English, as a more and more widely used second language all over the world, has been paid much attention to by almost every nation。 In China, English has become an important course in different stages of our education。 Working out some effective approaches to teach English well becomes a matter of utmost urgency。 As we all know, attempting to teach a sentence or a paragraph or a passage well cannot be separated from its context。 Certainly, some contextual theories are indispensable to our English learning and teaching。 Thus this thesis is intended to make an analysis of the impact of context on English teaching。

This  paper  is  pided  into  four  sections：The  first  part  is  introduction。  The second presents the description of context and some of its functions。 The third points out the purpose and requirements of the English language teaching。 Last but not the least, the fourth introduces the relationship between context and English teaching。

2。 Literature Review

Hymes, an American sociolinguist, put forward the theory of context and attached great importance to it。 He holds that social communication entails the necessity of having the competence of generating correct and appropriate discourses for particular time, location and situation。 This ability is attained only by the interpersonal interactions in reality。 Hymes also insists that communication should not only abide by grammar rules, but also context。(1964:172)

In 1964, M。A。K。Halliday proposed the concept of register, and then pided it into three elements-- filed, mood and tenor。 From Halliday‟s perspective, register is composed of sense and reference。 In semantics, sense is a context that emphasizes the constraint and combination between different language elements while reference studies the external elements in real communication。

G。N。Leech explains context as a shared interpretation between the speaker and the listener (1983:49)。论文网

They all made great contributions to context research and discovered some useful context theories, which provide a good premise for further research。 This thesis discusses about not only context, but also how to apply context to English teaching。 Furthermore, according to different contexts, the author proposes some methods for English listening, speaking, reading and writing。

3。 The Survey of Context

3。1 Definition of context

The notion of context, first noted by linguist John Firth from Britain in the 1930s in his study of language, is necessary for the pragmatic study field。 It is generally considered by the knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer, which means that context determines the speaker‟s use of language and also the hearer‟s interaction with what is said to him。

The notion of context is also central to the study of English and English teaching or   any

other language in use。 Despite its significance, no consensus has been reached regarding its definition。 A narrow--and also very traditional—one is that of co-text, that is, the preceding and following linguistic items for a given word or sentences。 A broader definition covers not only the co-text but also the situational context, concerning when and where the communication takes place and also the number and identity of the participants involved。

3。2 Some functions of context

3。2。1 Eliminating certain ambiguities or multiple meanings in message

There are many sentences which have multiple meanings without the context。 For example, the sentence “He killed the man with a knife。” may have two possible meanings。 It can mean “He used a knife to kill the man。” or “He killed the man who held a knife。” If we say “He killed the man with the knife, then he dropped the knife and ran away quickly。” The meaning will be clearer if we can put the sentence in a particular context。文献综述