A Study Of English Vocabulary Teaching 论英语词汇教学.doc

论英语词汇教学A Study of English Vocabulary Teaching摘 要本文从英语教学的角度，致力研究英语词汇的教学。词汇教学是英语课程一项不可或缺的内容。但传统词汇的教学方法似乎把语境和单词孤立起来，或脱离了科学原则，以至于不能帮助学生在长期的学习过程中培养语言能力，使学生失去了对学习英语的兴趣，英语老师应该肩负起解决此问题的责任，因为他们是引导学生学习英语的领路人。针对英语词汇教学中存在的问题，本文提供了一些有成效的词汇教学的原则和方法。希望广大老师和同学能客观地分析词汇教学中具体问题，能够查漏补缺，仔细斟酌，从一定程度上提高英语词汇教学。关键词： 词汇教学、原则、能力 ABSTRACTThis paper aimed to the English vocabulary teaching. Vocabulary teaching is an indispensable part of English curriculum. But some traditional vocabularyteaching methods seem to isolate the words from the context or break away from the scientific rules, which can not help students to develop a language competence in the long run but cause them to lose interest in English. English teachers should take great responsibility for this, since they are the premier ones who introduce students to the field of English. This paper provides some principles and strategies of vocabulary teaching which are valuable for English teachers and students during their teaching and learning process. We hopes that teachers and students will analyze the problems objectively in vocabulary teaching, and find the shortcomings to help them improve the vocabulary learning.Key words: vocabulary teaching, competence, principles.Contents摘 要IABSTRACTII Introduction1Chapter 1 A Study on vocabulary teaching21.1 The relevant definitions about vocabulary21.2 The importance of vocabulary teaching21.3 The principles of vocabulary teaching3Chapter 2 The problems in teaching vocabulary52.1 Wrong methods in Remembering English words 52.2 Teaching vocabulary with single method and breaking away from context62.3 Learning vocabulary passively7Chapter 3 The Strategies of vocabulary teaching73.1 The efforts from teachers73.1.1 Enriching the related knowledge and skills about teaching73.1.2 Finding good environment and increasing selfconfidence83.1.3 Adopting scientific techniques93.1.4 Teaching vocabulary among other subjects93.2 The efforts from students103.2.1 Using dictionaries103.2.2 Enlarging reading113.2.3 Consolidating timely and repeatedly12 Conclusion13References14Acknowledgements15 IntroductionNowadays, English has a most vocabularies in the world, so this kind of language is very complex. With the development of society and technology, the number of English vocabulary is gradually expanding. At present, vocabulary teaching is one of the problems which can not be solved easily in English teaching. This paper obeys the principles of English vocabulary teaching to have a discussion about it. No matter what is the purpose, we must first of all have a certain amount of vocabulary. This is the prerequisite for expression. Wilkins, a famous British linguist, once said that without grammar, very little can be conveyed；without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed. It is said that the Oxford English Dictionary has about 400,000 words. Of course no one knows or needs to use so many words. Only a small part of them are used by ordinary people for ordinary purposes. Students should learn to use the words that are most useful and most often used to express themselves.However, the teaching of vocabulary in many schools is not very desirable. Students are required to master as many words as possible, but many of them have great difficulty in remembering and using words. Vocabulary must be learnt by students themselves. But this does not mean that teachers need not care about how to teach vocabulary. If the teacher only focuses on teaching the meaning of words alone rather than the ways and strategies of learning vocabulary, how can students enlarge their vocabulary and use the words they have learned？Obviously, without the training of strategies for building up words students will have to spend a great deal of time in memorizing words, and in the end make very little progress in developing other language skills. In this sense, vocabulary teaching plays a critical role in English language teaching.The aim of the paper is to discuss how to teach vocabulary so that students will find an efficient way to enlarge, consolidate and use the words they have learned.Chapter 1 A research about vocabulary teaching1.1 The relevant definitions about vocabularyAccording to Oxford Advanced LearnerEnglishChinese Dictionary, “vocabulary”is defined like this：a. all the words that a person knows or uses b. all the words in a particular language c. the words that people use when they are talking about a particular subject.“Vocabulary can be defined, roughly as the words to teach in the foreign language. However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word：for example,post officeandmotherinlaw, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea. There are also multiword idioms such ascall it a day, where the meaning of the phrase cannot be deduced from an analysis of the component words. A useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabularyitemsrather thanwords.” 1黄怡俐，2006 Wilkins said that learning vocabulary is to master the objective and practical relation between English words and objects, means, process or quality, also the semantic relation between synonyms and antonyms.2（1977）1.2 The importance of vocabulary teachingAs one of the aspects of English teaching, the aims of vocabulary teaching is to solve the knowledge problems and to cultivate a kind of comprehensible competence. Mastering as many as English words has lots of advantages which are mainly showed on the comprehension of reading and listening. Also, without the practice of speaking, writing and translating, the vocabulary teaching cannot complete the progression from comprehensible competence to expressive competence. Although in improving the comprehensible competence, vocabulary teaching still has a great number of shortcomings. Then how to teach English vocabulary cannot be answered after all if there is no enough compatibility of listening and reading. Therefore, when the vocabulary teaching begins, the task of listening and reading should be begun at the same time. Vocabulary is all the words one understands and uses in his or her reading, writing, listening, and speaking. An adequate vocabulary is essential for language learning. An extensive vocabulary will enable you to communicate comprehensively. However, a limited vocabulary limits your use of language. Mastery of a foreign language involves learning thousands of words and it is difficult to teach more than a fraction of them in class. In vocabulary study it is especially important for students to learn to rely mainly on themselves.Vocabulary, like pronunciation and grammar, is an elementary building block for a language. Without words, our exchange with others proves impossible. If we lack the necessary words, or do not know the meaning of words, we will fail to receive the message or respond correctly in communication, let alone improve in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.1.3 The principles of vocabulary teachingFirst, mastering vocabulary well mainly depends on students themselves. Teachers should pay more attention to the cultivation and formation of students learning competence. At present, there are so many problems existing in teaching English, for example, largescale students hate learning English or escape classes, and people always think they are brought about by the shortage of some kind of knowledge or teachers not being strict. However, the basic reasons of these problems are that students competence cannot be cared about enough, also, students have no more free time to determine their own study and the study is passive. In their minds, they all hope for reading and writing English words correctly, but they have to spend most of their time in reading and writing following the teachers. There are no people to teach them an efficient way, though they want to master such a way. When students are young, they have formed a thought that they should study like this. Then, they feel tired not only in their mental but also in their bodies because of such a study method. Tian Shiguo has said that a good student is successful not because of a teachers teaching, but the students own studying.3 (2001) Teachers wants their students to know the correct pronunciation and formation of vocabulary and to enlarge the number of vocabulary, but they do not give the students an efficient principle of pronunciation or formation, which is like that they do not give a useful tool, so the students will not have great process as they hope. What is most, some students give up studying when they feel disappointed. So, teachers should pay more attention to the importance of the principles of pronunciation and formation in the vocabulary teaching instead of only making research on papers.Second, practice makes perfect. Language is a tool of communication. However we learn, the final goal is to communicate at some level. So we should make students learn words in the communicative situation as much as possible. This principle requires the teacher to explain the meaning of the words, the feature of using the words and to make students practice with the communicative function of the words. Learning English needs much practice. If students cannot get diverse practice like listening and reading to absorb vocabulary, they wont use the vocabulary correctly like speaking and writing, even mastering English will not be finished. Therefore, students should be in activities using language to feel, analyze, practice, from imitative communication to realistic communication for mastering English. On the other hand, it is useless to explain all the words by teachers in only 40 minutes. Grammar is paid too much attention, but students language practice becomes less, so the vocabulary students can master in such a class is not complete and efficient in their mind. This opposite relationship is the most apparent feature in English teaching.Third, this principle needs vocabulary teaching to be an opendoor system. On the one hand, the content should emphasize the communication and cooperation with the native speaking English countries. On the other hand, the opendoor system should exist in educators mind and in educating ways. For example, the opendoor system in educating ways can conclude asking opendoor questions leading students to think creatively and then getting opendoor answers. And, renew teaching content. The ways of teaching or language training needs development step by step. Games, performance, conversation, competition, learning words by themselves and so on, such kinds of activities are very important types in teaching with flexibility to improve using language competence. Besides, there are many other ways：to form the secondclass actively, to ask for other teachers, English professor or parents to participate teaching or give lectures on vocabulary teaching methods and English song. The opendoor principle emphasizes that teacher must give up the selfcentered sense, instead, consider the students are equal with themselves, adapt to the regulation of studying and students psychical features, and show out students being main body which gives out main body spirit. Chapter 2 The problems in teaching vocabularyVery often students seem to fail in understanding a certain sentence point not because of the inadequacies in grammar but because of the inadequacies in vocabulary. Whenever they speak or write, they often find themselves slow in understanding, or when they are speaking or writing, they are short of words or the words they use are not appropriate on the given occasion. At present, there are many problems existing in English vocabulary teaching which have a bad effect on the studentsprogress.2.1 Wrong methods in Remembering English wordsEnglish words need students to spend a lot of time on remembering. However, students always can not master some correct methods. Although some students have remembered English words tightly in their mind, in their examinations, they could not get the marks they had hoped. In fact, the competence of using the words they have learned is not very satisfactory. When they are communicating with others or writing, for most of the time, they use chinglish to express their ideas and thoughts, which are caused by their isolated words memory. Students must know that a glossary is only a tool to help them understand texts, but not the method to increase vocabulary. For example, “black coffee”and “white coffee”, many students will regard “black”and “white”just as the colors of coffee. However, in the phrases, “black coffee”means only the coffee with nothing else, while “white coffee”means the coffee with milk. This misunderstanding is caused by just remembering the glossary. At the beginning of learning English, students often remember only a meaning and a usage of a word. However, as they have learned more, the other meanings and usages should be mastered. Many students can not accept this kind of change, and in their minds they keep the original habit. Maybe there are enough English words existing there, but they do not know how to use them freely and efficiently. For other students, they do not pay more attention to remembering vocabulary. When they come across the distinction of synonyms or antonyms, they do not know what they can do. Therefore, mastering word formation rules and being patient are very important.2.2 Teaching vocabulary with single method and breaking away from contextNowadays, the common process of vocabulary teaching in schools follows these steps：first of all, the teacher writes new words on the blackboard, or asks students to look though glossaries in textbooks；second, read the new words following the teacher, and the teacher tells the meanings with examples which the students should writ down. Finally, ask the students to be familiar with the spellings and remember the words. Such a kind of teaching method is also shortage of appropriate context. So, students will learn a word in a few minutes but forget fast as well. Then, the interest of learning vocabulary can not be encouraged; also, the competence how to use language well can not be improved.During the singlemethod teaching, many organs such as eye, hand, mouth can not work together in learning a word. The result of it is costing lots of time and having bad effect. For example, when students are doing exercise, they do not care about the correctness but just to fill the blanks with words, because in their mind, they do not realize the features of the words. For a word, vocabulary teaching must be matched context, meaning and communication；teachers should adopt all kinds of methods to encourage studentsinterest, make them think carefully and learn actively.2.3 Learning vocabulary passivelyDuring the process of English vocabul