TOWARDS A COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH GRAMMAR (1)

O. Introduction For a long period of time it has been suggested that the conventional or traditional method of presenting English grammar in terms of structure has a certain drawback. In teaching and learning the English language in Japan, studying grammar makes most sense if we start with the question, `How can we use grammar to communicate in English? We are more interested in the uses of grammar, rather than in the description of English grammatical structures. We need to establish a new perspective of English grammar, which relates grammatical structures systematically to meanings, uses and situations. In other words, we have to emphasize the communicative aspects of English grammar. In this way, we will be able to improve and extend the range of our communicative skills in the English language. In this article, the two basic discourse principles will be reviewed ; the Principle of End-Focus and the Principle of End-Weight. I believe