An Application Of FonF To The Teaching Of The Simple Present Tense In Junior High Schools:An Empirical Study

For decades,Focus on Forms(FonFs)has played an important part in the history of English grammar teaching in junior high schools.FonFs is acceptable for both teachers and students,for it advocates direct English teaching with numerous mechanical drills,consequently,it seems effective especially in examination-oriented English teaching in high schools.However,its drawbacks are also obvious.FonFs tends to ignore students,participation and interaction in class,thus,even though students are likely to get high grades in exams,they still make various mistakes in their verbal production.Long(1991)introduces a new teaching method called Focus on Form(FonF),which has received more and more attention and discussion since then;much of them have been paid to its effects in actual teaching.This thesis,following this trend,aims to explore the effects of FonF in explicit and implicit grammar knowledge in grammar teaching in junior high schools.This thesis is designed to answer the following two questions through a case study:(1)What's the effect of FonF to the explicit knowledge in simple present tense of English verbs by comparing with FonFs?(2)What's the effect of FonF to the implicit knowledge in simple present tense of English verbs by comparing with FonFs?In the case study,ninety-two students of two intact classes in Grade 7 were selected as two test groups:an experimental group and a control group.The experiment lasted for 5 weeks,the Simple Present Tense of English verbs was chosen as the target grammar form.The experiment used three tests to collect data:pre-test,immediate post-test and a verbal test.By adopting the qualitative and quantitative methods to analyzing the data collected,this thesis achieves the following main study findings:Firstly,the results of the pre-test and the immediate post-test shows that the students in the experimental group made a greater progress in the explicit knowledge in simple present tense of English verbs,which illustrates that FonF has a better effect in helping the students gain the explicit knowledge of the simple present tense of English verbs compared with FonFs.Secondly,the results of the verbal test reveal that FonF has a better influence in the 3rd person singular form of verbs of the simple present tense of English verbs.However,the difference between the effects of FonF and FonFs on be verbs and auxiliary verbs are not significant.That is to say,compared with FonFs,FonF has a greater influence on students'implicit knowledge of the 3rd person singular form of verb of the simple present tense of English verbs,though the effects on be verbs and auxiliary verbs aren't better.Therefore,English teachers are supposed to employ FonF properly to help students obtain both explicit and implicit grammar knowledge.