2. Literature Review

Context studies, though without a much long history, have attracted the attention of many great scholars, and significant achievements have been made owing to their great efforts. In the following part, the author will generally review these studies both at home and abroad.

2.1 Previous studies of context in the west

It is commonly believed that Poland anthropologist and linguist Bronislaw Malinowski first put forward the term “context”. He pointed out “to use the real linguistic fact is the full utterance with its context of situation.” (Malinowski, 1923: 47)

This concept was elaborated by Malinowski’s student J. R. Firth. Firth (Firth, 1957: 223) took over Malinowski’s theory of “context of situation”, and extended the theory to linguistics. Firth thought that meaning was closely related to context and suggested that the meaning of the language should be studied through a hierarchy of contexts.

Halliday (Halliday, 1989: 43) is another person who made great contributions to the development of context. He put forward the notion of register, a name given to variety of language differentiated according to use. Register is actually a representation of the context of situation.

American sociolinguist Dell Hymes (Hymes, 1972: 87) also presented his view on context. He holds that knowing how to use language appropriately in social environment is an important sign which indicates that, to what degree, one has mastered the language.

The above is a brief review of what has happened in the field of linguistics on context abroad. These studies of context, no matter what perspective it is from, contribute to the understanding of a text.

2.2 Previous studies of context in China

In spite of the fact that the study of context by the Chinese scholars started later than overseas scholars, Chinese scholars have made great achievements in this field.

Professor Chen Wangdao (Chen Wangdao, 1997: 79) put forward the opinion that the rhetoric must adapt to the situation. The situation here basically means different kinds of particular environments in which the writing or speaking occurs.源'自:吹冰`!论~文'网www.chuibin.com

Wang Dechun (Wang Dechun, 1983: 54) claimed that context, also called verbal environments, is the environments in which language is used. Context consists of both objective and subjective factors.

Professor Zhang Yunfei (Zhang Yunfei, 1986: 245) held that there are two kinds of extra-linguistic context: context of situation, which refers to the actual speech situation in which a word occurs; the entire cultural background against which a word, or an utterance or a speech event has to be set.

He Zhaoxiong (He Zhaoxiong, 1987: 23) identified two kinds of contextual knowledge: linguistic knowledge and extra-knowledge. 

The development of context theory has been analyzed and reviewed in detail. With various researches abroad and at home, it is obvious that increasing emphasis is being put on the theory of context, and the theory of context has gradually been playing a fundamental role in language study. 

According to the studies of these scholars, it will benefit students a lot if teachers create context properly in English teaching. The pupils have their own age characteristics, therefore, when creating situational context in primary English class teachers should combine the theory of context with other theories related to children’s age characteristics.

3. The Theoretical Basis for Context Creation in Primary English Class

3.1 Constructivist learning theory and situational context

The Constructivist learning theory came into being in 1990s. The main view of constructivist learning theory is that the child constructs knowledge about the outside world, in the process of interaction with the surrounding environment, which results in the development of their own cognitive structure. The theory focuses on the creation of teaching atmosphere, and opposes the traditional teaching method which has no teaching context. It advocates that we should learn knowledge in context.