An Empirical Study Of English Grammar Teaching Based On Constructivism In Senior High Shools

This thesis is an empirical study of applying the theory of constructivism to English grammar teaching in senior high schools, which is aimed at applying the latest theory to grammar teaching so as to fuel students'command of grammar knowledge and as a result improve the teaching efficiency in senior high schools.As is known to all, English grammar teaching and learning plays an important role in senior high schools both for teachers and for students. Therefore, most teachers and students lay much stress on grammar. To some degree, some even believe that as long as one has mastered grammar along with vocabulary he must have a good command of English. Unfortunately, the current practice of grammar teaching and learning in senior high schools is far from satisfactory. The traditional teaching approach so called"stuffing-ducks"is getting students exhausted by making notes in class and doing endless exercises after class. This approach has ignored the fact that learning is an active knowledge reconstruction process by learners themselves, that learners'characters differ a lot in various ways, and that learners need to experience the new information rather than being told directly. So it is not surprising that what they have gained is much less than what they deserve.The theory of constructivism first occurred in the field of philosophy and psychology. At present, it has been employed widely in the area of education. It's unanimously thought that one of the most important achievements in education is the growing influence of constructivism on teaching and learning. Not only does it expand the study of eduction theories, but also it has instructed the practice of teaching and learning effectively, known as one of the most successful examples in the area. The learning process under the instruction of constructivism has overcome some disadvantages of traditional learning approaches: superficiality, isolation and mechanism. It accords with our belief in creativeness, autonomy and cooperation.With the background of the on-going new curriculum reform of English teaching in senior high schools and on the basis of the relevant study done before, this thesis aims to improve the teaching effects and develop the students'linguistic competence and communicative competence. Based on constructivism theory, especially its activity theory, mediation theory and ZPD theory, and in the light of the large-scale questionnaire, interview and the students'test result, the thesis has carried out the study of grammar teaching, created a new model of grammar teaching and made further explanation of our opinion with the example of tense teaching. The new approach has proved scientific and effective through the comparison of experimental group and control group. The result from the study is believed to have an influence on the present English grammar teaching in senior high schools to some extent. Our fellow teachers are to achieve amazing teaching effects with the direction of the new approach.