An Empirical Study On Situational Language Teaching In English Grammar Class For Senior Middle School

During the process of the teaching practice of the new curriculum teaching reform,grammar teaching still plays an important role in teaching foreign language However, howto put grammar into real practice is often neglected in the current practice of grammarteaching. Teachers often teach grammar in isolation and for its own sake. As a result,students cannot use appropriate grammatical structures when the real communication isrequired, or they cannot get high marks when they do some exercises. Although they mayproduce some seemingly grammatical utterances. To solve these problems, Englishgrammar teaching should shift from tradition, which regards grammar as an isolated,context-free language system, to explore how to teach grammar in certain contexts, withthe expectation of cultivating learners’ ability to express themselves accurately, fluentlyand appropriately in real-world communication. Many linguists and applied linguists(Allen and Valette,1977; Widdowson,1978; Ellis,1985; Harmer,1987; Stern,1992) havedone research on this issue and suggested that the best way of teaching grammar was topresent language in situation.Nowadays, the chief aim of foreign language teaching (FLT)is to cultivate thestudents’ marks, thus the Situational Language Teaching (SLT) is accepted by manyteachers in many countries. However, in the practice of adopting SLT in Chinese Englishlanguage teaching, there are some misunderstandings. Many people think that thisapproach can be only used to teach listening and speaking. They either neglect thegrammar teaching in SLT or hold that SLT and grammar teaching are contradictory to eachother. Meanwhile, the status of grammar is questioned. In order to foster the students’competence, some people even propose that grammar is not important and should not betaught in the classroom. In fact, the grammar instruction is not only indispensable butalso of the access to the teaching goal. It is obvious that the challenge we are facing is not to decide whether to teach grammar or not, but to explore how to teach grammar moreeffectively. Applying SLT to grammar class is of great importance to cultivate thestudents’ competence. In China, many scholars believe that the adoption of SLT inChinese classroom does not mean the rejection of grammar teaching. The relationshipbetween communicative competence and grammar teaching should be that of the ends andthe means.This thesis makes an empirical study on the feasibility of SLT in grammar class inChinese senior middle school. It aims at probing into the various ways of SLT ingrammar class, helping Chinese senior middle school teachers discover more effectiveways in their teaching of grammar, and promoting students’ ability of using language. Inthe experiment, two classes in an ordinary senior middle school were selected asExperimental Class and Control Class. The two classes were taught by SLT andtraditional method respectively. The data of the achievement test before the presentexperiment showed that they share a similar level of the overall English proficiency. Thepre-test made before the experiment demonstrated that there wasn’t any distinctionbetween the two classes in their grammatical competence in Attributive Clause. Thepost-test conducted after the experiment embodied that there was significant difference interms of their grammatical competence in Attributive Clause between the two classes.The scores of the students in Experimental Class were higher than that in Control Class.The different teaching methods lead to different learning outcomes, from which thefollowing conclusion can be drawn: applying SLT in grammar class in Chinese seniormiddle school is feasible; SLT is more effective than the traditional method, since it canbring about the genuine progress in learners’ grammatical competence. The thesisconsists of five chapters.Chapter one is the brief introduction to the whole thesis. It begins with theproblems of the current English grammar teaching in senior middle school, then theresearch questions are addressed and the significance of the study is pointed out. Chapter two is the literature review of the thesis. Some theories related to thepresent research are covered. Above all the definition of the grammar and the history ofthe grammar teaching is. Then talk about the definition of situational teaching and thecurrent situation at home and abroad.Chapter three is the methodology of the research. It makes an empirical study onSLT in grammar class in Chinese senior middle school in terms of the subjects, instruments,the approach, the design, the procedures, data-collection and data-analysis. It employs asituational technique, which creates opportunities for students to use the target language byproviding them with the designed situational tasks and various kinds of context consistinggrammar. It is an investigation of the effect of SLT in English grammar class with an aimto examine the relationship between the teaching method and the teaching and learningoutcomes.Chapter four is the results and discussion of the experiment. Through thecomparative analysis of the tests and the questionnaires of the two classes, it gives theeloquent proof that SLT can be used in grammar class, and that SLT is more effective thanthe traditional method, since it can bring about the genuine progress in learners’grammatical competence.Chapter Five is the conclusion of the paper which is about the major findings of thepresent study and suggestions for further studies.