Teaching Unreal Conditional Sentences Through A Context-Based Approach

With the popularity of Communicative Language Teaching in the second half of last century, the traditional grammar teaching in foreign language learning has gradually lost its favor. Many researchers in the Second Language Acquisition field argue that grammar teaching does not work in language learning and language should be acquired through natural exposure to authentic language environment rather than through formal learning. However, due to the impact of examination-oriented education, grammar teaching has always been a priority in the teaching of foreign language in China. China's grammar teachers often teach grammar in an isolated way, ignoring the teaching of grammar in use so that students cannot properly and accurately express their thoughts in the process of real communication.With a view to solving the problem of learning grammar in isolation, this study attempted to explore the impact of the context theory proposed by Halliday on foreign language grammar teaching. To be precise, the researcher carried out a teaching experiment, in which a context-based approach was used to teach the unreal conditionals to freshmen majoring in English in adult education. All the data in the experiment were processed and analyzed by the social science statistical software (SPSS 13.0). The final conclusion was: the use of context-based approach helped to improve students'awareness and attitudes of grammar learning and promoted students'acquisition of English grammar learning strategies. Besides, in the whole process of teaching experiment, there were many factors affecting participants'learning and development process. One of the most contributing factors was the flexible application of the context-based grammar teaching mode and active cooperation with the participants. This study shows that the context-based grammar teaching will not only exert a positive effect on resolving the current problems existing in grammar teaching in China, have an important practical implication in cultivating students'actual ability to use the language, but also have the important practical significance to the theory construction of China's foreign language teaching.