Chapter One Introduction
1.1Background and Purpose of the Research
Since the reform and opening up, Chinese educational system has developed greatly.And secondary English education has achieved great achievements either in theory or inpractice. At the same time, a great number of new theories and English teaching modesappeared. However, the present situation of English teaching in junior middle school isnot satisfactory. Because of the enormous pressure of going to good schools，the teacherspay more attention to English grammar teaching while they ignore listening and speakingability training, focusing on the case of a written test but ignore the real situation in theoral communicative competence training. English curriculum standards points out: “Thegoal during the period of basic education is to develop students' comprehensive languageknowledge, attitudes, learning strategies and the development of cultural awareness andto provide students with opportunities of independent learning and interaction and spaceto fully express themselves". Here, the opportunity and space no doubt refers to thelanguage environment. And the requests of situational teaching and new curriculumstandards are coincide.In recent years, situational teaching method still plays an important role in thereform of English teaching. Especially with the deepen development of new curriculumreform, more and more English educators begin to focus on the practical application ofsituational teaching in junior middle school. English teaching modes such as Dulangkoumode，Yangsi teaching mode and Task-Based Teaching all have a combination ofsituational approach. The effective implementation of situational teaching in juniormiddle school has been considered one of the important ways to promote thecomprehensive reform of English teaching in junior middle school. The reason whysituational teaching method can be widely used, is that situational teaching approach canadapt to the characteristics of English teaching and be in line with the three-dimensionaltraining goal. Through the creation of an authentic English language situations, it canmake students practice language，so that not only students' interest in learning Englishbut also the teaching efficiency is improved.
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1.2 Significance of the Thesis
Situational Teaching Method，based on educational psychology of situated cognitionand learning theories, is in keeping with psychological rules of students' learning andattaches importance to students' emotional feeling and psychological experience. Themethod, breaking the limitation to convey simple language knowledge and drawinglessons from traditional teaching methods，is intuitive and vivid, enlightening teachingtheories, and is also the development direction of modem teaching methods. In theprocess of English teaching, creating situations can attract students' interest in learning,change their attitude toward English, inspire them to leam actively, enhance theirself-awareness and improve their ability of using English in practice. The purpose ofsituational teaching is to arouse students' emotional feeling. Situational theory appliedinto English language learning and teaching is in favor of forming concrete teaching planaccording to the personal characteristics of students in junior middle school. Theorycomes frome the practice. Though researching the problems in the process of situationalteaching, we can enrich the situated cognition theory.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Foreign Study on the Application of Situational Teaching
The Situational Language Teaching originates from the UK. The author searched theresources about situational teaching and found that there are no researches about theproblems in the application of situational teaching. So the author presents some foreignresearches about the application of situational teachingFrench educationist Roussea wrote about a situational teaching case in his Emile.Once, in order to teach Emile how to tell the directions. The teacher took him to theforest. Emile lost his way in the forest. He was hungry and tired but couldn't find the wayhome. The teacher lead him to find the way home by the shadow of the tree toward thenorth at noon. ( Roussea, 1978)The Former Soviet Union educator B.A.Cyxomjnhcknn often took children to thenature in his experimental teaching reform in order to inspire students' learning interestand develop their imagination and aesthetics. He took full advantage of the situation toeducate the students and promote students to grow healthily. He made a beneficialexplore on situational teaching.John Dewey, American famous philosopher and educationist, mentioned situation ofteaching and learning in 1933. As far as he was concerned, the formation of reflectivethinking was based on various situations in teaching which could definitely arousestudents' curiosity. In his opinion, a teacher must do research on different kinds ofstuations and have a sound and accurate understanding about their nature (quoted fromHanying，2013:6). According to his understanding，where there are complicated situations,there are careful contemplation.David.H.Jonassen, American expert in the field of teach
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2.2 Domestic Study on the Application of Situational Teaching
Situational teaching has been applied to teaching in domestic education for a longtime. In the history of domestic education, some famous stories described thesignificance of situation teaching. For example，we all know the story that Mother Mengacted prominently at her own discretion to teach her son. To teach her son well，she setsome stimulating environments, which achieved the efficient educational effect thatcould not be got by the didactic manner. This is a famous story about situational teachingexisting in our history.In modem times, the most famous research on situational teaching has done by LiJilin，a famous educator from Jiangsu province. She firstly proposed the modemsituational teaching mode. After a long time of teaching experiments and practice, acomplete theoretical system of situational teaching has been developed. Li Jilin explainsthe theory of situational teaching and relative evidence about the theory in her essayExperiment and Research on Situational Teaching in 1990. In this essay, she alsodeliberated the modes and principles of situational teaching，the application of situationalteaching in reading and composition etc. In her eyes，situation is a must for education inmodem times and it plays a crucial role in reforming and improving traditional teaching.
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Chapter Three Theoretical Framework..........10
3.1Definitions of Situational Teaching Method.........10
3.2The Theoretical Basis of Situational Teaching Method.........11
3.2.1Constructism Learning Theory.........11
3.2.2Situated Cognition Theory.........12
3.3Principles of Situational Teaching Method.........13
3.4Measures of Creating Situation.........17
Chapter Four Investigation and Analysis of Situational Teaching.........22
4.1 Brief Introduction to Guolutan Junior Middle School.........22
4.2Sample Situational Teaching Cases of Guolutan Junior Middle School.........23
4.3Investigation Methodology.........31
4.4Results and Discussions of the Investigation.........33
Chapter Five Countermeasures for the Improvement of SituationalTeaching.........46
5.1Enhance the Teachers' Theoretical Level of Designing Situation.........46
5.2Improve Situational Teaching Process..........47
5.3persify Situational Teaching Evaluating Method.........51
Chapter Five Countermeasures for the Improvement of Situational Teaching
5.1 Enhance the Teachers' Theoretical Level of Designing Situation
The purpose of Situational Teaching in English classroom is to complete theteaching contents and teaching target, so the situation design should be based on theteaching materials and teaching content. Because of the different teaching contents andteaching stage, teachers should choose different situation content, situation types andsituation strategy, then situational teaching can make classroom teaching more efficient.The suggestions are in the following:
(1)Beforeclass, the teacher should carefully analyzes the teaching material,accurately grasp the teaching materiars key points and difficult points, and actively seekinformation sources between teaching materials and students' cognitive structure.
(2)Teachersmust spend a lot of time and energy to fully consider the type of designsituation，theme, effectiveness, and many other factors, making the problem situationdesigned can meet the needs of the students' interests, but also take into account thestudents* ability and level difference, at the same time situation provided should attract allstudents to participate in, still pay attention to the connection and gradient in everysituation, to guarantee the students' thought consistency and continuity.
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Conclusion
Through the investigation about the present situation of English situational teachingin Guolutan Junior Middle School, we can find that English situational teaching in juniormiddle school has made some achievements, for example the awareness of applyingsituational teaching in the classroom is enhanced; The application of the situationalteaching method also make English teaching in junior middle school efficiency. But atthe same time there are also some problems in practice，for example, The aim of creatingsituation is unclear; The way of creating situation is single; Situational teaching is notinvolved in all of the teaching course; Situational teaching is still using the traditionalevaluation method; Situational teaching still focus on the knowledge objects. The statusof the teachers and the students is not all right etc.The author also analyzes the reason of these problems, such as the teachers are lackof professional knowledge and skills training; Teaching task constraints; class time isinsufficient; Classroom teaching is full of flexibility and randomness, etc. Of course，inaddition to these reasons, the teaching condition of the school is limited. A large numberof students went into the city, so the quality of rural students is poor, of course, but thebiggest problem is our teachers. In view of the problems found in the research, we alsoput forward some countermeasures, such as the design of the situation should bescientific and reasonable; the process and methods of Situational teaching should beimproved; Teachers are the director and students are the main body in classroom teaching;The teacher should change the traditional evaluation method of situational teaching. Onlypaying attention to these points, teachers can create situation which promote students'cognitive construction and cultivate students' strong interest in English.
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References (omitted)