The role of grammar is controversial in language pedagogy. Different ELT practitioners have different views on it.Grammar used to be the main focus in the grammar-translation method and the audio-lingual method.The rise of Communicative Language Teaching has reduced its role since the 1970s.For many years,grammar has been neglected in the English classroom.Now the pendulum has swung back again because of the recognition of the weakness in the Communicative Language Teaching.A call for grammar as the'the Facilitator'has been suggested(Rutherford,1987;Hung & Zhang 2001).In other words,a new grammar teaching approach is needed to make grammar a means to language acquisition. In recent years,the Awareness-raising approach has been suggested as an innovation on language teaching.In addition, many researchers have reported positive effects of grammar teaching through the Awareness-raising approach(Ellis,1993; Fotos,1993;& Hung & Zhang,2001).Awareness-raising grammar teaching,therefore,may open up a new way for teachers in China to make grammar teaching and learning more cognitive and interactive.
