An Experimental Study Of English Object Clause Teaching Under The Guidance Of Usage-based Theory In Junior High School

For Chinese learners who learn English as a second language,grammar learning plays a vital part in their English learning.Object clause is an important and difficult point of English grammar learning in junior high school,and it is also a hot topic in college entrance examination around China over the years.However,through overemphasizing grammar rules and mechanical practice,traditional teaching methods make the students know the surface without knowing the reason,and they fail to promote the students to learn the grammatical knowledge comprehensively and systematically.Proposed by Langacker(1987),usage-based theory holds the idea that language formation,acquisition,and application are based on the principle of usage.Hence,grammar learning is not a mere process of rules learning,but the combination of students’ actual experience and usage to stimulate their cognitive skills so as to continuously promote their comprehensive ability of language.To explore a new perspective of English grammar teaching in junior high schools,an experimental study on the teaching of English object clauses in junior high school under the guidance of usage-based theory is conducted.Taking students in Class 1and Class 2 of Grade 9 of a junior high school in Heyuan City as the research subjects,this study focuses on the following two research questions: 1)Does the grammar teaching under the guidance of usage-based theory facilitate junior high school students’ object clause learning? 2)Does the grammar teaching under the guidance of usage-based theory arouse junior high school students’ interest to object clause learning? Moreover,the experimental instruments include questionnaire,pre-test,post-test,delayed-test,and interview.What’s more,the results of the experiment are analyzed by SPSS24.0,and the method of combining quantitative and qualitative analysis is adopted.After a ten-week teaching experiment,the results of the study reveal that: 1)Grammar teaching under the guidance of usage-based theory can facilitate students’ object clause learning.Furthermore,the positive performance of object clause learning presents a profound transfer to students;2)Junior high school students takea positive attitude towards grammar teaching under the guidance of usage-based theory.To be more specific,usage-based teaching approach can arouse students’ interest to object clause learning and help them build up confidence in grammar learning.Based on the above findings,this study suggests that in the teaching of English object clauses of junior high school,teachers can properly employ usage-based theory.In the course of teaching,teachers should try to create authentic situations for students and connect the knowledge with students’ language experience.What’s more,teachers should pay more attention to the combination of linguistic structure and actual usage.By providing students with appropriate exemplars and type frequencies,teachers can effectively guide their students to further promote the schematization of knowledge.