A Study On The Application Of Schema Theory In The English Verb Grammar Teaching In Higher Technical And Vocational Colleges

English verb grammar learning is an important part in English learning. Having a goodunderstanding of English verb grammar is the foundation of learning English. However, mostof the higher technical and vocational college students can not master the English verbgrammar, and always puzzled by lots of difficulties. Students can not find a good strategy tolearn English verb grammar. So a good learning strategy of learning English verb grammar isvery important for English learners. Schema theory is a useful strategy for students to learnEnglish. It has been widely used in the listening, reading and writing teaching of foreignlanguages, but it is seldom applied to English grammar teaching.This experiment is designed to show how to apply schema theory in the English verbgrammar teaching, and this study intends to testify whether schema theory applied in theEnglish verb grammar teaching in higher technical and vocational colleges can improvestudents’ ability to master English verbs. The author puts forward two questions:(1) Canschema theory applied in higher vocational college English verb grammar teaching enhancestudents’ interest in learning English grammar?(2) Can schema theory applied in highervocational college English verb grammar teaching more effectively improve students’ abilityto master English verbs?The subjects of this research are80students of two classes in the second year fromShanxi Normal University Linfen College in Linfen, Shanxi Province. The two classes wererandomly assigned to the experimental class (EC) and the control class (CC). This teachingexperiment lasts16weeks (from September to December in2012). The schema theorygrammar teaching method was adopted in the EC, and the traditional grammar-translation teaching method was adopted in the CC. This experiment involved questionnaires, teachingexperiment and interview. Before the experiment, pre-study questionnaire was applied in theEC. The purpose of this step is to find out the student’s learning situation and their problemsin learning English grammar. And then, pre-tests were held in both the EC and the CC. Theresults of these pre-tests were analyzed by SPSS18.0. By comparing the scores in the pretestsbetween the EC and the CC, the author tries to find out whether the two classes are at thesame level before the English verb grammar learning. After the teaching experiment, both thestudents of EC and CC were given post-tests and the ultimate test. The results of thesepost-tests and ultimate exam were analyzed by SPSS18.0. The purpose of this analysis is toexamine whether schema theory grammar teaching strategy can more effectively improvestudents’ English verb test scores after the teaching experiment of this semester. In the end,post-study questionnaire and interview were carried out in EC to get further data.From this research, the conclusion can be drawn from the analysis of the tests, thequestionnaires and the interview: the application of schema theory in the English verbgrammar teaching in higher technical and vocational colleges can enhance the students’English grammar learning interest and can improve their ability to master English verbs.Therefore, the grammar teaching method based on the schema theory should be regarded as auseful teaching strategy for teachers to help students to learn English grammar. In a word, theauthor strongly hopes that the students of higher technical and vocational colleges can makemore progress with the adoption of this strategy applied in English teaching and learning.