A Study Of Concept-based Instruction Of English Modal Verb

With the theoretical connotation of Sociocultural Theory(SCT),developed by Vygotsky,a newly developed teaching method – Concept-based Instruction(C-BI)attracts scholars‘ attention,especially that of SCT scholars who conducted the study of second language acquisition.On the basis of foreign relevant studies,C-BI was proved to be a beneficial teaching method for learners‘ language concepts,improving defects in the former conventional language teaching methods.Instead of regarding ―rule of thumb‖ as basic teaching content,C-BI emphasizes systematic and abstract concepts as content,which is universal to be used in every L2 context.Through the instruction of concepts,learners‘ practical ability in English and independent learning ability would be improved in a large sense.Thus,according to China‘s foreign language teaching reform and innovation,for the sake of the necessity of enhancing learners‘ English practical ability and independent learning ability,this study tried to explore a new available English teaching pedagogy.Specifically,the present study elaborated the feasibility and the effectiveness of C-BI in the context of China‘s college English classroom.This study was also creative in terms of larger-scale participants in big classroom,as well as integrating grammatical and pragmatic concepts instruction.Accordingly,three research questions were raised:(1)Does C-BI help students‘ internalization of English modal verbs concepts? Doesthe internalization of the concepts sustain overtime?(2)How does C-BI affect students‘ capability for independently constructing theconcepts of modal verbs and students‘ ability for verbalizing the concepts ofmodal verbs?(3)What effects does C-BI render to the learners in different language proficiencieson their scores of modal tests and features of self-constructed Schema forComplete Orienting Basis of Actions(SCOBAs)?By conducting a 2-month research with 105 participants,a comparison was made between different levels‘ control groups and experimental groups,and the effectiveness of C-BI on grammatical and pragmatic teaching on the topic of English modal verbs has been verified.Moreover,this study looked into the interpretation of learners‘ learning processes during C-BI.Learners‘ independent capability of Schema for Complete Orienting Basis of Action(SCOBA)construction and verbalizing capability in languaging(oral and written)were all presented in the current study and were analyzed by means of NVivo,through which we made three conclusions.Firstly,C-BI helped learners‘ internalization of modal verb concepts and sustained overtime.Secondly,the activities of SCOBAs construction and languaging in C-BI helped the cultivation of learners‘ independent learning ability and verbalizing ability,and further offered big assistance for learners‘ concepts internalization.Higher-level learners possessed better independent learning capability and verbalizing ability,while lower-level learners relied more on teacher‘s instruction.Thirdly,higher-level performed better in modal verb test and their SCOBA more featured in abstract and systematic,while lower-level learners tended to construct SCOBA with concrete contexts.