A Research On Locative Construction Teaching In Senior High School English Classes

English locative construction is a grammar item in senior high school English teaching. It contains two structures. They are [S V NP on/ into/ onto NP] and [S V NP with NP]. Verbs which can enter the first structure are figure verbs. Verbs that can enter the second structure are ground verbs. Verbs which can enter both two structures are called alternative verbs. Previous studies mainly focus on the locative verbs from the perspective of English learners’ acquisition, while this study tends to explore this phenomenon from the perspective of English teaching. This study inquires the following three research questions:(1) How are English locative constructions taught in senior high school English classes?(2) To what degree do senior high school students comprehend English locative construction?(3) What are the effects of teaching English locative construction in senior high school based on Construction Grammar?This study is an empirical research. First, an interview with the teachers is done and a questionnaire is sent out to inquire the current locative construction teaching in senior high school. Based on the inquiry of the current teaching, a pre-test is done to see the students’ comprehension of locative construction. After that, based on Construction Grammar, a six-lesson teaching experiment is done in the experimental class. At the same time, a six-lesson teaching with current teaching style is done in the control class. A comparison of the scores of pre-test and post-test is made and analyzed by SPSS 16.0. Through analyzing the data and a face-to-face interview with the students after the teaching experiment, the effects are revealed.The major findings of this study are as follows:(1) Current English locative construction teaching in senior high school mainly has the following two styles: locative verbs and prepositions are taught as collocations; the teaching process includes explicit instruction, examples and exercises.(2) Students’ comprehension of locative verbs is as follows: students comprehend the constructional meaning of locative construction well; and as for locative verbs, before the experiment, figure locative verbs are shown to be comprehended best, while alternative locative verbs are comprehended worst; after the experiment students in the experimental class have obvious improvements, but they still comprehend alternative verbs worst.(3) Teaching English locative construction in senior high school based on Construction Grammar has mainly three effects: improving students’ academic performance on locative construction, strengthening students’ understanding on English locative construction and increasing students’ interests in locative construction learning. In future English locative construction teaching in senior high school, teachers should give more specific explanation about the constructional meaning of locative construction and locative verbs. Also teachers should give the students more opportunities to explore the construction by themselves and lead them to conclude the abstract schema of the construction.