An Empirical Study On The Teaching Of English Attributive Clause In High School Based On ECI Model

English attributive clause is a complex grammatical content in senior high school.Compared with other grammatical clauses,it has a unique structure and a higher frequency of use,therefore the proficiency of English attributive clause plays an important role in improving learners’ language ability and the importance of English attributive clause teaching is self-evident.The most influential attributive clause teaching methods are mainly inductive,deductive and deductive-inductive method based on logical thinking,interactive feedback method based on linguistic theories,and process teaching method based on psychological cognition.With the theoretical research of Cognitive Linguistics(hereinafter referred to as CL)becoming more and more mature,many scholars have applied their achievements to the teaching of attributive clauses.However,generally speaking,the application of CL to the English attributive clause teaching is less investigated.Neither have they revealed and analyzed the cognitive mechanism behind attributive clauses,nor have they developed a guiding model to benefit English attributive clause teaching.In view of this,the research combines the Event-domain Cognitive Model(hereinafter referred to as ECM)with Iconicity Principle to construct an ECI model in order to explain the cognitive mechanism of English attributive clause and apply it to the practical teaching,so as to prove its rationality and interpretability through empirical research,aiming to provide new ideas and methods for English attributive clause teaching in senior high school.Under the guidance of ECI model,125 high school students from Liangyang middle school in Guangdong Province are selected randomly as the research subjects.The traditional grammar method is carried out in Control Class(Class 4),the Experimental Class(Class 14)is taught using the teaching method based on ECI model.After 7 weeks,the pre-test,post-test,questionnaire and interview will be analyzed,and the feasibility of the teaching method based on ECI model is also verified using SPSS 16.0 by a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.This study attempts to answer the following three questions:(1)Is the attributive clause teaching method based on the ECI model more effective than the traditional attributive clause teaching method?(2)How does the teaching method based on the ECI model guide students to learn attributive clauses?(3)What is the attitude of teachers and students towards the teaching method based on the ECI model?The research verifies that the teaching method based on ECI model can not only improve the level of students’ attributive clause,but also enhance students’ participation and teacher’s recognition.The teaching method helps students acquire English attributive clauses based on the main guiding principle of “reality-cognition-language” from a cognitive level,it enriches the existing interpretation and the research methods of English attributive clause,which has a deep significance to the teaching of English attributive clauses in China.