A Study On The Application Of Schema Theory In The English Grammar Teaching In Senior High Schools

Grammar teaching has always been a hot issue in foreign language teaching and research. Since1970s, grammar teaching has been ignored in foreign and second language teaching communities. The necessity of grammar teaching has been realized and recognized recently once again since an increasing number of studies show that grammar teaching could facilitate the students'accurate grasp of the form of the target language in foreign and second language teaching. However, with the misunderstanding to the new curriculum,the grammar teaching is ignored. Meanwhile, the students have a lot of troubles in learning English grammar. For instance, without the concept of grammar, they are unable to find the rules of the grammar. Therefore, it is difficult for them to develop a grammar system.The schema theory has been widely applied in both reading comprehension and listening comprehension in foreign language teaching, and it is also used in foreign language writing teaching. But there is a lack of application in grammar teaching in Senior Middle School.The Paper tries to elaborate how to utilize schema theory in senior English grammar teaching through the analysis of the characteristics of schema theory, grammar teaching and the present situation of the students'learning grammar, putting forward the possibility of the application of schema theory in grammar teaching. Combining senior English text books with real grammar classes, it tries to come up with concreting teaching procedure in senior English grammar classes:activating the relevant schemata in students'mind---building up the new schemata; ---consolidating the schemata. This kind of teaching form will make both teaching and learning grammar a circulative and dynamic procedure. The writer of this paper aims to find an all-around grammar teaching method that is more concrete, easier to operate, hoping it will help the students overcome their fear for English grammar.This paper is made up of five parts:Part I puts forward the aim and the significance of the research. According to the request to the English grammar, the paper analyzes the present situation of English grammar teaching and points out the defects of English grammar teaching in middle school, and reviews the researches about schema theory in language teaching at home and abroad.Part II is Literature Review. It gives a systematic introduction to schema theory, expounding definition and connotation, classification, characteristic and function. It also introduces several kinds of influential grammar teaching models and the methods and principles of grammar teaching. Besides, it analyses some typical problems which emerge in English grammar teaching. Above all, beginning with the relationship between schema theory and grammar teaching, it proves the possibility of the application of schema theory in grammar teaching.Part III recommends the application of schema theory in English grammar teaching, representing how to activate the relevant schemata in students'mind; how to build up the new schemata; and how to consolidate the schemata. It is the key part of the paper and shows how to combine the grammar teaching with the schema theory.Part IV introduces a case of teaching practice and analyzes how it is organized with the guidance of schema theory.Part V draws conclusions, and account for the insufficiencies in this paper and the further research which should be conducted in the future.