Grammar Instruction In Chinese Junior Middle School:Preemptive Focus On Form

In what way should grammar be taught? That question has been debated in the field of SLA (Second Language Acquisition). Since the1990s, there have been a number of studies on FonF at home and abroad. Some studies abroad compare FonF with other instructions; some studies compare different FonF tasks. Researchers at home have also tried to apply FonF into classes. Reactive FonF is one of the types of FonF, which involves the treatment to learners’ errors. However, there are few studies on preemptive FonF, which concerns treatments to learners by questioning before they make mistakes.There are two aims of the study. One is to test whether preemptive FonF can help acquire linguistic form. The other is to make sure whether preemptive FonF can make students more interested in learning. This study belongs to quasi-experiment. It includes comparing the results of the pretest and the posttest between the experiment group (EG) and the control group (CG); in order to use preemptive FonF instruction better, there was a pilot study before the main study; the process of the experiment was recorded; an outline of interview was adopted to realize how students thought of preemptive FonF.Subjects of this study were two parallel classes, chosen from Grade One in an ordinary junior high school. One was CG, and the other was EG. The experiment lasted for9weeks. It was found that by SPSS19.0, there was no significant difference between scores of the two groups in the pretest. CG was taught through traditional instruction while EG was taught through preemptive FonF instruction. The researcher of this study remembered the teaching episodes to reflect. It was found that by SPSS19.0, there was significant difference between scores of the two groups in the posttest.In order to investigate whether preemptive FonF has an effect on learners and to know learners’ ideas of that, an interview was adopted. Taking aspects into consideration including the class participation, the changes of scores, and the language basis,4students were chosen to be the interviewees. The content of the interview included the ways and attitudes of offering questions, and the effect of preemptive FonF on the language learning.The results show that comparing with the class of traditional teaching, preemptive FonF instruction encourages learners to use the language in the process of communication, which makes the learning process much more natural. In addition, the new instruction encourages learners to negotiate and discuss with each other in groups. Therefore, it can be said that preemptive FonF helps learners acquire linguistic form. In additional, students are motivated to get involved in the class, and the instruction makes students more interested in learning English.