A Study On English Grammatical Competence Of Junior Middle School Students Based On Three-dimensional Grammar Framework

The cultivation of English grammatical competence is one of the vital components in grammar teaching.In recent years,researchers and teachers have carried out extensive researches into how to improve learners' English grammatical competence through grammar teaching.Diane Larsen-Freeman(2003)has proposed and formed the three-dimensional grammatical framework including from,meaning,and use which expounded what should be taught in grammar teaching with a clear direction.The full intention of the present thesis is to explore whether the teaching method based on the three-dimensional grammatical framework could improve junior middle school students' English grammatical competence and share some advice on grammar teaching with teachers.In the present thesis,the teaching method based on three-dimensional grammar framework was put into practice,which lasted two months,for exploring the junior middle school students' English grammatical competence from the aspects of restrictive relative clauses.According to the research questions:(1)Can three-dimensional grammar teaching improve students' English grammatical competence with reference to restrictive relative clauses?(2)What's the students' attitude towards English grammatical competence ? Two research instruments including tests and a questionnaire were applied to collect data in the process of experimental study.At the beginning,101 subjects were randomly selected from two intact classes in grade 8 and class 1 was treated as experimental class while class 2 as control class.Then,the experiment had four stages and four tests with a questionnaire which was administered to students.In each stage of two weeks,different aspects of restrictive relative clauses were instructed and the corresponding test was administered respectively to students.Finally,a questionnaire was sent out to see the students' attitude to English grammatical competence.All the data collected from the whole experiment was analyzed through the SPSS 20.0.The result of the analysis showed that the teaching method based on the three-dimensional grammar framework not only can raise the English grammatical competence of junior middle school students,but also increase their interest in learning English grammar and most importantly,it gave the certain direction and new idea during the process of learning English grammar by themselves.Altogether,the teaching method which is on the basis of the three-dimensional grammarframework has certain meanings and implications for grammar teaching in junior middle school.It mainly has changed in the content of grammar items from a different angle and further stressed the importance of use in actual grammar teaching while considering the form and meaning.In the light of the enlightenment,teachers should specifically explain the reason behind the form of restrictive relative clauses and significantly expound the use in actual teaching meaningfully and appropriately.Meanwhile,teachers should hold the idea of three-dimensional grammar teaching and try to combine it with the traditional teaching method to develop the use of English grammar in actual teaching which would reflect the practicability of English grammar teaching at the present stage.