| Situational method is a teaching method which is widely used in English classroom nowadays. It uses specific vivid scene to arouse students’ interest and increase learning efficiency. Teachers always organize different activities and create situation related with the text book or real life and in this way to attract students’ attention in class and develop students’ English ability.The situational approach has become a system of teaching method started from the late 1970 s. In 1979, Li Jilin(1979) used this method in the teaching experiment in Nantong Normal School affiliated elementary school and started the Chinese contemporary study of the situational teaching approach. It has achieved good result in Chinese class since then.The theoretical foundation of this teaching method includes constructive learning theory, structural linguistics theory and situated cognition and learning theory. Based on these theories, this study conducts an experiment in a senior high school and the experiment is designed to prove whether the situational method is an effective method for senior high school English classroom and try to find out the existing problems and solutions and how could teachers combine situation and emotion together.This study is an empirical study and the author uses quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis in the experiment. The quantitative analysis includes a pretest, a post-test and two questionnaires and they are designed to reveal whether the situational method will be a reasonable and practical teaching method in senior high school. And the data got from the tests will be analyzed by using the computer software-the Statistical Package for Social Science 17.0(SPSS). An interview with some teachers and students comprises the qualitative analysis. It is designed to find out the problems the teachers meet and the students’ real thoughts toward the situational method. In this empirical study, the author mainly uses the quantitative analysis.The experiment lasts for three months and there are 150 students and 30 teachers help the researcher finish the survey. All the results are analyzed and the content of the interview has been recorded carefully.The result of the experiment shows the situational method is an effective teaching method in high school English classroom. The teachers in this school always create situations or organize English activities in class. It gives students a new understanding of English, arouses students’ interest and let them learn knowledge in a relaxed atmosphere. And the relationship between teachers and students gets closer than before. Most students reflect that they welcome this kind of teaching method. The post-test result of the experimental class proves that the situational method can improve the students language ability greatly. Meanwhile, some problems come up during the research. The teachers should improve themselves and pay more attention to students and then adjust their teaching method properly. There should be more communication between teachers and students. In this way, they can make best use of the situational method in the future teaching process.This paper includes six chapters. Chapter I introduces the research background, research methodology, research significance and the layout of the paper. This part is a gross generalization of the situational method and it analyzes the research method and the design of this approach. Chapter II includes studies abroad and studies at home on the situational method. Chapter III introduces the theoretical foundations of this method which contain connotation and characteristics of situation and situational teaching method and theoretical foundations of the study. Chapter IV and Chapter V present the research design and the analysis of the data obtained from the tests. Chapter VI is a conclusion of the whole paper. It mainly talks about findings and shortcomings of the situational teaching method and also puts forward some suggestions for future studies. |
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