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Acknowledgements This M. A. dissertation is accomplished under the inspiration and enlightenment of my respected supervisor Professor Li Li. I am extremely grateful to him, for the present study would not have been attempted and I would never have brought this dissertation to its final form without his constant help, illuminating suggestions and elaborate revision. I would also express my profound gratitude to Professor Chen Zhi'an, Professor Liu Jiarong, Professor Liu Jianbo, Professor Zhou Rong, Professor Wu Xin and Professor Xu Anquan. Their earnest teaching and enlightening are of great help for my dissertation. NIy whole-hearted thanks go to my friends for their care and assistance. Last but not least, my special thanks are due to my parents and my wife who have been giving me strong support and encouragement in my study. CHAPTER ONE A Survey Study on Various Approaches of FLT in China Language is a tool for communication. The aim of foreign language teaching is to use language in communication. However, the problem lies in the choice of appropriate approach to teach effectively and successfully. Different views exist with regard to the large class, teacher, students, setting and other factors. For decades, foreign language teaching in China has been greatly influenced by Grammar-Translation Method and Audiolingual Method. In the late 1970s, since Communicative Approach was introduced into our country, the junior, senior middle schools and colleges began to adopt it in foreign language teaching. Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) came to stage with the development of exchange and communication between countries. It indicates that human beings get new understanding on language and communication especially on the nature of language. Meanwhile, some theoreticians and teachers still regard Grammar-Translation Method and Audiolingual Method as good approaches in Chinese foreign language teaching, some others even feel at loss to these approaches in practical teaching. Which approach is more practical and suitable for teachers to improve students, language proficiency? A survey study is needed at first on Grammar-Translation Method, Audiolingual Method and Communicative Approach. 1.1 Grammar-1Yanslation Method Grammar-Translation Method, based on the analysis of Latin grammar and rhetoric, was in fact first known in the United States as the Prussian Method. By the nineteenth century, it had become the standard way of• teaching and learning foreign languages in school. A typical text book in the mid-nineteenth century thus consisted of chapters or lessons organized around grammar points. Each grammar point was listed, rules on its use were explained, and it was illustrated by sample sentences. Its emphasis is "to know every thing about something rather than the thing itself' (W. H. D. Rouse, qtd. in Richards& Teaching Strategies of Oral Class Interaction Rodgers, 1986: 3). Grammar-Translation is a way of studying a language through detailed analysis of the grammar rules, followed by application of this knowledge to the task of translating sentences and texts into and out of the target language. Therefore, it regards language learning as memorizing rules and facts in ozder to understand and manipulate the morphology and syntax of the foreign language. "The first language is maintained as the reference system in the acquisition of the se