HowtodoVocabularyTeachinginMiddleSchool

1、How to do Vocabulary Teaching in Middle School Abstract: Word is one of the three basic language units. It is essential to communication. Without vocabulary we can convey nothing, therefore, vocabulary teaching is an indispensable part of English curriculum. But some traditional vocabulary-teaching

2、methods seem to isolate the words from the context or break away from the scientific rules. They can t help students to develop a language competence in the long run but cause them to lose interest in English. Middle school English teachers should pay attention it, since they are the premier ones wh

3、o introduce students to the field of English .In this paper, I would provide six scientific vocabulary-teaching techniques. I think they could be valuable for middle school English teachers during their teaching process. Key words: technique, vocabulary, context, competence 21 摘 要：單詞是語言最基本的因素之一。 它在人

4、們的交流中起著很大的作用 如果沒有詞匯我們則完全無法表達任何東西。 因此，詞匯教學(xué)是英語教學(xué)中不可缺少 的一部分。 一些中學(xué)英語教師在講授詞匯時， 把詞匯從上下文中脫離出來， 忽略了科 學(xué)的學(xué)習規(guī)律； 從長遠來看， 這種傳統(tǒng)的詞匯教學(xué)方法不僅不利于學(xué)生形成和提高英 語語言能力， 反而會導(dǎo)致他們對英語失去興趣。 作為中學(xué)生學(xué)習英語的啟蒙老師， 中 學(xué)英語教師在教學(xué)中需注意這些。 在我的論文中， 我提供了 6種比較科學(xué)的詞匯教學(xué) 方法。我希望這幾種方法對中學(xué)英語教師會有一定的參考價值。 關(guān)鍵詞 :教學(xué)方法；詞匯；語境；語言能力 Contents Abstract i Contents iii In

5、troduction 1 1 The importance of vocabulary teaching in middle school2 1.1 The importanee of word 2 1.2 The importanee of vocabulary teaching in English curriculum 2 2. The vocabulary teaching methods of middle school 3 2.1 Three distinguishing features of English vocabulary 3 2.2 The drawbacks of s

6、everal traditi onal vocabulary teachi ng methods 5 2.3 Six scientific methods of teaching vocabulary 10 2.4 The useful of scientific methods in vocabulary teaching 15 3. The importance of keeping student interested and encouraged in learning vocabulary 16 3.1 The importa nee of keep ing stude nt in

7、terested in lear ning vocabulary17 3.2 The importa nee of en couragestude ntto lear ningvocabulary17 Conclusion 18 Bibliography 19 Acknowledgements 20 Introduction In China, English teachers have sometimes tended to overlook the importance of lexical system. This is especially obvious in the middle

8、school. This phenomenon might have resulted from the fact that linguists have worked out a perfect equivalent Chinese vocabulary system to English vocabulary system, so that teachers and students can more easily deal with the vocabulary than with the grammar and sound of English which are quite diff

9、erent from the Chinese grammar and sound system. Lexical items may also have appeared to be of secondary importance because they have sometimes been seen as that which is used to“ flesh out ” the structur exemplify parts of the sound system. However, without lexicon the major meaning-caring element

10、in language is missing. Therefore, the acquisition of vocabulary is an integral part of English teaching. On the other hand, there are teachers who have tended to overemphasize the learning of words in the lengthy vocabulary lists. The solution is to seek scientific techniques of vocabulary teaching

11、, so, in the following part, I will discuss three topics: I. The importance of vocabulary teaching in middle school. II: The vocabulary teaching methods of middle school. III The useful of scientific techniques of vocabulary teaching. 1 The important of vocabulary teaching in middle school 1.1 The i

12、mportance of word Word is one of the three basic language units (sound. word. Grammar ). It is essential to communication. One of the famous linguists wilkins once said that, wit”hout grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed . (w”ilkins .ENGLISH STUDY, Foreign

13、language study Institute,1987). 1.2 The importance of vocabulary teaching in English curriculum Little children learn to speak in isolated words and then in chains of nouns and verbs. A child who says “ Mum-bye bike”is easily understood by English-speaking adult. Students who are immersed into a new

14、 linguistic settling tend to pick up vocabulary first, and then gradually develop a more accurate, structural framework in which to use these words. And they must continually be learning words as they learn structures and as they practice the sound system. Therefore, vocabulary teaching is an import

15、ant part of English lessons in middle school, and an important task for the teachers.Weather a middle school English teacher can follow scientific methods to teach vocabulary or not directly bring good or bad influence toward the students. If his methods are suitable for the students and beneficial

16、for them in the long run, he could arouse their interest on English and help them to develop a solid foundation of language acquisition ability; whereas if he fails to do so, it might result in the students diffidenee toward themselves and might cause them to disgust English. 2. The Vocabulary teach

17、ing methods of Middle School 2.1 Three distinguishing features of English Vocabulary Before studying the better techniques in Vocabulary teaching, we had better know about the characteristics of English words. English words. English words are quite different from Chinese characters, the former one i

18、s a spelling system While the later is a stroke system, English words have three distinguishing features: i. Firstly, the pronunciation of each word is corresponded to its Spelling, for example, look at the following two lists of words: old, cold, hold, whole, so smart, artist, mark, garden In list

19、the letter “o ” the five words are all pronounced as ;and in list the letter comb in ati on “ ar inthe four words are pronoun ced as .If students have noticed this relationship between English pronunciation and spelling, they would be easier in pronouncing and memorizing new words. But with a long h

20、istory of development and variation, and with the influence by other languages, the spelling of English words don talways observe this rule ;for example, the letter “u”is pronounced differently in the following words: Truthu:,Uncle , Until , full , music In another case, with the influence of Americ

21、an accent,the word “ clerk”is also pronounced as ii. Another feature of English words is that they frequently have more than one meaning. The word “ book”fo,r example, obviously refers to something you use to read from (a written work in the form of)a set of printed pages fastened together inside a

22、cover, as a thing to be read. According to one learners dictionary. But the same dictionary then goes on to list eight more meanings of boaoska”noun, tow meanings of book” as a verb and three meanings where“ book ”+preposition makes phrasal verbs. So we will have to say that the word“ b osook m”etim

23、es means the kind of thing you read from, but it can also mean a number of other things. In other words, students need to understand the importance of meaning in context. iii. The third characteristic is that English words can change their shape and their grammatical values, too. Students need to kn

24、ow facts about word formation and how to twist words to fit different grammatical contexts. Thus the verb “ run ”has the participles “running” and “ ran”, the present participle “ running” can be used as an adjective and“ run” can also be a none .There is a clear relationship between the words “deat

25、h”, “ dead”, “dying ” and “ die”. Students also need to know how suffixes and prefixes work. How can we make the words potent and .expensive opposite in meaning. Why do we preface one with in and the other with in? Knowing the three distinguishing characteristics of English vocabulary will help teac

26、hers to deliver vocabulary teaching. 2.2 The drawbacks of several traditional vocabulary teaching methods i. Teach words in isolation Middle school English teachers in china usually ask students to learn vocabulary lists in which words are isolated from the context. In one case ,they let the student

27、s pick out all the new words in the text ,list them on a paper, and consult the dictionary for the Chinese or English meanings; for cc | |?“ |? “?“| j_ a example, “display m”ean “show”“,arrive m”eans “reach ”In.another case, they try to get the students to associate each word with an image or an obj

28、ect; for example, they hold up a picture of a car and say“This is a car.Both ”these teaching techniques imply that learning vocabulary means learning individual word one at a time. These two methods may save time and be fast-effective. However, the relationships between words are as important as the

29、 meaning of the word in isolation: how “carc”ontrasts with “bus”and “truck a”nd,how it is related to “ driver an”d “ engine a”re as important as the word itself. Neglecting the study of the relationships in English vocabulary system might result in stude nts slow ness in comprehe nsion and in approp

30、riate ness in exploiting the English words. Being taught in these ways without a change, students might have difficulty in working out the meanings of some words, such as “ timineth”e following three sentences. ii. Teach English words in one to one correspondence to Chinese words. Many English teach

31、ers tend to teach English words in one to one correspondence to Chinese words; for example ,English “glassiS 玻璃 ” in Chinese, English “cup”is “茶杯 ” inChinese, and so on. This traditional translation teaching method which has been adopted in china for a long time is considered to be helpful. But in t

32、he long run the overuse of this method is harmful to the developme nt of stude nts Ian guage compiOttynCe. Espec the elementary stage, this method should be avoided as possible as it can be. When students say that they know the meaning of an English word, the usually mean that they have found an equ

33、ivalent word in Chinese language, but this equivale nt word m ay be misleadi ng. Let s take the word for “ with ” example. in the sentence of“ I have milk for brethaekfwaostrd “ word”i”n, Chinese culture refers to hot milk, because Chinese people are used to dink milk hot ; while the wordin“thweoArd

34、m”erican culture refers to cold milk, because Americans never drink boiled milk as we Chinese do. This example shows us that the same wordk”h“asmdiflferent social meanings in different cultures, In fact, many linguists believe that no word can be exactly translated into another language. Learning th

35、e vocabulary of a second language is not just to memorize the equivalent words of language one, but to learn the meaning relationship between “milk a”nd all other words in English within the context of cultural life. iii. Treat all words equally Some English teachers treat all vocabulary equally. Th

36、at is ,they generally imply that students should be able to produce all vocabulary presented. But as is suggested by the linguists that words can be classified into receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary .according to the needs, language levels and professions of the learners. They point out

37、 that all speakers are able to recognize more words them they usually use on a productive level. Productive vocabulary is that utilized in everyday speech. Receptive vocabulary, on the other hand, although needed for comprehension, is not necessarily essential for production in speaking and writing.

38、 Teachers who do notice this fact ask students to concentrate equally on the acquisition of both receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary. This method of vocabulary teaching adds much burden to students, and would cause them to become tired of vocabulary learning. iv. Neglecting the cooperatio

39、n of sense organs According to the experiments of linguists, an average English learner will better remember a new word and make it become an active one if he observes, speaks out ,hears and writes as well as recites it .But many teachers seem to be unaware of this rule that there are not a few stud

40、ents remember vocabulary by incorrect ways. On one hand, they treat the new words as if they are telephone numbers. They read the new words letter by letter without observing the Pronunciation rules. For example, when they read the word “ classroom th”ey,do it in this way: “-cl-a-s-s-r-o-o-m, classr

41、oom i”nstead of “ cl- - - - - - - - -, classroom ”Th.is stupid method adds the difficulty in memorizing new words. On the other hand, since the teachers do not ask students to notice the key parts of the new words, they meet much difficulty when remembering them; for example, when a teacher teach th

42、e word “ moutha”nd “ mouth ”if h,e ask the students to pay attention to the key parts of these two words, and to underline“ ou”in mouth. With au above it and underline “on”in month with n1 above it, students would easily remember these two words without a mistake with their attentions to key parts G

43、enerally, a new word would well turn into an active one in students minds after at least threse:sTtahgeefirst stage is known as forming an acoustic link. That means students are able to link the pronunciation to the word when they hear it in a conversation. The second stage is probably forming a usu

44、al link. That is to say, when students come across this word in reading materials, they can understand it. The third stage is more difficult to achieve but very important. It is to form mental image of the word. That means they can imitate, choose and give the reign to it freely and accurately in sp

45、eaking and writing as if it is their native word. Most students can only achieve the first and second stages but never reach the third stage partly due to their poor cooperation of the sense organs. v. Fail to follow the memory rule: There are two types of memory processesshortterm memory and longte

46、rm memory. Shortterm memory means that the storation of input only stay in your memory temporarily; while the long term memory means the storation of input can stay in your memory for more than 10 days, ever for the whole life. In fact, our memory process is a recycling process. According to the sur

47、vey of linguists, the more times the word is used, the better your remember it. But many teachers partially emphasize the function of shortterm memory. They seem to care more about the amount of vocabulary input than those actually stay in students memory. There some teachersseeing the longterm rule

48、. However, they never succeed in applying the memory rule in classroom. They claim that the time of each period of class in limited that they can t spend so much time on the repetition of vocabulary teaching. As for as I m concerned, I don t think their e make any sense. What matters is their ignora

49、nce of scientific teaching techniques and irresponsibility for the development of students. vi. Harmful method of punishment I think the worst method of vocabulary teaching is the adoption of harmful method of punishmentcopying new words for 100 even 1000 times. These teachers force their poor stude

50、nts to copy marry times of new words which they make mistakes in. This awkward punishment often cause students to year and worry about English lessons. It is true that most of the middle school students are interested in English at first, because it is a new subject that is full of novelty and inter

51、est. And they like their English teacher, too. But with the misuse of teaching methods by teachers, they might begin to feel discouraged in English learning and even disgust their English teacher. 2.3 Six Scientific methods of teaching Vocabulary i. Drawings Drawings illustrating vocabulary may be h

52、ung around the classroom. These are especially effective if they illustrate points where learning problems tend to occur: “Heis lying on the bed ”He is laying his coat on the bed” Another use of drawings is known as picture association which means drew pictures for the troublesome words and the stud

53、ents themselves providing the association: He picture are made by students, here is a way to use students artistic talents for the introduction of new vocabulary. ii. Using Known V ocabulary The teacher can use known vocabulary to teach the meanings of new words: a. Synonyms and antonyms out of cont

54、ext: 1) A synonym of fest is rapidly. What is the synonym of rapidly? 2) The opposite of big is little. What is the opposite of little b. synonyms and antonyms in sentence context: Use the new word in sentencesthat contain an antonym or contrary expression. 1) This meat is tough. I can only eat tend

55、er meat. 2) Tom was lazy while is brother Jack was industrious Jack worked all the time. Use the new word in sentencesthat contain a synonym or equivalent expression. 1) John was exhausted. His brother, too, was extremely tired. 2) Mary, why are you talking so fast? The Chinese don t understand yo w

56、hen you speak so quickly. 3) Categories: Names of categories can be taught verbally if the students know some names if items that being within a particular category. Teacher: Coffee is a beverage. Cocacola is a beverage . Tea is a beverage. Give me some other examples of beverages. Student: Milk is

57、a beverage. T: Tennis is a sport. Baseball is a sport. What is another sport? S: Football is a sport. 1) Definitions and paraphrases:Definitions and paraphrases may be given in the target language. Target language dictionaries are useful to the teacher, especially those dictionaries prepared to help

58、 foreigners learn the second language. A singer is a person who sings A girl who is “bad news” is not very pretty. She is ugly. iii. Grouping Many textbooks present vocabulary items in random order. Some books have alphabetical lists of new words. In either case, new words may be further grouped to

59、point out similarities and differences among them. Bright Students do this automatically, but often the shower students experience difficulty precisely because they do not notice the obvious groupings. The teacher can prepare handouts that group words to help students remember them move easily. a) N

60、ouns : Nouns can be grouped in families : 1) Color: white, black, yellow, brown, green, pink (2)Foods: bread, milk, apple pie, grapes, cake b) Verbs: verbs can be grouped by its usage and collocation 1) enjoy, avoid ,escape, finih, cant help +do ing 2) go V. go about: perform; go after: try to get g