How to teach and learn English vocabulary 英语论文.doc

How to teach and learn English vocabularyAs is widely known, vocabulary, the building material, is essential to a language. It is one of the three basic components (pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar), and is of utmost importance to peoples communication and language learning. Language emerges first as words, and the coining of new words never stops. Pronunciation and grammar are presented by vocabulary. The linguist David Wilkins (1972) once summed up the importance of vocabulary in his book Linguistics and Language Teaching: Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. According to Hocking D, spending most of ones time on words and expressions rather than grammar will improve ones English very much. Without enough words one cannot communicate with others, no matter how wonderful his grammar and pronunciation are (McCarthy, 1990), because vocabulary is the carrier for people to communicate with each other. To achieve the purpose of communication, people need to learn vocabulary first. Words enable people to speak, read and write with clarity, confidence and charm. Furthermore, to learn a new language is to some degree to build a new network, which is expressed by vocabulary. These lead to the fact that vocabulary forms the very backbone and essence of any language. Therefore, acquiring adequate vocabulary is of critical importance to language learners. It is clear enough that without a knowledge of words, language learning will turn out to be a castle in the air. Generally speaking, the vocabulary that a learner owns most conspicuously reflects his or her English level, which infers that, to master a language, a large vocabulary is necessary and it is very important for learners to memorize a great many English words. Therefore, the importance of vocabulary establishes it a basic and crucial position in language teaching and learning. Scholars represented by Lewis (1993) even put forward that vocabulary should be the center of language teaching and learning.1 Need for a specific required vocabulary in senior high schools in ChinaSince vocabulary plays a basic role in language, to some degree, it is necessary for learners to acquire adequate vocabulary. Vocabulary size is an important criterion to measure ones English proficiency. The larger ones vocabulary size is, the better his English is. More words mean more freedom in language use. Without a certain vocabulary size, the training of language skills turns out to be a tree without a root. Therefore, it is not grammar or syntax but vocabulary that makes it difficult to master a language. So, how many words should Chinese senior students need to master in order to have a good comment of a language? Laufers experiment of the threshold vocabulary suggests that the turning point of vocabulary size for effective reading comprehension is about 3,000 word families (approximately 5,000 words). Most researchers found that a large vocabulary will provide a good lexical coverage of a text: 1,000 frequent words cover 80.5% of a text; 2,000 words cover 89%; 3,000 words cover 93%; 4,000 words cover 95% and 5,000 words cover 97% (Wang Rongpei, 1997: 3). The higher the coverage is, the lower the density of unknown words is. In China, we have revised or adjusted the English syllabus for almost every ten years since 1948. It is suggested that, when senior students graduate from school, they should master an English vocabulary as follows: 1948- 6,000 words, 1951 - 5,000 words, 1963, - 3,500-4,000 words. 1978, -2,200words. 1986, -1,800-2,000 words, 1992, -1,200 words (and 800 more words), 2001,- 3,000 words (and 400-500 idioms or collocations) (Huang Jianbin, Wang Li, etc., 2003)The decreasing number of English words from 6,000 to 3,000 indicates lowering difficulty in vocabulary learning, which misleads vocabulary teaching and learning. As mentioned above, the lowest 1,200 words are not enough for senior students. Vocabulary threshold is 2,000 to make communication possible. Fortunately, in 2001, a new vocabulary criterion Senior English Curriculum Criterion in China (Experiment Edition, 2001) is proposed as more attention is paid to the essence of vocabulary. The purpose of senior vocabulary teaching is mentioned that students should know the meanings and the use of 3,000 words and 400-500 idioms or collocations; scientific and effective vocabulary learning strategies, especially vocabulary memorization strategies, are emphasized; students should also learn how to guess word meanings in context so that they can enlarge their vocabulary, distinguish word meanings and improve their ability of vocabulary learning. Therefore, it is most important for Chinese senior students to acquire adequate vocabulary.2 The current situation of vocabulary teaching and learning in senior high schools in ChinaNowadays vocabulary teaching is playing a fundamentally important and active role in language teaching and learning. Researchers and teachers are taking a new interest in it. There are an increasing number of studies on it at home and abroad. Nevertheless, at present, vocabulary teaching is still considered to be time-consuming and low effective, there are still some misunderstandings in vocabulary teaching and learning, which make vocabulary classes less effective. Thus some more specialized and deeper studies in this field are essential. The reason why we are doing this study today lies in the following:Firstly, although vocabulary is considered to be essential in language teaching and learning, it is still ignored in English classrooms more or less. Grammar is still focused on while vocabulary is considered to play a marginal or ancillary role (Ellis, 1986; cited by Fang Ping, 2002: 1). There are no specific vocabulary classes. Most of the teachers organize their courses around a set of grammatical points, with vocabulary selected to support the topic of the course units. The students attitude to vocabulary learning is greatly affected by that of their teachers. As a result, after years of English learning, communication remains difficult for many of them due to insufficient vocabulary. Lack of English words is still an important problem most senior students are faced with instead of grammatical problems. Therefore, vocabulary should be taken into consideration, which is the basic idea to improve students English communicative competence.Secondly, we fail to present the English words in various ways. There are two common models of words to be taught and learned in the present English classroom in China: 1) Students read the vocabulary list after the teacher, followed by some interpretations of each word on the list and then try to memorize the vocabulary items; 2) The teacher chooses some basic or key words, paraphrases them or presents some examples to the students. In this kind of vocabulary teaching and learning, it is too simple, hasty and random for students to memorize so many words. They still have great vocabulary problems. So it is difficult for vocabulary teaching and learning to go without a particular context, because one word may have many meanings and different words may be collocated differently. When a word is used in a new context, it makes a new word. Thirdly, in the present English classroom in China, lack of scientific memorization methods is still a fundamental problem to senior students, and vocabulary is still taught and learned in the traditional way. On the one hand, most teachers pay less attention to vocabulary teaching for the limited time fixed in English classrooms. They usually emphasize pronunciation and meanings of words more than other aspects of vocabulary learning. Students should try to remember meanings of many words, which make them believe that vocabulary learning is only for spelling, reading and memorizing, thus making vocabulary learning less effective, and lowering students interest and confidence in English learning. On the other hand, as a matter of fact, students are always forgetting English words. They learn new words every day, but care little about necessary revision, thus always forgetting words because they dont learn words in a scientific way. They dont realize that vocabulary should be mastered in special contexts. Rote memorization is only the initial stage and much more work should be done to deepen this knowledge. We should not use a single method to remember a large amount of vocabulary. In addition, words are almost never found in isolation, they are always collocated with other words in context.Therefore, the extremely important work for teachers to do at present is to prepare the learners to be independent word learners. That is, showing students various scientific and effective vocabulary learning methods and developing their ability of words memorization to help them master words in context effectively. Of them learning vocabulary in context is a very important one for students. The present study would like to focus on teaching and learning vocabulary in context.3 The research questionsAs mentioned above, English vocabulary teaching and learning is actually and essentially important in English classrooms. However, there are still great problems for teachers and students to deal with. We hope that the present study will throw light on the issue of vocabulary teaching and learning methods, especially the contextual method. We also hope that it may arouse an increasing interest of senior students and teachers, and help students to develop their vocabulary learning strategies so that they can memorize a large vocabulary and use them freely. In the study, an experiment will be done on senior English vocabulary teaching and learning in context, and three questions are raised to help the study more purposefully:1)  Will the vocabulary list rote memorization method and the word-in-context memorization method have different effects on vocabulary learning and retention results?2)   Will the word-in-context memorization method be more effective to senior students vocabulary learning and retention?3)  Will the contextual vocabulary memorization method have similar effects on senior students of different English proficiency levels6 Studies of vocabulary teaching and learning in ChinaComparing with the studies of vocabulary instruction abroad, China has a shorter history in this field. However, since the significance of vocabulary instruction has been accepted, the researches on this field have increasingly been done in China in recent years. Much on the theme has been concerned, which mainly includes the following issues:The reflections, plights, problems and options of vocabulary teaching and learning: To begin with, researchers and teachers take these issues into consideration and think about the current situation of vocabulary instruction to influence the effect of the English classrooms. (Xu Zhenzhong, 1996; Sheng Hongmei, 1997; Sun Xingwen, 1998; Hong Xianli, 1999; He Jianing, 2001, etc.)待添加的隐藏文字内容2Vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary instruction: Is vocabulary naturally acquired or learned in various ways? What should be acquired in vocabulary instruction? What are the attitudes to vocabulary acquisition? These problems are what the researchers and teachers tend to do with. (Bai Renli, 1999; Li Hongmei, 2001; Xie Liming, 2001; Chen Xinren, 2002; Chen Fan, 2002, etc.)Vocabulary memorization and vocabulary teaching and learning: Great attention is being paid to this well received aspect of vocabulary instruction. To learn vocabulary means to memorize it and use it. How can a large amount of vocabulary be learned, remembered, maintained and retrieved? Why are learners always forgetting the words they have learned? Is the rote memorization a usual and useful way to remember words? Can words be obtained, maintained and retrieved in different ways and in various situations? A large number of articles come to this most concerned topic, as the significance of vocabulary has been realized. (Chen Xia, 1997; Liao Zhiqin, 1998; Zhao yanning, 1999; Fan Jianhua, 1999; Wang Lingfeng, 1999; Li Guangfeng, 2000; Wang Wenyu, 2001;Lu Wenpeng, 2001;Wang Xiurong, 2001; Xu Jiahuan, 2001; Li Fengqin, 2001; Li Xia, 2002, etc.)Techniques, methods and strategies in vocabulary teaching and learning: In recent years, more and more voices have come to this aspect of vocabulary. The neglect to vocabulary teaching and learning in the past and the dull methods in the English classrooms have made vocabulary teaching and learning time-consuming and less effective, thus lowering students interest in vocabulary learning and even in the English language. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to influence the English classrooms in various, scientific and effective ways to promote students and teachers interest in vocabulary, thus having a better effect on language learning. (Dong Xiaoying, 1999; Feng Lihui, 1999; Gao Fengying, Guo Xinmei, 1999; Fang Lijun, 2000; He Jianing, 2001; Zhao Xiaoyi, 2001; Zhou Xiao, 2001; Zhou Lihua, 2002; Zhao Fuli, 2002, etc.)Psychological and linguistic theories adopted in vocabulary teaching and learning: Nowadays, researchers begin to concern the relationship between psychology and linguistics and vocabulary instruction. What and how psychological and linguistic theories have effect on vocabulary teaching and learning is being taken into consideration. (Li Qun, 1999; Zhu Lianfen, 1999; Tao Danyu and Yan Zhongxiu, 2000; Mao Haiyan, 2000; Lu Yujuan, 2001; Gu Xiaojuan, 2002; Wang Yingjie, 2003, etc.)Experimental studies of vocabulary teaching and learning: This is a newly mentioned aspect of vocabulary instruction in China. Researchers intend to find the access to effective vocabulary teaching and learning in an experimental way. Specific experiments these years are mainly being done on metacognitive strategy instruction, vocabulary learning strategies, vocabulary presentations and vocabulary memorization. (Hong Xianli, 2001; Zhao Kanpei, 2001; Zhao Yuejun, 2001; Wu Lilin, 2001; Ke Wei and Dong Yanping, 2001; Fang Ping, 2002; An Xiaojie, 2002; Lu Qi, 2003, etc.)The relationship of context and vocabulary instruction: In recent years, Chinese researchers and teachers have taken an increasing interest in vocabulary learning and teaching in context. Researchers focus on the importance of context. They emphasize that learning language without cultural backgrounds means learning not its spirit but its appearance. Most of the words occur with specific context. A word has its specific connotation in specific contexts. Lexical items in the discourse can become specific context of each other, and the connotation of a lexical item can occur from context, which varies with context. (Hu Wenzhong, 1994; He Zhaoxiong, 1995; Qian Yuan, 1997; Zhang Yunfei, 1998; Wang Yang, 1998; Gao Fengying and Guo Xinmei, 1999