to get one’s meaning across or to communicate in a sociolinguistically appropriate manner. Thus,
a more satisfactory characterization of teaching grammar, is that teaching grammar means
enabling language students to use linguistic forms accurately, meaningfully and appropriately.
It is important to develop our understanding of the grammatical facts of the language we
are teaching, we are not interested in filling our students with grammatical paradigms and
syntactic rules. What we hope to do is to cultivate linguistic performance in our students. In
other words, grammar teaching is not so much knowledge transmission as it is skill development.
By recognizing this, we can take advantage of several insights from first language acquisition
research concerning how students naturally develop their ability to interpret and produce
grammatical utterances.
Teachers also need to relate teaching grammar and pattern drills to meaning and use
instead of teaching grammar traditionally and drilling grammar patterns. Thus, language
structure practice must be used in contexts that are appropriate for students.
That is the area that the traditional English foreign language teaching has long
overlooked- namely teaching English for communicative purpose- that is why, when teaching
grammar we should make the language situations as realistic as possible.
The purpose of the present paper is to find evidence of the effectiveness and usefulness of
teaching and learning grammar, and especially of teaching how to express possibility and
probability in English using the Grammar – Translation Method and the Communicative
Language Teaching Method.
This paper contains an introduction, six main chapters, conclusions, annexes and
bibliography.
Structure of the paper
The aims of the present work could be divided into two distinct categories:
a) theoretical aims that refer to general problems related to educational research and a
general presentation of modality and modal verbs expressing necessity.
b) methodological aims which consists in an attempt of finding, showing and
implementing the best methods, techniques and activities that could be efficient in teaching
modal verbs expressing necessity so that the learners’ performance in the area should be
improved.
The first chapter “Means of Expressing Necessity” leads into presenting the means of
expressing necessity in English.
Grammar...................................................................................................... Chapter 1 – Traditional and Modern. Approaches to teaching English
begins with examining relevant research on different approaches to teach grammar and goes on