How to Teach the English vocabulary better英语毕业论文.doc

Project title :How to teach the English vocabulary betterInvestigator : Gansu Radio &Television UniversityWuwei BranchSubmitted on 12th November,2012In fulfillment of the coursePractical Project DesignAcknowledgement:First of all,I am mostly grateful to my supervisor Mr. He zhengquanwithout whose support and patience this project would not even have got off the ground.I am also grateful to my colleagues Zhao xuLin、Li ZhongMei and Gong Yun for their time spent on brainstorming and panel discussions with me.No amounts of thanks will be adequate for my students without whose willing participation in the project implementation it would have remained on paper.Last but not the least; big thanks go to my parents who have shared with me my worries, frustrations, and hopefully my ultimate happiness in eventually finishing this project.AbstractVocabulary is an important component of foreign language. Vocabulary memorial strategies used by advanced lerrners have been widely studied for many years in china. But research about how junior middle school students use memorial strategies is little.It is very common to hear complaints from junior middle school students that they often forget the meaning and spelling of the new words .This thesis intends to investigate the effective vocabulary memorial strategies.At the same time,they can help teachers to improve their vocabulary teaching methods.The subjects of this study are 60 MaLian school students from XinHua County. Methodologically, four methods are used, and they are analytic method, cause analysis, questionnaire survey, and brainstorming activation.Key words: Vocabulary 、Method、Interest、AbilityMain Heading of the Project Report1. Introduction2. Summary of the Preliminary Research2.1 Problem identification2.2 Project objective2.3 Project hypothesis 3. Project Rationale 4. Vocabulary Memorial Methods Designed for Activity 5. Data Analysis 6. Conclusion 7References a.Questionnaire on Vocabulary Practice b.The Timetable of the Project c.Teaching Notes d.Teaching Diaries e. Students Handouts f.Audio-Recording1IntroductionI am an English teacher in MaLian primary school.It located in a small county Xinhua.My students are peasants children . Many research articles on English vocabulary memorization have been published. Most of the experimental studies focused on advanced students and university students, but memorial strategies for junior middle school students are rare. A lot of students in junior middle school feel it is too hard to memorize English words, and often forget the words quickly. Teachers always implement class activities in a hurry, therefore, teachers often ask students to recite English words as homework after class, after some time, the students feel bored to learn English. As a result, many students give up English learning. It is necessary to study how to help students develop their vocabulary memorial strategies to help them access to English words.As one of the three elements (phonology, grammar and vocabulary) of a language, vocabulary is fundamental to the development of foreign language learning. Without grammar, little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Vocabulary plays an important role in language communication. How to help junior middle school students in china to learn English words effectively and efficiently has been an issue which the junior middle school English teachers are concerned about. To learn English well, the students need to learn how to memorize the vocabulary. Many students have difficulties in English vocabulary memorization, and they always complain that they could not memorize the words they have learned. Teachers have to help the students to remember English vocabulary more effectively. The research intended to explore how to help students memorize vocabulary more effectively and English vocabulary memorial strategies they used. The investigation of the use of vocabulary memorial strategies is important in terms of improving vocabulary teaching and learning in junior middle school. It is hoped that the study will help students to grasp vocabulary memorial strategies and memorize English vocabulary more effectively; and help teachers to make more effective teaching methods to motivate the students to learn English as well. 2. Summary of the preliminary research 2.1 problems Identification The problem that I have of my teaching is that the accounted .For students reluctance to English vocabulary memorization in class. Firstly: Although the teacher deals with problems through marginal and comments and footnotes. The students are rather passive. Some students are scared of English vocabulary .They are afraid of making the same mistakes and being laughed at by their teacher and other students.Secondly: Some students had some difficulties in a very simple conversation. Because they could not speak the key words by themselves, they often use a lot of wrong words or language during their conversation. Some common problems appeared many times, but the students often ignore these problems. They hope that their teacher and the classmates help them and give them faiths. Thirdly: The help of their teacher and classmates is delayed by the heavy teaching-loads sometimes. Without their help , they are probably missed the key words. His limited knowledge of English prevents him from gaining understanding.2.2 Project objective My objective is to help the students smooth away some difficulties inEnglish vocabulary memorization and to improve learners skill in memorizing English vocabulary. 2.3 Project hypothesis My hypothesis is that learners skill in listening can be improvedby the pair response help-correction techniques. 3. Project Rationale There are more and more researches on language learning methods since late 1960s. People come up with a lot of research about people whose mother tongue is English use English vocabulary memorial strategies. By then, more attention was paid to how to memorize English vocabulary and other foreign language vocabulary memorial strategies. For example, Joan Rubin (1987) and Rebecca Oxford (1990) had the opinion that memorial strategies belong to the cognitive strategies. Omalley and Chamot (2001) and Wenden and Rubin (1987) in their academic studies proposed the training methods of vocabulary memorial strategies. Such as keyword strategy and word chain strategy. The other researchers focused on the repetition of vocabulary memorial strategies and relating of vocabulary. Those researches proved that memory skills are helpful tools of learning vocabulary and contributed to how we understand and memorize vocabulary.The research for vocabulary memorial strategies started in the middle of 1980s. Although the researches started lately, the researches developed very quickly and the content became more and more widely, deeper and deeper. It turned out to be that vocabulary memorial strategies play an important role in peoples cognitive activities. Articles and works from Chinese authors on discussing vocabulary memorial methods mostly talk about experience (Wu Qianguang, 1982) or introduction of foreign theories (Zhao Wei, 1995), while research was rare. In 1992, Pu Yuan investigated the three components influencing the effect of English vocabulary memorization, which intends to learning methods. Gu Yongqi (1994) researched the vocabulary learning methods completely. Wang Wenyus (1998) research concerned the relation between vocabulary learning strategies and test performance. However, the subjects of the research were university students (Wu Xia and Wang Qiang, 1998;Wang Wenyu, 1998).It has become an issue not being resolved so far that how to improve the current situation of junior middle school English vocabulary teaching and help students to grasp effective vocabulary memorial methods and memorize English vocabulary more effectively. This study tries to investigate the methods used Yu Cai Middle School students from Shan Dan County and probe into the results of their vocabulary memorial methods. For many years, the English teaching in junior middle school is on thestage of simply teaching the words and the meaning of the words because of the influence of traditional English teaching. The students vocabulary memorial method is still recitation. They feel that learning English is boring and show no interest in it. They also feel that English words are too hard to remember and too easy to forget. It is difficult to widen vocabulary size that affects listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities.There are two typical problems when students learn English vocabulary. First of all, the students memorize words quickly and forget words quickly. With the influence of mother tongue Chinese, it is still difficult for students to use the words spelling rules, pronunciation rules and word-building rules to grasp word and its meaning. So many students spend plenty of time in memorizing vocabulary but the result is not satisfied. The students can still not use those learned words efficiently and they remember words vaguely. Secondly Students grasp simple vocabulary memorial methods. The students always memorize words mechanically because of the limited condition and the lack of memorial strategies. Among the one hundred students, forty percent of them enjoy learning English. They believe English is interesting, they could learn some new things and sing English songs. The other students did not like English, and they felt bored to learn it. Compared with other subjects, English is harder to learn. Most of the students had difficulties in memorizing English words. Some of them had trouble in spelling English words and others in pronunciation. Sometimes they tend to be confused about some words which had similar spelling. It is hard to speak and remember the English words because they are quite different from Chinese characters. Most of the students use repetition memorial strategy. And they only knew to use one memorial strategies, such as repetition, imaging, Chinese pin yin and grouping. The results show that the students only used limited memorial strategies. It is obvious that the students have a lot of difficulties in memorizing English words.4. Vocabulary Memorial Methods Designed for ActivityI have designed five activates to be tried out in three weeks.Week1:Activity1. Reciting the Words MechanicallyThis activity is based as in Junior English for Grade Eight student Book 3, unit1Purpose: Let the students know the mechanical memory defects Instructions: Let students recite the vocabulary in unit 1, and then have a check in classProcedures: Before reciting, the teacher asks students to look at the vocabulary, Then the teacher says: today, we are going to learn some new words contained in the context. We should pay attention to some homophones and homonyms. Homophones are some words with different meanings, which are pronounced in the same way but are spelt differently. Example: “sun” and “son”, “fifteen” and “fifty” are homophones. Homonyms are some words, which have the same sound and usually the same spelling as another, though different in meaning or origin. After that, let them read and repeat the new words .For students: You are going to learn the vocabulary in unit 1,but their spelling is different. You should read by your heart. They could read their words in pairs and ask easy questions about the weather, the date, invitation, offering help, making telephone calls. Then use the key words to retell the report in pairs.Activity 2: Using Repetition Purpose: to use repetition to reinforce memorization.Instructions: Let students master more words with limited time by repeating them Procedures: Let student open the bookon page 101, then tell them we are going to learn the vocabulary in unit 2. there are a lot of vocabulary in this unit.Now, please read them after the tape. After that, the teacher read and the students repeat again, then the students read the new vocabulary togetherFor students: You are given three times to repeat the new vocabulary,Im sure you can read them by yourselves, now please recite the new vocabulary as possible as you can. Week 2:Activity3: Focusing on the Spelling and Pronunciation of WordsPurpose: to help the students find an effective way to memorize the vocabulary. The aim of the students studying the spelling or pronunciation of a word is to facilitate recalling.Instructions: before the class, ask the students to get all the vocabulary that are difficult for them to memorize in the four units, then tell them we are going to have a check about them. Now, please repeat them after the tape. When you read the vocabulary, you must spell them according to the syllable. After that, the teacher ask the students to remember them according to the syllable for 20 minutes, then the teacher have a check. Procedures: The teacher reminds students have a high frequency of the use of memorial strategies focusing on the target words spelling or pronunciation also shows that vocabulary memorial strategies can be trained. For students: you are going to listen and repeat the vocabulary again. You have grasped some basic spelling rules. Next I will guide you to grasp the relationship between the sound and form of words, which will undoubtedly help you memorize words in an effective way. Then you remember these vocabularies, and finally I will check you. You can use pencils or color pens to divide the long vocabulary into several parts according to the syllable of the word. Some students did very well, but others can not do them . Activity 4: Using Imaging Picture or Subject Purpose: to make it is easier and more interesting to memorize the vocabulary Instructions: I know only a few of the students used using imaging picture or subject strategy to help them to recall English words by the investigation. So I show the students some real objects and vivid picture. Let them talk about what they can see. Then I ask them to learn the new vocabulary with the real objects and vivid pictures. Procedure: Firstly, the teacher shows some pictures on the blackboard and let them know their Chinese meaning. Secondly, the teacher tells students how to say them in English. And then ask students to repeat, the teacher also helps students speak out some sentences with the new vocabulary they learnt just now. Then let students practice by asking and answering correctly.For the students: Using imaging picture or object is very useful for English learning beginners. The students have to associate a new word with relevant information they already have and as a result make the later reca