TheforerunnerofEnglishGrammarabstract:reviewingthehistoryofenglishlanguageteaching,thephaseofthestandardizationofenglishshouldbeattachedmuchimportanceto.amongthepioneeringscholars,johnwallishasmadegreatcontributiontothefixingofthegrammar.keywords:englishgrammar;englishteaching;tensefacingtheevolutionofgrammarteaching,johnwalliswaswell-knownbyhisuniquedescriptionofgrammarteaching.firstly,distinguishingfromtheprevailingtraditionalgrammarians’‘latin-based’approachandimposinginappropriatecategoriesofdescriptiononenglish,wallisfirmlybelievedthatenglishwasanindependentlanguagedifferentfromlatinwithitsowncharacteristicscallingforobjectiveattitude.this‘anti-latin’stancehaschallengedthedominationoflatingrammarandgraduallygivenbirthtothedescriptiveenglishgrammar.then,referringtothespecificgrammaticalfieldsofwallis,englishteachersmustbefamiliarwithhisperceptionofthe‘auxiliary’whichprovidedareasonableaccountofthefactsofenglish.itwasjohnwalliswhoestablishedthecategoryof‘auxiliary’andfurthersubdivideditinto‘completeauxiliaries’(haveandbe)and‘defectiveauxiliaries’(do,shallwillandtheothermodals).thissubdividingisworthbeingrespectedasitisquitemeaningfulforthedefinitionofthemodalsstillmakesbothlearnersandteachersconfusedtoday.sofar,theso-calledauthoritativeenglishgrammarbyzhangdaozhenhasstilldefinedmodalsas‘modalsverbs’.butjudgingfromthebasicfeaturesofmodals,shoulditbetimetoputforwardquery?firstly,modalsdonotpossessthevariationfortenseoraspect;secondly,onlyattachingitselftoaspecificverbcanamodalembodyacertainmodalmeaning;thirdly,amodalcannotbethepredictiveverbinasentence.inotherwords,modalscanonlybedefinedas‘modalauxiliaries’todifferentiaterealverbsfromthethreemeaningless‘primaryauxiliaries’—do,beandhave.anotherthought-provokingpointisthatwallisdescribedthemodalauxiliariesinnotionalterms,pointingoutthatthemodalimplicationof‘shall’and‘will’variedwiththepersonoftheverb.thismayremindusofourownteaching.whenexplainingtheusageof‘shall’,mostenglishteachersjustemphasizedthat‘shal