A Study Of Middle School English Grammar Teaching That Fosters The Development Of Thinking

In the history of foreign language teaching, the focus of instruction and research is often limited to language acquisition without considering the development of thinking, and this is probably a reason why our students are proficient in language but poor in thinking. The issue of developing thinking in language teaching has become a more and more popular field of study. Based on Soviet Educational Psychology, especially Vygotsky's theory, the Teach-for-Development Approach (TDA) is an approach that focuses on students'development. The purpose of this thesis is to construct principles, processes and techniques of a Teach-for-Development Approach of English Grammar based on TDA theory and correlational researches in China.Psychological researches on thinking reveal that developing theoretical thinking requires students to learn scientific theories by an approach that employs theoretical thinking. Since theoretical thinking is one that is used in scientific research, the best way of teaching grammar should be to study grammar scientifically, with every student works as a grammar researcher.TDA has three stages of learning. In the Experiential Learning Stage, students are engaged in different kinds of language practices, during which they find their existing grammar knowledge insufficient for the purpose of explaining some new language phenomena they observe. Their cognitive conflict and frustration in practice form the problem situation for grammar study. In the Theoretical Learning Stage, the teacher helps the students clearly define the problem, find the explanatory factor, use it to explain phenomena, form a hypothesis and finally falsify or revise it. In the New Experiential Stage, the students use what they have just discovered in practice while the theory is still open to falsification or revision. In new practice, new problems are bound to appear, thus leading to a new round of study.To make the studying process more scientific and efficient, the following principles are recommended to be followed:the principle of understanding grammar, the principle of using L1 in analyzing L2, the principle of understanding the reason of conception, the principle of prevent language from hindering thinking, the principle of the economy of thought and the principle of starting with voluntary language activity (written language).