本文是一篇英语毕业论文，本研究为教师带来如下启示：在语法教学时，教师可以尝试采用概念型教学法，从语法知识中提取核心概念，构建易于学生理解的图式以及设计多样化的交际和内化活动，让学生理解、运用和内化概念性知识，以实现对目标语法点的形式、意义和使用的掌握。
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background
Grammar plays a crucial role in English learning as a bridge connecting Englishwords,phrases and sentences.English Curriculum Standards for CompulsoryEducation(Ministry of Education,P.R.China,2022:21)illustrates the importance ofgrammar by stating that“grammar knowledge,the unity of form,meaning and use inlanguage use,is tightly linked with the phonetics,vocabulary,discourse,as well aspragmatic knowledge and has a direct impact on the accuracy and appropriateness oflanguage comprehension and expression”.Due to the complexity of English grammarknowledge,learners frequently encounter a variety of difficulties during the processof grammar learning,despite the importance of grammar in their English learning.
Bardovi-Harlig(2000),referring to the current state of second languageacquisition,asserted that learning the temporal system is one of the most challengingparts of learning a second language for L2 learners.Numerous factors affect learners’effectiveness in learning it,and their native language is one of them.Numerousstudies(e.g.,Coppieters,1987;Flashner,1989;Bardovi-Harlig,1992,2000)havedemonstrated that the native temporal system of L2 learners has a significantinfluence on their acquisition of the L2 temporal system(qtd.in Zhao and Wang,2017:13-14).If the temporal system of the learners’native language is analogous tothat of the target language,it will facilitate their acquisition of the target language.
1.2 Research Objectives
As mentioned in the English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(Ministry of Education,P.R.China,2022),there are six essential tenses that juniorhigh students have to learn.They are the present simple,present continuous,pastsimple,future tense,past continuous and present perfect.Compared to other tenses,the concept of the present perfect tense is more complex,and students have moredifficulty understanding and using this grammatical item,suggesting that it is one ofthe most challenging grammatical points of English grammar learning for junior highschool students.In traditional English grammar classes,when teaching the presentperfect tense,teachers frequently emphasize the use of key words such as since andalready to identify the context of the present perfect tense.As a result,studentsdevelop the belief that they will always use the present perfect tense whenever theyencounter these key words,resulting in tense confusion.Fan&Lin(2002),for instance,found that Chinese students frequently conflate the simple past tense,thesimple present tense and the present perfect tense.Furthermore,Zhao and Wang(2017)noted that Chinese students struggled to distinguish between the meanings ofthe simple past tense and the present perfect tense.Therefore,for the purpose ofpromoting Chinese EFL learners’acquisition of the present perfect tense,this studyselects this difficult tense as the research focus and explores the effects of CBI onlearners’acquisition of its form,meaning and use.
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Concept-based Instruction
CBI is a teaching method where learners actively interact with concepts in anexplicit,coherent and systematic way,internalizing them through communicative andverbalization activities,thus creating new meanings in the second language(García,2017).The aims of CBI are not merely to promote learners’understanding of targetconcepts but more importantly,to allow learners to utilize their conceptual knowledgeas a means of thinking in communication,enabling them to choose appropriategrammatical forms to express meanings for communicative needs(Negueruela,2008).It is thus targeted at helping learners master the grammatical forms,meaning,andusage simultaneously.In the following,CBI will be discussed in detail from theperspective of its origin,teaching steps and related research at home and abroad.
2.1.1 Origin of CBI
Vygotsky(1986),the founder of sociocultural theory,believed that there is anorganic and dialectical link between the teaching of conceptual knowledge anddevelopment.Not only are concepts the smallest units of the higher mental functions(conscious memory,voluntary attention,planning,imagination,and abstract thinking),but they are also the basic units of instruction.It is thus apparent that he prioritized theteaching of conceptual knowledge.Nevertheless,conceptual knowledge here does notencompass all categories of concepts.He divided conceptual knowledge into either spontaneous concepts or scientific concepts.According to Vygotsky(1986),spontaneous concepts are derived by people through observation and summarizationof their daily life experiences.As a consequence,such concepts are contextualized,empirical,unsystematic,and incomplete.In contrast,scientific concepts,the result ofthe generalization of human experience fixed in science,are systematic,abstract,andusually acquired by learners through conscious learning in educational settings.Table2.1 elucidates Vygotsky’s distinction between spontaneous and scientific concepts.
2.2 English Tenses and Aspects
This study primarily adopts the perspectives of cognitive linguists Radden&Dirven(2007)for the interpretation of the concept of English tense and aspect.Theirviewpoints have been accepted and employed by a number of researchers(e.g.,Negueruela,2003;Gánem-Gutiérrez&Harun,2011;Harun,Abdullah,Wahab&Zainuddin,2019;Benhamlaoui,2021;Xu,2020;Yan,2022).It is evident that Radden&Dirven’s ideas(2007)stood the test of practice.Before introducing the concept oftense and aspect,it is necessary to distinguish between the two concepts of time andtense.In the following sections,relevant terms including time,tense,aspect and thetarget concept present perfect tense will be explained in turn.
2.2.1 Time
Time is a concept shared by all mankind(Quirk,Greenbaum,Leech&Svartvik,1972).In daily life,people form three concepts of time based on life experiences:thepast,the present and the future.They are divided according to the speech time whichrefers to the speaker’s moment of speaking mentioned by Radden&Dirven(2007)inCognitive English Grammar.Generally,people default this moment to be now,whichis equivalent to the present time.“Speech time provides a momentarily fixed time oforientation for anchoring the present time as well as the past time and the future time.”(Radden&Dirven,2007:202)The past,the present and the future are collectivelycalled event time,which represents the time when an event occurs.Time is notequivalent to tense.
Chapter Three Theoretical Foundation ................................ 31
3.1 Origin and Development of Sociocultural Theory .......................... 31
3.2 Key Concepts of Sociocultural Theory ........................... 32
Chapter Four Methodology .......................................... 39
4.1 Research Questions .............................. 39
4.2 Research Variables .................................. 39
Chapter Five Results and Discussion ................................ 59
5.1 Results of the Post-test ....................................... 59
5.1.1 Results of the overall grammar performance in the post-test by EC andCC ..................... 59
5.1.2 Results of the performance on the three dimensions in the post-test by EC and CC..................... 60
Chapter Five Results and Discussion
5.1 Results of the Post-test
Immediately following the teaching treatment,both the EC and the CC wereadministered a grammar test on the present perfect tense.The independent samples t-test was applied to the data analysis.The results are presented and analyzed as follows.
5.1.1 Results of the overall grammar performance in the post-test by EC and CC
One objective of the post-test is to investigate the immediate effect of CBI onstudents’overall grammar test performance of the present perfect tense.Table 5.1reflects the results of the analysis of it.
Chapter Six Conclusion
6.1 Major Findings
Based on SCT,this study has applied CBI to the teaching of English grammar injunior high school,aiming to investigate the immediate and sustained effects of thisteaching method on junior high school students’overall grammar test performance inthe present perfect tense as well as on their specific test performance in terms of theform,meaning and use dimensions.The main findings obtained from the dataanalyses of the collected tests are summarized as follows.
Firstly,CBI exerts a positive and significant immediate impact on junior highschool students’overall grammar test performance of the present perfect tense.Fortheir test performance on the three dimensions of form,meaning and use,CBI and the3P teaching method show an equivalent effect on the form dimension while theformer demonstrates a more prominent contribution to the meaning and usedimensions.The results of the data analysis of the pre-and post-tests reveal that priorto the teaching intervention,no significant differences are observed in theperformance of the two classes on their English proficiency test and the grammarcompetence test.Nonetheless,after the treatment,the difference in the overallgrammar performance of them on the test about the present perfect tense is highlysignificant,with the EC substantially outperforming the CC.Moreover,in terms of thethree dimensions of the present perfect tense,there is no statistically significantdifference in the test performance of the two classes on the form dimension,but onthe meaning and use dimensions,significant differences in the performance of the twoclasses can be found,with the EC outperforming the CC.These suggest that CBI,as compared to the 3P teaching method,reflects more remarkable immediate influenceson students’overall grammar test performance of the present perfect tense and ontheir test performance as seen in the meaning and use dimensions of it.
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