Abstract：The Grammar-Translation Method is a traditional foreign language teaching method．It has beenused widely for many years．This paper explains the advantages and disadvantages of the method．Through the sample lesson and the explanation of the method’s principles and history，Currentsituation，the reader's will get to know better about this method and realize the reason why themethod is so popular．
　　Keywords:The English Grammar-Translation Method；advantages and disadvantages；
　　
　　1、Introduction
　　
　　The foreign language teaching in the Chinese middleschools has had a long history for nearly one hundred years．The methods of teaching English are of different kinds．Nowadays,the situations of the methods used in Englishteaching are: the Direct Method, the Grammar-translationMethod,the Audio-lingual Method and the CommunicativeAPProach are commonly used by the English teachers．However,the traditional Grammar-translation Method isstill widely used in the most schools in China.
　　Though the Grammar-Translation Method has beenregarded as a traditional method,it is still Very popular inmany schools，especially in Chinese middle schools．Whythe Grammar-Translation Method has such a strong appealto the most English teachers in China is a question that isworth being thought of deeply．
　　Everything has its two sides,so does the Grammar—Translation Method． It must have its advantages anddisadvantages．What are they?How to avoid itsdisadvantages and apply its advantages to the widestarrange?I’m going to make some detailed research on thistopic in this paper．
　　
　　2、The Gurrent Situation of the Teaching of Englishthe Grammar-Translation Mothod
　　
　　In today’s China,various kinds of foreign languageteaching methods are used in middle schools．The methodthat occupies the leading position of foreign languageteaching is still the Grammar-Translation Method．Althoughmany educators have begun to use some new ways ofteaching, such as the Audio—lingual Method and theCommunicative APProach，this can not challenge the leadingposition of the Grammar-Translation Method in the fields offoreign language teaching，yet．
　　The teachers who use Grammar-Translation Methoddon’t need to master the foreign language that they areteaching completely．All they need to do is getting Veryfamiliar with the textbooks and remembering grammaticalrules and vocabulary．After the preparation of the lesson, theycan take the job of teaching English．Compared to othermethods of English teaching,the teachers who use theGrammar-Translation Method don’t need to have the strongabilities of getting the students ready for class．They don’tneed to organize various kinds of teaching/learning actiVitiesand they don’t need any teaching tools．The Grammar—Translation Method can decrease the time of lessonpreparation to the lowest limit．The number of the studentsdoesn't have any effect on the teaching，either．So，when the teaching goal is only to form the studens’abilities of readingand writing．The Grammar-Translation Method is usuallythought to be the best way．
　　In the middle schools,the aims of the students are stillentering the colleges and universities．Under thecircumstances of education for the examination, thedevelopment of the abilities of students’speaking andlistening is usually ignored. Most English teachers inmiddle schools don’t pay attention to the phonetic；they justlay emphasis on the grammar and reading．One primaryWork of students is memorizing the vocabulary andgrammatical rules．The teacher will pay attention to thetrain students’abilities of translation,and little attention ispaid to the training of listening and speaking．The paper ofexamination is also full of grammatical structures．
　　The students improve their English levels throughnumerous memorization and practice．The consequence isobvious．The students’abilities of reading and translationare largely improved，and they are able to deal with variouskinds of strange problems of grammar．However，the resultsof listening test are always unsatisfied．
　　Not only in middle schools，but also in colleges anduniversities,the Grammar-Translation Method has its widesupports．In the college，the College English teachingmaterials always lay only emphasis on the knowledge oflanguage structure，but ignores the development of orallanguage abilities．Many students have learned English formore than ten years，but their abilities of speaking are notimproved．This kind of situation is firstly due to thetraditional way of English teaching-—-the Grammar—Translation Method．
　　On the other hand,English is merely a course of twoyears for the students who don not major in English．Underthe pressures of the CET4,they have to spend some time onit. The current syllabus of College English requires thestudents to have the strong abilities of reading,the certaindegree abilities of listening and the tentative abilities ofwriting and speaking．Because the listening test only takes alittle part of the whole exam,the teachers always emphasizethe grammar and vocabulary．The oral teaching has evenbeen omitted．Besides, the class hours are few and thecontent of class are more．The vocabulary of the CollegeEnglish is very large and there are many languagestructures to be learned in it. For some students,they canonly learn some words and grammatical structures to dealwith their examinations．In that case,the Grammar—Translation Method is of use again.
　　There are no special listening or oral lessons for thenon-English major students．The best-sold reference booksin the bookstores are always about how to memorizevocabulary．Memorization of vocabulary and practice ofgrammar become almost the only way for them to learnEnglish．In fact,this has lead to the fact that most non—English major students do not have any interesting in Englishlearning． 　　In other aspects of English teaching,such as the adults’education and the profession education,the Grammar"一Translation Method is more used．Many adults or people whohave worked for a period of time learn English；they onlywant to read the literature or files in English．So，readingbecomes the primary goal for learning．Once they havemastered the abilities of reading, they can begin to take somesimple work of writing or translation．It is no wonder that theyhave learned the“deaf and dumb 7”English．They only knowhow to read and write，but they do not know how to listen andspeak in English．
　　So，under such conditions，the teachers easily adopt the Grammar-Translation Method．If the conditions of teaching/learning are not improved，this situation of the Englishteaching will probably go on.
　　
　　3、Comments on the Advantages and Disadvantages ofthe Grammar—translation Method
　　
　　The Grammar-Translation Method has been criticizedfor a very long time，and there are still many other systems ofEnglish teaching methods for people to choose；but themethod never disappears from the English classes．Untiltoday，the method is still widely used by most Englishteachers．So,we can see that the Grammar-Translation Method has its own advantages．Now，I am going to list theadvantages of the method as following．
　　
　　3.1 Advantages of the Grammar—Translation Method
　　3.1.1 It creates the teaching from of translation inforeign language teaching/learning.
　　The traditional scholastic approach among individuallearners in the eighteenth century had been to acquire areading knowledge of foreign languages by studying agrammar and applying this knowledge to the interpretation oftexts with the use of a dictionary．Most of them were highlyeducated men and women who Were trained in classicalgrammar and knew how to apply the familiar categories tonew languages．However,scholastic methods of this kindwere not well suited to the capabilities of younger schoolpupils and，moreover,they were self-study methods whichwere inappropriate for group teaching in classrooms．TheGrammar-Translation Method was an attempt to adapt thesetraditions to the circumstances and requirements of schools．It preserved the basic framework grammar and translationbecause these were already familiar both to teachers andpupils from their classical studies．
　　The Grammar-Translation Method’s principle aim，ironically enough in view of what was to happen later,was tomake language learning easier．In this sense，we can saythat the original motivation of the Grammar-Translation Method was reformist．
　　3.1.2 Grammar is regarded as the framework ofteaching English thus also as an important means of mentaltraining
　　Grammar is regarded as the core of a language．It is themain framework of learning a foreign language．Grammarteaching is also regarded as an important means of mentaltraining．So，grammar teaching is regarded as the central task of the Grammar-Translation Method．The materials ofthe method have an exhaustive and systematic descriptionof the grammar．It is arranged in a proper order andadvanced step by step according to the internal structure ofthe grammatical system．
　　There are always one or two grammar items in everylesson．Whether analysis，explanation exemplification ortranslation,even reading；all kinds of teaching/learningactivities take the mastering of grammar as the direct goals．The evaluation of the teaching effect is also accomplishedaccording to the degrees of mastering the grammar．
　　Deductive aPPlication of an explicit grammar rule is auseful pedagogical technique．The teacher usually explainsthe grammatical rules first；then，the students use and statethe rules through doing grammatical exercises．
　　3.1.3 Emphasizing the ability of reading and studyingforeign literature and fine arts
　　A fundamental purpose of learning a foreign languageis to be able to read its literature．Literary language issuperior to spoken language．Students’study of the foreignculture is limited to its literature and fine arts．Thisprinciple of the Grammar-Translation Method is still havingits influence on some people’s thoughts of studying aforeign language until today．
　　Due to this principle，the students’abilities of readingcomprehension and analysis get progress．The students’abilities of solving problems and writing are also improved．Having these abilities，people can begin to take some jobs．inliterary form, which are related to the foreign language．Italso accord with the aims of some adults or people who havehad a job．Being able to read the foreign language in literaryform and understand it has been enough for them．
　　3.1.4 It makes full use of the students’native language.
　　The teacher uses native language to organize teachingand Carry out teaching plans．Besides memorization andreading，the main study activities of students are to use andstate the grammatical rules and vocabulary they have learnedthrough the interpretation of native language and targetlanguage．Native language becomes a useful transmitting toolfor the students．The teacher also uses the native languageand the abilities of understanding to improve the students’foreign language level. This reflects the acceptable principleof most students．
　　Native language is the primariest and the directestlanguage that support people’s lives．Teaching foreignlanguage without native language is unrealistic andimpossible．The short life of the Direct Method for ten yearsjust proves this．On the other hand，foreign language andnative language are not opposite．They are both the toolswhich human use to think and express feelings．They havethe same starting-points and the same goals．They only differin their forms．In the practical teaching/learning procedure，the native language is the primary cognitive system of theforeign language learning system．It can promote the production of foreign language learning through the twostates of constant and compare．
　　For example，when the teacher is going to teachstudents the subjunctive mood,it is better to get the help ofstudents’native language．There is no subjunctive mood inChinese．The students are probably hard to understand itthrough the native language equivalents．In this situation’theteacher can try to use native language to explain it and helpstudents understand this grammatical phenomenon．
　　3.1.5 The method is convenient to carry out．
　　This is the main reason for the popularity of the Grammar-Translation Method．Once the teacher has graspedthe basic knowledge of the foreign language，he is able toteach it. It doesn’t require any teaching tools or equipments．It doesn’t require the teacher to be qualified to organizeteaching．It is also the best choice for the teachers who don’thave much time to prepare for a lesson．The methoddecreases the time of lesson preparation to the lowest limit.So，if the quality of teachers is not very high and the teachingequipments is not very good；and the number of students isvery large；and the amount of work is big or the enthusiasmis not full;the Grammar-Translation Method would be thebest choices for those English teachers．
　　
　　3.2 Disadvantages of the Crammar—Translation Method
　　
　　Every thing that has advantages also has itsdisadvantages, so does the Grammar-Translation Method．This method appeared in the nineteenth century,now it hasbeen thought to be a traditional and undeveloped system offoreign language teaching method．Many principles of it，such as too much native language；the spoken language’sdeparture with the literary language；the single forms ofexercises,etc，don’t accord with the teaching principle，which we’re promoting now．Its teaching effect is alwaysunsatisfied,too．From those principles and characteristics ofthe Grammar-Translation Method,we can conclude thedisadvantages of it as following.
　　3.2.1 It only emphasizes literary language,and ignoresspoken language
　　The Grammar-Translation Method separates spokenlanguage from literary language．It takes the development ofreading abilities as the primary or only goals．The spokenlanguage teaching is limited to the pronunciation of thewords，usually．The method doesn’t pay attention to explainforeign language in the foreign language．The developmentof students’communicative abilities with foreign languageis largely affected．
　　The Grammar-Translation Method thinks that thesentences are the communicative units of language．The forms of the target language and the language points areemphasized．The analysis and practice of the languagestructure are emphasized．It only emphasizes the teaching ofusing the language knowledge, while，ignores the teachingof using the language’s social and cultural backgrounds．Itignores the development of making use of the language．
　　The primary skills to be developed are reading and writing. Little attention is given to speaking and listening，and almost none to pronunciation．Such teaching of foreignlanguage always leads to the failure of students'communication with the foreign language they’re learning．Obviously，the Grammar-Translation Method doesn't catchthe nature of language in the foreign language teaching．Many facts also show that the foreign language withoutcommunicative abilities is always with defects．Since theignorance of the communicative abilities has deviated fromthe primary principle of the foreign language teaching,thisbiggest disadvantage of the Grammar-Translation Methodshould be caught enough attention by the teachers who areusing the method to teach．
　　3.2.2 It ignores the teaching of pronunciation andintonation．
　　This point has almost the same meaning and contentwith the former one．The consequence of such ignorance isalso the communicative failure of the language learners．
　　The training of pronunciation should be the start of theforeign language teaching．The crux of learning a foreignlanguage should be the grasping of the pronunciation．That isto say，in fact,pronunciation is the base of foreign languagelearning The first course for a student who majors in Englishis always pronunciation and intonation．This is the bestprovidence for the viewpoint
　　Only when students master pronunciation andintonation indeed，they are able to learn the foreign languagesuccessfully．The training of pronunciation should make fulluse of the phonetic alphabets．The students should always betaught in the standard pronunciation,and the teacher shouldalways correct the pronunciation errors of students withoutdelay．Right and good training of pronunciation will make asolid basis for the later study of the foreign language．But theGrammar-Translation Method is not the case．
　　3.2.3 It puts undue stress on translation.The teacherteaches foreign language merely the means oftranslation.
　　The Grammar-Translation Method makes the studentstrend to form the habits of relying on translation,even whenthey are using the target language to communicate．This isnot good for the development of the students’abilities tocommunicate with foreign language．Too much rely ontranslation will leads to some obstacles while communicatewith foreign language，though it is possible to find nativelanguage equivalents for all target language words．
　　According to the linguistic viewpoints,the nativelanguage’s effect on the target languages means more thanthe native language’s involvements．For example，theprocess of interpretation of Chinese and English is realizedlike this：CONCEPT→CHINESE→ENGLISH．In a word．there seems to be a very close relationship between nativelanguage and concept, and there fore，it is very hard for thetarget language to enter the psychological process of thought．That is to say，if we rely·on translation when we’recommunicating, the concept in our native language will certainly have influence on the output in form of foreignlanguage,because the cultural and social backgrounds ofthe two languages are different at all. It’s better tostrengthen the teaching of the cultural backgrounds offoreign countries．
　　3.2.4 It puts undue stress on the affect of grammar inthe teaching.
　　The explanation of grammar is always starting from thedefinitions,then the sample sentences according to thedefinitions．It is always divorced from the practicalrequirements and the language levels of the students．Thestudents are forced to be conscious of the grammatical rulesof the target language．Wherever possible，verbconjugations and other grammatical paradigms should becommitted to memory．The class teaching usually ignoresthe practice and development of language habits．Theforeign language class is easily turned into a lecture of theteacher．The teacher is the authority in the classroom．Mostof the interaction in the classroom is from the teacher to thestudents．
　　Traditional grammar teaching’s goals are readingforeign literature and interpretation of the native languageand target language．In the arrangement of teaching,it takesthe grammatical rules as the center completely．The wholeteaching procedure breaks away from the language’scommunicative circumstance．The teacher carries out thedetailed explanation of the grammatical rules，based on thelogical inference；and the students make great efforts tomemorize those rules．The only exercises are sometranslation,blank filling or correction,which are compiledby the teacher or the editors of the textbooks．
　　3．2.5 It lays undue stress on the mechanicalmemorizing; and the device of teaching is dull．
　　Students are given lists of target language vocabularywords and their native language equivalents，then they areasked to memorize them．Students are also required tomemorize grammatical rules and grammatical paradigmssuch as verb conjugations．The mechanical memorizingdoesn’t have any good effect on the study of foreignlanguage,and it may add to the students’worries when theyare learning it.
　　The single device of teaching is not good to launchteaching．The teaching atmosphere in classroom is alwaysdull；it can’t arise the students’interests．That is the reasonfor why many students don’t like to learn foreign language．For example,many students don’t want to listen to theteacher in classroom,they would rather like to read thetextbooks and memorize the vocabulary by themselves．Finally,this leads to the unthorough understanding of theknowledge．All these are the negative effects brought by the Grammar-Translation Method．
　　3.3 A Short Summary of the Advantages andDisadvantages of the Grammar—Translation Method
　　To sum up,the Grammar-Translation Method has manyadvantages and disadvantages of its own.
　　It founds the device of translation in the field of foreignlanguage teaching，it uses to be a reform in the history of foreign language teaching．It replaces the abstrusegrammatical paragraphs with sentences．This simplifies theteaching of foreign language largely．It makes full use of thestudents’native language；this improves their abilities ofunderstanding．It puts undue stress on the teaching grammar,the students’abilities of literary language are greatlystrengthened；and their abilities of logical thinking andsolving problems are improved．All these have improved theeffect of the foreign language teaching．
　　The language learning provides good mental exercises．The development of students’abilities of reading andtranslation also makes the basic usage of foreign languagepossible．The characteristic of convenience realizes thepopularity of foreign language education．It provides morechances for more people to lean foreign language．
　　But this method’s ignorance of spoken languageteaching misleads the direction of the foreign languageteaching．One primary goal of the foreign language teachingis to use the language to communicate．However,theignorance of spoken language and listening just makes theteaching can’t reach this goal. This even goes against thebasic intention of foreign language teaching．
　　On the other hand，too much rely on native languagewill produce negative effects on the learning of the foreignlanguage．This will somehow lead to the obstacles，whichoccur in the procedure of intercultural communication．
　　This method takes the teacher as the center of theteaching in classroom．The students are always in the passivepositions．It becomes more diffcult to arise the interests ofthe students．The single device of teaching will also cause thestudents to be fed up with the foreign language teaching．
　　There are still some other points need to be clear．Although the grammar teaching has always been regardedas one of the disadvantages of the Grammar-TranslationMethod．it still has very important position．in the foreignlanguage teaching．The facts prove that,the grammar is abridge to link up the concept and the context. It plays a veryimportant role in the foreign language acquisition．Thegrammatical teaching is an important aPProach to helpstudents reach a higher level of foreign language．So，thegrammatical teaching is always very necessary andimportant．
　　All above are the advantages and disadvantages of the Grammar-Translation Method．How to make best use of theadvantages and bypass the disadvantages of the method iswhat I’m going to talk about．
　　
　　4、Conclusion
　　
　　In the paper,I have introduced the princiPles and thehistory of the Grammar-Translation Method,and I haveexplained the advantages and disadvantages of this method．What we need to do now is to make best use of theadvantages and bypass the disadvantages．
　　Along with the appearance of new trends of thought and new schools of foreign language teaching the Grammar—Translation Method is also improving itself gradually through the practice．For example,the early time’s Grammar—Translation Method doesn’t teach spoken language at all；now，the teachers who use this method begin to giveconsideration to both listening and speaking．The teachersalso begin to use some foreign language in classroom insteadof complete native language．But the progress of it doesn’tchange the primary characteristics of it．
　　Now,more and more teachers are realizing that thecomplete ignorance of the training of listening and speakinghas a very bad effect on the improving of students’foreignlanguage levels．So,teachers begin to pay much moreattention to correct the errors of pronunciation the studentsmake．This plays an active part in the students’study offoreign language．The listening test has taken more parts inthe college entrance examination than before，the listeningteaching has also got the unprecedented important positionin the whole procedure of foreign language teaching．
　　These years, many people think that the grammarteaching is of little importance the foreign languageteaching.They advocate that the content of grammarteaching should be reduced or even canceled．This isinfluenced by some certain foreign language teachingtheories from the western countries．The grammar teaching isthe center of the Grammar-Translation Method．It is alsoused to be one of the biggest disadvantages of the method．Since the Audio-lingual Method becomes more and morepopular，the position of the grammar teaching in the foreignlanguage teaching Was challenged seriously．When theComprehension Approach came out in the 70’s，the grammarteaching is pushed aside．However,the practice proves that，the students who are taught in Comprehension APProachform the bad habit of language．Their abilities of spokenlanguage are strong, but their abilities of literary languageare very Weak．So,it is not successful to learn a foreignlanguage only through reading without grammar explanation．
　　The situation of ignoring grammar teaching in theforeign language teaching in the western societies has lastedfor more then ten years．To such a period of history，Marianne Celce—Murcia the educationist,used to set such anevaluation,"The attractive and convinced proofs show that,the teaching without grammar,whether based on theunderstanding or the communication, only leads to the poorforeign language．It's difficult for the students to surpass thisstage and make progress．"(Marianne，1991)
　　The importance of the grammar teaching decides that the Grammar-Translation Method can’t disappear in a shortperiod time．The current teaching conditions in China are notvery good,so,the Grammar-Translation Method will exist fora long time．
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