecompetence，theyformthestructureoforganizationalcompetence.Grammaticalcompetencefocusesonsentence-levelgrammar，whilediscoursecompetenceisconcernedwiththerelationshipsamongsentences.Thereisnodoubtthataknowledgeofgrammaticalrulesisessentialforthemasteryofalanguage:Youcannotusewordsunlessyouknowhowtheyshouldbeputtogether.Ofcourse，theculminationoflanguagelearningisnotsimplyinthemasteryofthelanguageforms，butinthemasteryofformsinordertoaccomplishthecommunicativefunctionsoflanguage.
WhilethecontroversyovertheroleofgrammarintheCLTclassroominstillunsettled，moreandmorelanguageresearchershavepointedoutthebenefitresultingfromjudiciousattentiontogrammarinstructioninlanguageclass.TheypointoutthatL2learners，byknowingcertainrules，maybeabletonoticenotonlythe“gap”betweenwhattheysayandwhattheyhear，butalsohowthingsaresaid，sothattheycanconsciouslyplantheirutterances.Suchutterances，accordingtoFotisandEllis（1991），canthenserveasinputuponwhichlearnerscaninternalizegrammarrules.Inaddition，someresearchersevenfeelthatinstructedgrammarincreasetherateofacquisitionofgrammarrules.Brown（1994）pointsoutthatadult，moredevelopedcognitivelythatchildrencanusetheirgrammaticalknowledgetoenhancetheircommunicativeabilities.Therefore，thequestionnowisnotwhetherornottoteachgrammarinlanguageclass，buthowtoteachgrammarsoastohelpstudentstodeveloptheirgrammaticalcompetence.
IV.Conclusion:
Grammarisjustlikeatool，andwhenitisproperlyused，itwillhelplearnerstobecomeskilledinrecognizing，analyzingandeventuallymasteringelusivestructurefeatureswhichareanessentialaspectofproficiency.Evenincommunicativeclassroom，Grammaralsoplaysanimportantrole.Butlearnersshouldrememberthatgrammardoesn'tnormallyfunctionasanendinitselfbutasameanstowardssuccessfulcommunication.Languageteacherswillfinditworthwhileiftheireffortsfinallyleadstudentstoeffectivecommunicationandsuccessfullanguageacquisition.
References
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标签：Additionally论文; someoneelseregardsgrammarasabuilding论文; sframeworkandlookswordsasbrickstobeusedtobuild论文;