A Study On The Application Of PACE Model In Senior High School English Grammar Teaching

With flaws of the traditional teaching method becoming increasingly prominent,language learners and educators are determined to explore more effective teaching models,and thus the PACE Model(an acronym for four teaching steps:Presentation,Attention,Co-construction and Extension)come into our sight.Foreign scholars reckon that PACE model originates from story-based grammar instruction and implicit grammar instruction,and its positive effect in senior schools’ language learning and college language learning has been proved by empirical research.However,there are few researches on PACE model in China,and most of them only demonstrate its effectiveness in middle schools’ grammar teaching and reading class,as well as the students’ acceptance of the PACE.In fact,there is little research on the factors that affect the effectiveness of the PACE model and the problems may exist in the process of its implementation.Based on this,this study takes the junior high school learners as the research object,uses the English textbooks for high school as the teaching material along with all kinds of good articles,audio and video clips from the Internet.Meanwhile,the core target grammar structure is the Unreal Conditiona1.Compared with the traditional 3P model,this study aims to obtain the PACE teaching model’s short-term and long-term learning effects in high school English grammar class,the possible factors that make PACE model have a positive effect on students’ grammar learning,and the problems that may arise in practical application of PACE model,so as to offer some ideas for teachers and schools to improve their teaching.There are three main research questions:firstly,whether the use of PACE teaching model in English grammar teaching in senior high school can be effective and compared with the traditional 3P teaching model,which one(PACE or 3P)has the better initial learning effect and which one has the better retention learning effect on the target grammar;secondly,what are the possible factors contributing to the improvement of students’ learning effect in PACE model;Thirdly,the problems that may exist in the application of PACE model in actual English teaching.The theoretical framework of this study is built on the main viewpoints of Van Lier’s authenticity theory,Schmidt’s noticing hypothesis and the whole language theory.The research design adopts the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.The subjects are 100 junior school students from two natural classes in a senior school in Anhui province,which are divided into the control class and the experimental class.The CC adopts the traditional teaching model,and the EC adopts the PACE teaching model.Both the students of the two classes took part in the pre-test,the middle test and the delayed post-test to compare the initial and delayed learning effects.One hundred students answered the questionnaire,and eventually 96 questionnaires were effectively recovered.Six students were selected by stratified sampling from the students who participated in the questionnaire.Finally,all the data of tests and the questionnaire were sorted out,and they were analyzed by T-test and SPSS.Through data statistics and analysis,we can find that:1.Use of the PACE model in English grammar teaching in senior high school will receive a positive effect.Compared with the 3P,the learning effect of PACE model works better in the initial and delayed learning stages.2.PACE teaching model can produce positive learning effect and it is closely linked with its own characteristics.Through the analysis of questionnaires and interviews,we can find that PACE teaching model can better stimulate students’ beliefs,improve their interests in learning,arouse their attention,and promote understanding and cooperative learning ability.3.Through the interview,it is not hard to figure out that there exist problems in the implementation of PACE model in actual English grammar teaching.From the perspective of teachers,it is mainly due to the improper selection and design of teaching materials,unclear orientation of teachers’ role and the unreasonable design of extension activities.From the students’ point of view,there are main situations like students’ weak awareness of active learning,classroom silence and classroom anxieties occur from time to time.The results of this study have some implications for English grammar teaching:In English grammar teaching,teachers can benefit from the advantages of PACE teaching model to improve classroom teaching.For example,select authentic teaching materials to stimulate students’ learning interest and attention,pay attention to teacher-student co-construction.Teachers should not teach mechanically,and it’s of great significance to design various extension activities,evoke students’ attention and give full play to students’initiative in learning.As for the students,they should change their learning concept,improve their independent learning ability,participate actively in class,communicate with teachers and classmates in time if they have problems,and talk more,think more.