The Application Of Context Theory To English Grammar Teaching In Secondary Vocational School

In the secondary vocational school where I teach,many students have difficulties in learning English,especially in grammar.It does not improve the enthusiasm of students to learn grammar though its learning is very important to them.In traditional grammar classes,teachers use ind ividual sentences as teaching materials and sentence-making exercises as the main form of practice.Students can master the forms of grammar points through such teaching methods,but the meanings and usages are unknown.Only by putting grammar forms in a real communicative environment can students realize grammars' meanings and usages.Therefore,we should link grammar teaching with context theory,that is to say,make grammar teaching contextualized.This study summarizes the research on context,grammar teaching and Contextualized Teaching at home and abroad.The author holds that most of the previous studies have remained at the level of theoretical research,lacking practical research on the application of context to English teaching,and even less on the combination of context and English grammar teaching.And there are few researches on English grammar teaching in secondary vocational schools.Therefore,this study takes context theory as the main theoretical basis,mainly discusses the function and characteristics of context,and one of the representative studies of context-Halliday's Register Theory.Larsen Freema n's Grammaring Theory is a theoretical supplementary basis.It is pointed out that ?Grammaring? is the ability to use grammar flexibly acco rding to different contexts.In order to combine the study of context theory with the practice of English grammar teaching in vocational schools,this paper points out how the explanatory and restrictive functions of context can be realized in the grammar classroom of vocational schools and puts forward the performance of context features in the grammar class of secondary vocational school,including the intuition of context,the vividness of corpus and the integrity of language activities.It also points o ut the guiding role of Context Theory in the creation of context in grammar class.Under the guidance of Context Theory,the author finds some misunderstandings in creating English class context,which are manifested by the formalization,subjectivity and C hinesization of the context.Based on the analysis of these misunderstandings and the previous theoretical studies,this paper summarizes the factors involved in the creation of English classroom context: the effects,the naturalness and the relevance of context.English teachers should create cultural,comparative,diversified and textual contexts.Finally,based on Larsen-Freeman's Grammaring Theory,it is proposed that the goal of contextualized grammar teaching is to cultivate students' grammatical skills,to enable students to choose suitable grammatical forms for different contexts,to meet the needs of the same context with a variety of grammatical forms,and to improve their English comprehensive ability through the study of grammatical knowledge.Taking the explanation of the present progressive tense as an example,the author illustrates how to carry out contextualized grammar teaching and traditional grammar teaching in English class of secondary vocational school,compares the two teaching methods and points out the advantages and disadvantages of contextualized grammar teaching.So the role of contextualized grammar teaching will be brought into full play.This research takes the students of C lass 1(experimental class)and C lass 2(control class)in Grade O ne of Pingyuan Normal School as the research objects,and takes questionnaire survey and experimentation as the research methods.Two questionnaires and two tests were conducted to investigate the following three questions: First,what are the advantages and disadvantages of contextualized grammar teaching compared with traditional grammar teaching? Second,how to implement contextual grammar teaching in order to improve the English performance of secondary vocational school students? Third,under the contextualized grammar teaching,how did secondary vocational students change their understanding of grammar and their learning methods? Through teaching practice,the author has three findings:First,the two teaching methods have their own advantages and disadvantages.Although textual materials are difficult to choose,lesson preparation is difficult,and the learning effect needs a long time to show,the contextual grammar classroom is more interesting,students participate more in class,and students like teachers to create context to organize teaching,so contextual grammar teaching method has more advantages.In teaching,if the advantages of contextualized grammar teaching can be brought into full play and its disadvantages can be effectively avoided,the contextual grammar teaching will be more effective.Second,based on the context theory,the author reflects on the errors in the creation of classroom context,and summarizes the factors and methods involved in the creation of context.In grammar class,we should avoid creating subjectivism,formalization and Chinese context,and pay attention to the context effects,the naturalness and relevance of context.It is necessary to design cultural,comparative,diversified and textual contexts for secondary vocational students according to their characteristics.The author uses SPSS 19.0 to analyze the pre-test and post-test data,and finds that the contextual grammar teaching method is more effective in improving vocational students' English performance.Third,through two questionnaires,the author finds that contextualized grammar teaching has changed the students' understanding of grammar and their grammar learning methods: from thinking that grammar knowledge and grammar lessons are boring to thinking that they are lively and interesting,from paying attention to grammar rules learning to paying attention to grammar use,from taking test paper as learning materials translated into taking English readings as learning materials.In a word,through the application of the above research methods and the implementation of teaching steps,this study answers three research questions and demonstrates the rationality and effectiveness of applying conte xt theory to English grammar teaching in secondary vocational schools.But,because the experimental sample is small,the experimental time is short,and some unavoidable subjective factors in teaching activities,there are still many shortcomings in this study,which need to be further improved in future research.