Strategies of Vocabulary Learning in English Newspaper and Periodical 报刊英语中词汇学习的策略.doc

报刊英语中词汇学习的策略Strategies of Vocabulary Learning in English Newspaper and Periodical内 容 摘 要当今社会日新月异地发展,极大地拓展了现代英语的范畴。而英语世界里这一日千里的变化和由此带来的新生事物,除了报刊等英语新闻媒体外,几乎找不到更好的手段予以详细记录。英语报刊集现代英语之大成,其内容涉及面相当广泛。近十年来，英语报刊对英语学习的促进作用,特别是对英语词汇学习的辅助作用越发显著,越来越得到专家和英语教师的认可和推崇。词汇知识像读写一样是一项语言技能，它使语言学习者能更恰当地运用语言，更自觉地控制他们的学习，并且学习自主性加强，直至成为独立的学习者。文章从了解英语报刊词汇学习的重要性，词汇的特征出发,探讨了学习英语报刊词汇的方法和策略,以此来探寻报刊英语词汇学习的最佳途径。关键词：策略；词汇学习；重要性；特征 AbstractModern English is exceedingly expanded in this speedy developing world. There is nothing except English newspapers and periodicals that can record minutely this rapid and gratified change with new things popping, for English newspapers and periodicals are in the top class for modern English learning with widely covering. English newspapers and periodicals promotion to English learning, especially the assistance to English vocabulary learning, gets more and more approval and esteem by students and English experts. Vocabulary knowledge is one basic component of language skills, such as reading and writing，and enables learners to use more appropriate language. Vocabulary learning strategy can help students more consciously and autonomously monitor their learning to become independent learners. In this paper, beginning with the importance of English newspaper vocabulary learning, characteristics of vocabulary is then discussed and strategies of vocabulary learning in English newspaper and periodical are mainly explored with a purpose to gain a best way to English vocabulary learning. Key Words: strategy; vocabulary learning; importance; characteristicsContentsIntroduction11. Literature Review21.1 The Definition of Strategy31.2 Classification of Strategy61.2.1 OMalley and Chamots Classification.61.2.2 Oxford' Classification81.2.3 Cohens Classification.91.2.4 Wen Qiufangs Classification.102. The Importance of Vocabulary Learning in English Newspaper and Periodicals113. The Characteristics of Vocabulary in English Newspaper and Periodicals154. Strategies for Vocabulary Learning in English Newspaper and Periodical164.1 Social Strategies164.2 Memory Strategies174.2.1 Pictures/Imagery.194.2.2 Related Words.194.2.3 Rhyme/Rhythm194.2.4 Categorization.204.3 Cognitive Strategies204.3.1 Discovery.214.3.2 Word-formation Analysis.214.3.3 Classification.224.4 Meta-cognitive strategies234.4.1 Selective Attention of Learning Vocabulary244.4.2 Plan of Learning Vocabulary.244.4.3 Self-evaluation of Learning Vocabulary.25Conclusion25Notes27References28Introduction“Without grammar, little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed”. It's generally believed that vocabulary is the key aspect of language learning. More and more language teachers and foreign language learners have recognized its importance. Especially for non-English major college students, acquisition of vocabulary is the most difficult and headache component of English language learning because English vocabulary is huge, and most have more than one meaning and each has a variety of usages. Furthermore, vocabulary is a very active part of a language that is in a constant state of flux as new words flow in and old words disappear. Therefore, the mastery of vocabulary is a conscious demanding process.At the same time, with the implementation of reform and WTO entrance, English language teaching and learning has been put into a crucial position in China. It is reported that in China, 300 million persons, about one fourth of the whole population, are learning English. Among them, 100 million are students from primary school to college. Students make great efforts and spend lots of time in learning English, but its low efficiency and unsatisfactory effect can hardly meet their needs and efforts. This problem undoubtedly owes a lot to the negligence of learners English horizon. It is widely accepted that newspapers and periodicals put sovereign importance on English learners horizon, especially vocabulary horizon. Thus it is necessary for English learners to know more about the vocabulary strategy in English newspapers and periodicals. There are many teaching approaches in which no one could deny the significance of vocabulary learning, such as traditional grammar-translation approach and modern communication approach. Vocabulary plays a vital part in English learning and practice, and its functions in languages go beyond peoples imagination especially in actual communication process. Ones capability of his or her vocabulary connects closely with his or her career. Vocabulary is one of the three key elements of language and the basis of all language activities. It is generally acknowledged that vocabulary expansion has been placed as the most urgent task to be solved at the moment. We can say that improving the ways of vocabulary learning and teaching, in a sense, exerts a great challenge to modern English teaching in universities. So the purpose of this study is to gain a best way for Chinese college students to read newspapers or periodicals effectively and learn vocabulary successfully, and find a way out to meet their questions like how to enlarge vocabulary and then master it liberally.1. Literature Review The study of learning strategies has been an “explosion of activity” in recent years. In the English strategy learning field, researchers, practitioners and curricula designers always wonder why individual English learners achieve different output levels when everything else (including teachers, teaching methods, and materials) remains the same. What makes good learners and poor learners differ in their learning process? The same is in the vocabulary learning. Therefore, peoples attention has shifted from teaching methods to learning strategies. And vocabulary learning also got special attention as one branch of language learning. Language learning strategies serve as a media between various learner factors and their learning performance. Individual learner differences together with various situational factors determine the learners' choice and application of the learning strategies. So the study on the language learning strategies has experienced an increase in recent years. How the researchers define the term “Learning Strategies” is still an argument and many attempts have been made towards the classification of the learning strategies.1.1 The Definition of StrategyAccording to the Longman Dictionary Contemporary English , the term “strategy” can be defined as “the skill of planning in advance the movements of armies or equipment in a war, a well-planned series of actions for achieving an aim, especially success against an opponent and skillful planning in general.”1 But for language learning, the term “strategy” has different meaning. Some linguists gave the different definitions on learning strategies.In Sterns view, strategy is best reserved for general tendencies or overall characteristics of the approach employed by the language learner, leaving techniques as the term to refer to particular forms of observable learning behavior.2Weinstein and Mayer thought learning strategies are the behaviors and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning that are intended to influence the learner's encoding process.3Chamot believed learning strategies are techniques, approaches or deliberate actions that students take in order to facilitate the learning, recall of both linguistics and content area information.4Rubin thought learning strategies are strategies, which contribute to the development of the language system, which the learner constructs and affect learning directly.5Oxford believed language learning strategies are behaviors or actions which learners use to make language learning more successful, self-directed and enjoyable.6Cohen considered language learning and language use strategies can be defined as those processes which are consciously selected by learners and which may result in action taken to enhance the learning or use of a second of foreign language, through the sore, retention, recall, and application of information about that language.7Stern gave the definition by distinguishing the “strategy” and the “technique”, whereas other researches do not differentiate these two terms. And in his point of view, strategy is best reserved from the general tendencies or overall characteristics of the approaches employed by the language learner, and learning technique is the term referring to the particular forms of observable learning behaviors.8Oxford defined this term from the behavior perspective, which stated that the strategies are “operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information, specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, fast, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, more transferable to a new situation.”9 While other researchers seemed to give more support on the definition from both the behavioral and mental perspectives, for example, Weinstein and Mayor. In addition, Chamot and Cohen see them as conscious and deliberate action. Rubin insists that the effect is direct effect on the language development, whereas other researchers consider the effect to be more indirect. As far as the differences among those definitions are concerned, Rod Ellis considered that one of the best ways to define learning strategies is to try to list their main characteristics .So Ellis list eight characteristics.Strategies refer to both general approaches and specific actions or techniques used to learn a second language.Strategies are problem-orientated and the learner deploys a strategy to overcome some particular learning problem.Learners are generally aware of the strategies they use and can identify what they consist of if they are asked to pay attention to what they are doing/thinking.Strategies involve linguistic behavior (such as requesting the name of an object) and non-linguistic (such as pointing at an object so as to be told its name).Linguistic strategies can be performed in the first language and in the second language. Some strategies are behavioral while others are mental. Thus some strategies are directly observable, while others are not. In the main, strategies contribute indirectly to learning by providing learners with data about the second language, which they can then process. However, some strategies may also contribute directly (for example, memorization strategies directed at specific lexical items or grammatical rules).Strategy use varies considerably as a result of both the kind of task the learner is engaged in and individual learner preferences.Rod Ellis's explanation responded one by one to the main differences in those definitions of the learning strategies and enables us to have a better understanding of the learning strategies.Based on the above definitions and characteristics of language learning strategies, we can sum a general definition of learning strategies: Learning strategies are the steps adopted by learners for effective learning. This concept emphasized two points: one is that the purpose of using strategies is to improve learning efficacy, and the other is that the essence of strategies is behaviors of learners, which can be mental or observable.1.2 Classification of StrategyMuch of the earlier researches focus on pilling up inventories of the learning strategies those learners was observed to use or reported to use. Little attention was paid to classify the strategies into general categories.10 With the development of researches, descriptive studies pay attention to identify broad classes of learning strategies, under which large numbers of more specific strategies can be grouped. Due to the difference of classifying angle and name, it is great difference in result. The following will introduce three classifications for some linguists in western countries, and Wen Qiufangs classification in China. 1.2.1 OMalley and Chamots Classification Based on information-processing model, three major types of strategy are distinguished, they are, Meta-cognitive strategies, Cognitive strategies and Social affective strategies .Meta-cognitive strategies play an executive role. They make an arrangement on those Cognitive strategies as well as regulate learning through planning, monitoring, and evaluating. And Cognitive strategies mainly refer to the specific learning behaviors towards the limited learning tasks and involve more direct manipulation of the learning materials. Social affective strategies relate more to the chances offered to the learners for them to communicate and learn with other learners and even native speakers through English instead of learning English alone.Table 1 O'Malley and Chamots Classification of Learning Strategies. 11CategoryLearning StrategiesMeta-cognitive StrategiesCognitive StrategiesSocial/affective StrategiesAdvanced OrganizersDirected AttentionSelective AttentionSelf-ManagementFunctional PlanningSelf-MonitoringDelayed ProductionSelf-EvaluationRepetitionResourcingTranslationGroupingNote TakingDeductionRecombinationImageryAuditory RepresentationKeywordContextualizationElaborationTransferInferencingCooperationQuestion for ClarificationIn O'Malley and Chamots framework, the Meta-cognitive strategies and the Cognitive strategies are major strategies, especially the Meta-cognitive strategies are given the most emphasis for the important role in the success of learners language learning. And it is also the main difference in their classification compare with others.1.2.2 Oxford' ClassificationBased on the relationship between strategies and language material, Oxford divided the strategies into two types: direct and indirect strategies. Direct strategies consist of “strategies that directly involve the target language” in the sense that theyre quire mental processing of the language. Whereas indirect strategies “provide indirect support for language learning through focusing, planning, evaluating, seeking, opportunities, controlling anxiety increasing cooperation and empathy and other means”. The subcategories of direct and indirect strategies shown in following have familiar labels.Table2 Oxfords Classification of Learning Strategies 12Category Learning StrategiesDirect Strategies