Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background
1.1.1 New English Curriculum Standards
The advent of new English Curriculum Standards has great impact on Englisheducation in China. For acclimatizing students to the changing and meet the needs ofcontemporary cultural and social development and information globalization, the currentreform aims to shift the objective of education from knowledge obtaining to all-rounddevelopment. In the view of language and language learning. Chen Xiaotang and GongYafu (2005) regard the new English Curriculimi Standards as a milestone of Englisheducation in China and appreciate its emphasis on humanity and both cultural andcommunicative functions of English language. Referring to language instruction.Standards advocates facilitating all-round development of inpiduals and personalsocialization by instruction of language.English Ci4rriculum Standards promotes the reform of English education and aims toconvert the teaching concept from syntax-centered instruction to all-round development.The reform also attempts to overturn the instructional model that over emphasizes the roleof teachers neglecting personal characteristics, cognitive habits, and developmentalpotential. The Standards tends to achieve quality education profoundly and effectivelywith the orientation of:
1). Developing interests in language study and correlative culture and customs;
2). Strengthen self-disciplined and persistent attitude;
3). Improving cooperative, investigative and innovative awareness;
4). Establishing national spirit as well as respect for culture variance;
5). Adopting effective learning strategies and good study habits;
6). Being a lifelong learner.
Overall, the Standards provides the criteria to evaluate a student from five aspects,including language skills, language knowledge, affect in learning, learning strategies andcultural awareness. And affect in learning, learning strategies and cultural awareness arementioned as criteria first time. Language skills and language knowledge are regarded asthe fundamental abilities. The affect in learning have critical effect on language potentialdevelopment either positively or negatively. Appropriate learning strategies strengthen theeffectiveness of learning and cultural awareness expands the language from functional roleto social level.
1.1.2 Constructivism as Theoretical Foundation
This round of reform introduces the outlook of humanity to language instruction andstress on the cognitive development as well as linguistic competence acquisition. ChengXiaoguang (2002) makes detailed explanation of this progression. He highlights thesignificant theoretical foundation and directive role of constructivism in English educationreform in China from examination-oriented education system to quality-oriented educationsystem. A large number of concepts in Slcmdards can be traced to constructivism, such as:lifelong learning, autonomous study, student-centered model, creative thinking, learningstrategies, classroom intercommunication, and more.
According to Burden (1995). social constructivism illuminates the English education:first, in constructivist view, more than communication, language also functions as thinkingmechanism, memory storage and plays cognitive function. Second, constructivists puthighlight on ability cultivation and state that ability to obtain knowledge is far moreimportant than knowledge itself. Third, inpidual preference has strong effect on thelanguage learning in strategies adoption and effectiveness. Fourth, affective issuesincluding responsibility, self-constraining ability operate on language learning process tosome extent. Besides, learning environment, the role of teachers and activity-basedteaching model are all concerning elements.
Cheng Xiaotang and Gong Yafu (2005) interpret the theoretical foundation of theStandards through explaining language learning and teaching views. They sumes
language learning view as a process of construction through real language activities ratherthan knowledge obtaining from instructors or text books. They also advance aninstructional view to integrate knowledge with experience, combine language goals andnon-language goals, and emphasize both process and result.
Chapter Two Literature Review 16-26
2.1 Definitions of Key Terms 16-19
2.1.1 Grammar 16-17
2.1.2 Grammar Teaching 17-18
2.1.3 Constructivism 18-19
2.2 Previous Study on Grammar Teaching 19-23
2.2.1 Grammar-Translation Method 19
2.2.2 Direct Method 19
2.2.3 Audiolingual Method 19-20
2.2.4 Communicative Language Teaching Method 20
2.2.5 Task-based Teaching Method 20-21
2.2.6 New Grammar Teaching Conceptions after 1990s 21-23
2.3 Evaluating Comments on Previous Study 23
2.4 Grammar Teaching in the View of Constructivism 23-24
2.5 Summary 24-26
Chapter Three Theoretical Foundation 26-37
3.1 Constructivist Schools 26-27
3.1.1 Inpidual Constructivism 26
3.1.2 Social Constructivism 26-27
3.2 Basic Constructivist Views in Instruction 27-30
3.2.1 Formal Operations 27-28
3.2.2 Psychological Tool 28-29
3.2.3 Scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development 29-30
3.3 Grammaring 30-31
3.4 Grammar teaching in Classroom 31-36
3.4.1 Pedagogical Grammar 32-33
3.4.2 Teaching Objective 33-34
3.4.3 Policy and Options 34-36
3.5 Summary 36-37
Chapter Four Methodology 37-43
4.1 Research Questions 37-38
4.2 Subjects 38-39
4.3 Instruments 39-40
4.4 Data Collection and Analysis 40-43
Chapter Five Results and Discussion 43-51
5.1 Research Results 43-46
5.1.1 Results of Experiment on Test of Prepositional Word "for" 43-44
5.1.2 Results of Interview on Study of Prepositional Word "for" 44
5.1.3 Results of Experiment on Test of Progressive Tense 44-45
5.1.4 Results of Interview on Study of Progressive Tense 45-46
5.2 Discussion 46-51
5.2.1 Experiment on Test of Prepositional Word "for" 46-48
5.2.2 Experiment on Test of Progressive Tense 48-49
5.2.3 Classroom Management 49-51
Conclusion
6.1 Major findings and Grammar Teaching Suggestions
The grammar instruction is a necessary part of English classroom for particularteaching conditions in China, such as time limitation, lack in resources, particularclassroom setting and large load of required knowledge. The debate on the mostappropriate techniques focuses on two extreme approaches―form-focus method andimmersing approach. But grammar teaching is as simple as a unique goal. It perges indifferent aspects from lexical use to applicable cohesion, and varies in distinctive abilitiesfrom listening to writing. Relating to different aspects and abilities, either approach issuperior to the other. And grammar demonstrates in language in various dimensions. Sothe teaching approaches should be adjusted and adopted with the different leaching targets.
Beside teaching approaches, another significant factor has great impact on effectiveof learning. That is the constructing process of the learners, which is detailed analyzed inlast the chapter. The following sections will give rearranged suggested teaching principlesas the processes of construction go.
6.1.1 Pre-Construction
Assorted and Gradated Activities Planning: The assortment and gradation ofteaching materials is the basic concern in curriculum design and the rearrangement ofteachers. It relates to what to teach and how to teach. Some grammatical items should beput together for their psychological association such the adverbs as usually, often orfrequently together with the simple tense. And some linguistic factors possess naturalphysical relations, for example, some verbs as want and like must be followed withinfinitive form of other verbs. The appropriate assortment of relative grammatical items iscritical to process cognitive construction mentally. And the requirement for gradatinggrammatical items is the other principle of teaching material selection and class designing.
Linguistic competence acquisition is a process of accumulation, the comprehensiveconstruction of target language can never happen at one time, it is a process ofdevelopment. Some new materials can only be developed with another requisiteknowledge. For example, the teaching of simple question sentence structure and negativesentence must be followed after the statement sentence and the introduction of an auxiliaryverb.
6.1.2 While-Construction
Situated and Authentic Context: It is unanimously supported by linguists to urgesteachers to give meaningful context as detail as possible. Maybe some teachers ignore theprocedure for saving time, but it sacrifices both pragmatic accuracy and cognitiveconstructive deficiency. Beside, rule remembering is dull and boring. If a more activestory is introduced within a context, students are easier to settle themselves in thelinguistic environment and construct the target forms initially. According to theexperimental research, although students can get a better access to the target forms withfull attention to grammatical features, they are easier to stick the forms to only oneparticular context that the teachers provide. So. various contexts conveying different levelsof connotative meanings should be provided within class.