Herbart

The Teacher Vol. XXXIV, 33-50 The EnglishEnglish Teacher Vol.XXXIV

A COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO TEACHING GRAMMAR: THEORY AND PRACTICE1
Siaw-Fong Chung National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT
Since the introduction of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), many textbooks have been written to incorporate communicative activities, authentic materials and personalized contexts. However, where theteaching and learning of grammar is concerned, most textbooks do not reflect CLT principles. As demonstrated in this paper, grammar activities in some Malaysian and Taiwanese textbooks retain the structural method of teaching grammar. This paper suggests five methods so that grammar activities can be made more communicative by retaining some practices of the structural syllabus.

IntroductionCommunicative Language Teaching (CLT) materialized in the West in the 1960s and has extended to the Eastern countries over the last 20 years. Since then, CLT principles have formed the foundation of English language syllabi for countries such as Malaysia and Taiwan. In Malaysia, CLT was adopted as early as the 1970s but in Taiwan, the switch from the structural to communicative approach only startedin the 1990s. Before CLT was introduced, the structural syllabus was the mainstream approach in most Asian settings including Malaysia and Taiwan. Yalden (1987:61) summarized the essence of CLT thus:
It is based on the notion of the learners as communicators, naturally endowed with the ability to learn languages. It seeks to provide learners with the target language system. It is assumed thatlearners will have to prepare to use the target language (orally and in written form) in many predictable and unpredictable acts of communication which arise both in classroom interaction and in real-world situations, whether concurrent with language training or subsequent to it.

1

I would like to thank John Kullman of Canterbury Christ Church University College, Canterbury, England, for hiscomments on the previous version of this paper. My appreciation also goes to Professor Kathleen Ahrens of National Taiwan University and the reviewer(s) of the English Teacher for reading and commenting on this paper. Any remaining errors are my sole responsibility.

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After CLT was implemented, many English textbooks were designed attempting to accommodatethe expectations of the communicative syllabus. When grammar teaching is concerned, CLT focuses on “communicative proficiency rather than mere mastery of structures” (Richards and Rogers, 1986:64). However, how well communicative proficiency can replace the structural approach is a question that many ELT practitioners are interested in. Considering the influence of the structural practice which isdeep-rooted in the Asian culture, it will be a debatable issue as to how CLT comes into play in the Asian classrooms. In the following sections, the components of the structural and communicative approaches are first outlined. In order to find out whether CLT principles are incorporated into grammar exercises in textbooks, this paper then analyses several grammar activities from Malaysian andTaiwanese textbooks and reports related findings. Finally, five activities based on CLT are recommended. Structural and Communicative Syllabi The structural view of language sees grammatical structures as the underlying units of the language system. These units of language are structurally rule-governed. The audiolingual syllabus2 is also derived from the structural view and it was practiced in Taiwanand Malaysia before the implementation of the CLT. This syllabus comprises activities that focus on correct pronunciation, spelling convention and grammatical forms. Drills are also used in the audiolingual classroom because repetition and memorisation are believed to be important. However, the CLT syllabus has redefined the teaching of grammar, teachers’ and students’ roles, use of materials...