Dynamic Context And Its Applications In Interactive English Teaching

This thesis aims at studying the dynamics of context and its applications in interactive English teaching. Context is the most important notion in pragmatic study. It contributes a lot to the interpretation and production of meaning. For a long time, researchers have initiated studies from different perspectives out of various interests. The traditional study of context was static and could not explain the dynamic process of communication. With the introduction of the"dynamic"concept, more importance is gradually attached to the research on"dynamic context", which regards context as the product of a communicative process during which participants can actively construct context for production and interpretation.On the basis of Jef Verschueren's Theory of Adaptation, the thesis discusses the dynamic properties of context, and proposes that there exists a kind of"macro-interaction"between context construction and verbal communication. This pattern of"macro-interaction"is integrated into the interactive English teaching. In China, currently English teaching emphasizes on the knowledge about the English language itself rather than using the language for communicative purposes. This situation results in the emphasis on the grammar points and vocabulary, and students cannot use what they have learned to communicate. Thus, the importance of context should be stressed in the teaching process. Language should be taught in context.The advantages of interactive teaching have been proved to be true in China and abroad."Interaction is the collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings or ideas between two or more people resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other"(Brown, 2001:42). A lot of foreign researchers, from different angles, have made some theoretic researches on the importance of implementing interaction and its pedagogic significance. But in the practice of English language teaching, lack of interaction is a common thing. Thus, an investigation of integrating dynamic context into interactive English teaching will be made and how the context is constructed and how the changed context influences the developing direction of daily communication will be thoroughly analyzed. And a relative empirical study is conducted. Some influences of dynamic context on language teaching and some interactive implications in pedagogy will be presented.The present thesis is composed of seven parts.Part one serves as an introduction, aiming at stating the background and main contents of the thesis.Part two makes a detailed review of context, including static context and dynamic context, etc..Part three elaborates the Theory of Adaptability, which is one of the most important theories of dynamic context. Meanwhile, the interactive English teaching is introduced. Then, a new perspective looking into the connection between dynamic context and interactive teaching is presented.Part four makes a detailed discussion on how context is constructed and changed in verbal communication and how the mutual knowledge is transmitted. Two means of transmitting method are presented. The indirect means will be mainly discussed.Part five is the experimental study based on the questions discussed in previous parts, which includes purpose, experimental hypothesis, methodology, results and data analysis, etc..Part six centers on some pedagogical implications and feasible suggestions in interactive English teaching according to the theoretical study and survey study.Part seven functions as the conclusion of the whole thesis. On the basis of the properties of dynamic context, the"macro-interaction"between context construction and verbal communication plays an important role in improving interaction in English teaching.