Although the situational teaching method has a good many disadvantages, for instance, the class is so active that teachers have difficulty in controlling it, educationists have said that children are not born to learn English well, their learning motivation and thirst of knowledge depend on the teaching situations created by teachers. Currently, most English classes in China are short of language atmosphere. Therefore we have no reason to doubt that it is necessary for teachers to create scenes for students to learn English. 源/自:吹冰:;论-文'网www.chuibin.com

 In this thesis, the first part will explore the theoretical background of the situational teaching method. In the second part, the author will analyze the present situation of primary school English teaching and the third part is to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of creating scenes in primary school English class. Then the thesis will concentrate on the approaches of the situational teaching method, such as creating scenes through performance and game activities, using multimedia means to expand situation, enriching the situation through rich imagination and establishing in the peripheral environment around campus to expand the second classroom etc. Finally, the thesis is going to study the present situation and future of the situational teaching method.

2. Literature Review

 The situational teaching method prevailed in England from 1930s to 1960s. In the 1970s, it was introduced to China and soon gained popularity in the foreign language field. 

 Since the application of the situational teaching method in China was much behind the western countries, there are many related papers and monographs of the method. The earliest and the most famous example of the application of the situational teaching method in our country may be the story of Mencius’s mother. She broke the loom to show Mencius that the learning effort should not be interrupted, no matter how much trouble we are confronted with.  

 Based on the study of foreign scholars, the situational teaching method achieved further development with the help of the celebrated American educationist John Dewey. As the first to use the situational teaching method in education, he put situation the most important factor in the teaching methods. He considered that thinking came from the direct experience of the situation, and that people must use the situations which with actual experience to be the beginning of thinking (Dewey, 1913: 92). So thinking grows from difficulty is the theoretical base of his teaching. Here the difficulty equals to the situations that students have difficulty in recognizing due to their different cognitive degree. He also proposed that if teachers need these situations to stimulate students to think, similarities can be found between these situations and the situations that they have experienced. Under the influence of Dewey, some researchers advocated the task based language teaching.