An Empirical Research On Usage-based Approach In English Teaching

Grammar is the focus in foreign language teaching field all the time. From the grammar–translation method in18thcentury to today’s task-based teaching method, grammar got lotsof scholars’ attention all the ways. Some researchers hold that teachers should attachimportance to grammar teaching in English teaching while some maintain the contraryopinions. People’ views on grammar are changed with the prevailing grammar teachingmethod at one typical period.Grammar learning is an key element in English teaching in middle school，whereas thereis a phenomena in English teaching in middle school, which is ignoring grammar teachingand learning, or insisting on traditional grammar teaching method while neglecting learners’communicative competence and ability to use language appropriately. In order to carry out theEnglish grammar teaching in middle school and develop learners’ ability to use languageproperly in real interactive context effectively, the author attempts to do the empirical studyon the application of usage-based teaching method in middle school. According to thelearning character of English grammar in middle school and students’ physical character,based on construction grammar theory and usage-based model theory, the author attempts toconstruct a usage-based teaching model; besides, the author employs quality analysis andquantity analysis to construe the collective data in the experiment, so that exploring whether itcan develop the students’ interests and positivity to learn English, and improve the students’accuracy and complexity in written tasks or not.The dissertation can be divided into seven parts: Introduction, Theoretical Basis,Literature Review, New Model Construction, Empirical Study, Data Analysis and Discussion,Conclusion.The first part is introduction. The author mainly elaborates the present situation andexisting problems of English teaching and learning in middle school, accordingly leads to thenecessity of usage-based teaching method which is generated from construction grammar in cognitive field, besides, the aims and significance of this issue are also stated in this chapter.The second part is theoretical basis. First, the author reviews the previous researchers’definition on construction grammar and its classification; the characteristics and advantages ofconstruction grammar in contrast to generative grammar;furthermore, the author presents theUsage-Based theory, includingThe third part is literature review. the author reviews the theoretical and application studyon construction grammar at home and broad, then finds that a family of researches onconstruction grammar are theoretically while seldom focus on the empirical study. Few ofscholars took some special grammar structures as construction taught to students, let alone theapplication of usage-based model is scarce. And there is not a specific teaching modelemerged from usage-based model theory used as teaching reference. Construction Grammarand usage-based theory just provide a theoretical basis and possibility to English teaching,teachers should build a usage-based teaching model appropriate to the discipline’s features.The fourth part is new model construction. The author elaborates how to construct ateaching model in usage-based approach. It consists of three conditions, five teachingprinciple should be followed, and then a new teaching model was construct, i.e.“usage-basedteaching model”. About the new teaching model, the guiding ideology, teaching procedureand sample lesson were presented in details.The fifth part is research design. The author states the purpose of the research, researchquestions, research objects and instruments; the collection and analysis of research data; thedesign of research contents; analysis of research results. The purpose of the study aims to testand verify whether usage-based teaching method will improve the efficiency of Englishgrammar teaching in middle school and increase the students’ interests on learning Englishgrammar. Based on which, the following three research questions are put forward.1, Will the Usage-based CG Teaching method in English grammar improve the learners’English grammar level and competence more effectively than the traditional teachingapproach?2. Will the usage-based Language Teaching in English grammar will increase the learners’learning interest，confidence，learning strategies，and motivation more greatly than thetraditional PPP approach?3. Will the usage-based language teaching in English grammar will improve the learners’grammar output and application; meanwhile enhance the learners’ written communicativeskill? The research objects are from the two classes in grade three. After making sure there is nosignificance difference between the two classes in the test before the experiment, the authorselect one class as experimental class and the other as controlled class randomly. During thetwo months’ experiment, the experiment class adopt usage-based construction grammarteaching model, while the controlled class employ the traditional teaching method as usual.The experiment covers all the lays of language, and this study take the most productivityconstruction-ditransitive construction as an experiment sample. The instruments of theresearch consist of questionnaire, test papers and interview. As far as the data analysis, theauthor employs SPSS and Excel to do quantity analysis and use quality analysis in writtenmaterials and interview.The sixth part is data analysis. Through quantity analysis and quality analysis, the authorfind that the usage-based construction grammar teaching method could develop the students’learning interests and positivity on English effectively; the usage-based construction grammarteaching method could increase the students’ accuracy and complexity in written tasks.The seventh part is conclusion. Through this empirical research, the author reached theconclusion at the last part. In this part, the author summarizes the main findings in the study,the pedagogical implications and the limitation of the research. This attempt on constructing anew teaching method emerged from usage-based theory could provide any significance forfurther research on foreign language teaching.