| Grammar teaching is one of the most important components in second language pedagogy.How to teach grammar has been a major concern in the field of SLA.Most of the previous studies on grammar teaching center on whether to focus on linguistic form or meaning.Focus on Form(FonF),first proposed by Long Michael in 1991,emphasizes both language form and meaning and it has become a popular topic in the research of foreign language pedagogy.Although quite a few empirical studies have demonstrated the efficiency of FonF approach in grammar teaching,there are still some studies indicating that Focus on Forms(FonFs)is more effective to teach grammar.This study selects English noun clauses as the target grammar item,aiming to figure out the effects of FonF approach on the acquisition of grammar for senior high school students.On the basis of Noticing Hypothesis and Interactive Hypothesis,this study intends to discuss the following two questions:(1)What effects does FonF approach have on students’ comprehension of English noun clauses?(2)What effects does FonF approach have on students’ production of English noun clauses ?In the research,ninety-two students of Grade One from two parallelclasses in a senior high school were selected as the participants.The two classes were randomly divided into the experiment class(EC)and the control class(CC).Students in EC were instructed by FonF approach while those in CC received FonFs.The experiment lasted for four weeks.Two grammar tests are the main research instruments,including pre-test and post-test.And the data collected from the experiment were mainly analyzed by SPSS.The results of the study showed that: 1)Students in EC made much more progress than those in CC in comprehension of noun clauses after the teaching experiments,and the difference was significant;2)Students in both classes achieved great improvement in production of noun clauses.However,students in EC outperformed those in CC,and the difference was noticeable.Based on the results and analysis of the two grammar tests,it can be concluded that FonF approach has a positive influence on the teaching of English noun clauses;and it can facilitate students’ ability in their comprehension and production of noun clauses.The author hopes that this research can help English teachers realize the significance of FonF approach and offer the possible pedagogical implications for them in grammar teaching in senior high schools.Whereas,some limitations exist in this study.First,a narrow range of participants of the same senior high school can not stand for the universal applicability of FonF approach.Meanwhile,the experimenttime is short,which could hardly demonstrate the effectiveness of FonF approach in the long run.In short,further investigation needs to be launched to find out the effects of FonF approach on grammar teaching in senior high schools. |
