The findings indicate that both teachers and students are quite positive about grammar teaching and learning, but there is still a big gap between the teachers’ limited use of communicative techniques and the students’ need of communicative activities. Based on the observation analysis of a communicative grammar lesson, the researcher came to the conclusion that the “weak” version of CLT may be applied to teach grammar effectively. The study also presents pedagogical implications for applying CLT to teaching grammar in non-English major universities. | VNU Journal of Science: Education Research, Vol. 32, No. 4 (2016) 44-52 A Consideration of How the Communicative Approach Can Be Used to Teach Grammar to the Third Year Students at Military Technical Academy Nguyen Thi Ngoc Trang* Military Technical Academy, 236 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi Received 02 August 2016 Revised 26 September 2016; Accepted 22 December 2016 Abstract: This study aims at considering how Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) can be applied to raise the quality of grammar teaching and learning at Military Technical Academy (MTA). To achieve the objective, two instruments were employed: survey questionnaire and classroom observation. The findings indicate that both teachers and students are quite positive about grammar teaching and learning, but there is still a big gap between the teachers’ limited use of communicative techniques and the students’ need of communicative activities. Based on the observation analysis of a communicative grammar lesson, the researcher came to the conclusion that the “weak” version of CLT may be applied to teach grammar effectively. The study also presents pedagogical implications for applying CLT to teaching grammar in non-English major universities. Keywords: Communicative language teaching, grammar, non-English major universities. 1. Introduction * few students can’t communicate in simple everyday activities during and after English courses. Besides, the traditional methodgrammar translation has reinforced the passive learning style among students through listening and note-taking in an environment lack of interactive activities. These shortcomings call for treating "grammar more communicatively in the classroom" (Canh, 2004:147) for the purpose of raising the students’ active role and communicative competence in the learning process. Nevertheless, applying CLT does not simply mean throwing the traditional approach away. The traditional approach still has many advantages for the English teaching .
