Attributive Clauses Or Relative Clauses?

As an important grammar item in English grammar system,the study of relative/attributive clauses is a hot issue in second language acquisition.For English learners in China,the study of relative/attributive clauses is both important and difficult.The previous researches are generally limited to the acquisition study.Learners' comprehension of this grammar item is influenced by teachers' teaching beliefs and their teaching behaviors,which are also affected by teaching documents and materials.Therefore,this paper attempts to explore the following questions: 1.What is the situation of introduction to and description of relative/attributive clauses in English teaching documents and materials? 2.What is the situation of teaching beliefs and teaching behaviors by senior high school English teachers in dealing with relative/attributive clauses? 3.How should English teaching documents and materials and English teachers deal with this grammar item in the light of English linguistics and applied linguistics?Based on the views of grammar and grammar teaching,the theory of teachers' teaching beliefs and behaviors,this paper investigated English teaching documents and materials for senior high schools and English teachers in Chongqing Banan Z Middle School and Tongliang B Middle School.The data were collected by means of text analysis,questionnaire survey,interview and classroom observation.SPSS 19.0was also used to analyze the main data.The research results are summarized as follows:1.About the English teaching documents and materials: there is a confusion of Chinese and English terms in English textbooks.As for the definition,relative/attributive clause is the clause that modifies a noun or pronoun in a compound sentence.With regard to the classification,relative/attributive clauses are divided into restrictive and non-restrictive relative/attributive clauses.In terms of the grammatical function,a relative/attributive clause functions as attribute in a main clause.As for the semantic function,relative/attributive clauses provide identifying or additional information to the antecedent.2.About the English teachers' teaching beliefs and behaviors: the teachers' teaching beliefs of relative/attributive clauses are consistent with the contents in the English teaching documents and materials.Different teaching years influence their teaching beliefs about the semantic function and teaching objectives of relative/attributive clauses.Teachers' teaching beliefs are not always consistent with their teaching behaviors.3.Some implications: relative clauses is considered as a better term than attributive clauses in explaining this grammar item.In some cases a relative/attributive clause does not necessarily serve the function of attribute in a main clause and it may contain the meaning of coordinate and adverbial clauses.Also,the classification of relative/attributive clauses are also not confined to restrictive and non-restrictive and the comma is not the only marker of such separation or division.Therefore,English teaching documents and materials should update the introduction to and description of this grammar item.Additionally,English teachers also need to renew their teaching beliefs of relative/attributive clauses and try to achieve the combination of form,meaning and use in the practice of grammar teaching.Based on the above findings,this paper finally proposes some suggestions for the improvement of English teaching documents and materials as well as English teachers.