A Study of English Vocabulary Teaching in Middle School

1、中學(xué)英語詞匯教學(xué)研究a study of english vocabulary teaching in middle schoolabstract: vocabulary is the basic unit of a language, and is the building materials of a language. the function of the english vocabulary, with diversified meanings and even polysemy, should be attached great importance in foreign lang

2、uage teaching. the words exist in a certain context, which in dealing with the word meanings should be taken into consideration, where by developing the students linguistic knowledge and ability. the thesis gives an interpretation on the context, expounding and proving the importance of the context

3、to the vocabulary teaching. this paper describes a brief analysis of the problems concerning vocabulary teaching in middle school and concerns the idea of forming a set of elastic system in teaching vocabulary, and reveals the methods of making vocabulary teaching interesting, diverse, orderly and s

4、ystematic. context is useful for teachers to present vocabulary, and it provides an effective way for learners to memorize the meaning of words. a combination of context with lexical patterns and groupings performs an essential function in vocabulary teaching.key words: vocabulary; context; lexical

5、patterns; discourse摘 要：詞匯是語言的基本單位，是語言的建筑材料。英語詞匯在外語學(xué)習(xí)中的作用不容忽視，英語詞義靈活多變，且一詞多義。任何詞語和句子都是在一定的語境中存在的，離開語境談詞義，不利于提高學(xué)生的語言知識和能力。本文對“語境”做以解釋說明，陳述并證明語境在詞匯教學(xué)中的重要性。文章從對中學(xué)英語詞匯教學(xué)存在的問題做個簡明分析入手，通過將英語詞匯教學(xué)形成一套靈活體系的觀點，展示了使英語詞匯教學(xué)趣味化、多樣化、條理化、系統(tǒng)化的方法?？偨Y(jié)出語境對教師呈現(xiàn)詞匯是有幫助的，并且語境法給學(xué)習(xí)者提供有效的方式去記憶單詞的含義?？梢?，語境與詞匯模式相結(jié)合的教學(xué)法在詞匯教學(xué)中執(zhí)行著一個必

6、不可少的作用。關(guān) 鍵 詞：詞匯；語境；詞匯模式； 語篇contentsi. introduction.1a. background.1b. research purpose.2ii. issues concerning vocabulary teaching and learning.3 a. approach to presenting words.3b. approach to memorizing words.4iii. techniques for vocabulary instruction.5a. skills of presenting vocabulary.51. visual

7、 aids.5 2. word relations.53. stems and affixes.54. using the text as context.65. translation6 b. skills of consolidating vocabulary.6 1. blank filling.6 2. matching.6 3. using word family.74. answering text-related questions75. writing a story or a dialogue.7iv. strategies for teaching vocabulary.7

8、a. context and english vocabulary teaching.71. a brief review of the study of context72. types of context.8b. the roles that the context plays in english vocabulary teaching91. context help to fix define the word meanings102. context can remove the barrier of polysemy or “one meaning of many words”

9、.11c. methodological approaches to vocabulary teaching in terms of context.121. lexical phrases.122. blank filling.123. semantic mapping.12v. conclusion.13works cited.14 a study of english vocabulary teaching in middle schooli. introductionvocabulary is the basic unit of a language, and is the build

10、ing materials of a language. to know the words well is a key to learn a language. there will be no sentence without words, and eventually no communication will take place. the function of the english vocabulary, with diversified meanings and even polysemy, should be attached great importance in fore

11、ign language teaching. the words exist in a certain context, which in dealing with the word meanings should be taken into consideration, where by developing the students linguistic knowledge and ability, the thesis gives an interpretation on the context, expounding and proving the importance of the

12、context to the vocabulary teaching.according to the problems of english vocabulary teaching in middle school, this essay concerns the idea of forming a set of elastic methods in teaching vocabulary, and reveals the vocabulary teaching by means of lexical phrases, blank filling and semantic mapping w

13、hich are all based on contexts. my discussion focuses on the different types of vocabulary activities, which clarify the meaning and the usage of the words, develop strategies for vocabulary teaching, motivate students, and sustain their interest in vocabulary learning with the combination of the us

14、e of contexts.a. backgroundthe putting forward of the term “context” may go backward as early as last century. polish human linguist malinowski put it forward in 1923, and divided it into two categoriescultural context and situational context. the founder of “l(fā)ondon school” john. rubert firth accept

15、ed his idea and advanced a more complete theory of context basing on it. the theory was attached importance field extensively as soon as it was born, and we have been perfecting it ever sine. especially it provided a theoretical base for the correct processing of natural languages.just as the britis

16、h linguist put it “without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (wilkins 128), so we can say vocabulary plays a decisive role in foreign language learnings. vocabulary consists of “a series of interrelating systematized manner which will both illustrate th

17、e organized nature of vocabulary and at the same time enable him to internalize the items in a coherent way” (gairns and redman 89). gairns and redman also provide a number of ways of grouping words, including different types of semantic fields, as well as phonological and grammatical sets. in vocab

18、ulary teaching, we commonly find that the meanings of the english words are elastic, polysemy appears frequently. english is considered as a language that has great adaptability and plasticity meanings of words rely on context a great deal, so in teaching we should combine word meanings with convers

19、ations and situations, pay attention to the relation between context and word meanings, so as to improve both the students linguistic knowledge and competence.b. research purposeby expounding context we find that the key of english vocabulary teaching is to grasp the context. we must rely on the inf

20、ormation of all aspects supplied by context to define the word meaning. the role that context plays in the understanding of word meaning cant be taken place by any dictionary. teaching vocabulary combined with context helps to create linguistic atmosphere, develops the ability of using english and l

21、inguistic sense. english vocabulary teaching is an important link in english teaching for this reason. more attention should be paid to the part that context plays in vocabulary teaching.context is crucial for the learner to infer the meaning of a new word that she/he encounters. by context, it is u

22、nderstood that it “involves the learner in seeking clues to meaning by following a number of defined steps which lead from the form of the word itself, to its immediate context, and then to its operation in the surrounding context”(carter 74). nunan argues “l(fā)anguage reflects the contexts in which it

23、 is used and the purpose to which it is put” (nunan 98). the problem confronting both teachers and learners is that no course can provide learners with anything like the vocabulary they will need to comprehend authentic texts. it is therefore important to provide learners with strategies for inferri

24、ng the meaning of unknown vocabulary from the context in which it occurs or the different meanings of known vocabulary from their particular contexts.in all, the use of context can develop a deep level of explicit vocabulary teaching and learning. meanwhile, contextual vocabulary teaching helps lear

25、ners with higher proficiency in combination with a focus on lexical patterns and groupings. ii. issues concerning vocabulary teaching and learningvocabulary learning is a difficult aspect for many chinese students. they have difficulty memorizing words and selecting the right words in expressing the

26、ir ideas and feelings. what has caused the problems? let us examine the method of presenting words and the method of memorizing words.a. approach to presenting wordsthere are many methods for presenting words, but what approach to take is an issue we need to consider first. generally, there are two

27、approaches to word presentation: presenting isolated words in a word-list and presenting the meaning of a word in context.the traditional practice of teaching vocabulary is to teach a list of isolated lexical items (words, phrases, idioms and fixed expressions) before teaching the text. sometimes th

28、e teacher explains its usage and compares it with other synonyms. all the words are dealt with this way. after vocabulary explanation is finished, it is the students task to memorize all those words. usually the students apply the method of rote memorization. this kind of teaching is still in wide u

29、se. “this practice of preteaching vocabulary makes intuitive sense, but may in fact be unsound” (seal, 296-311). schouten-van parreren (1989, quoted from hedge, 2002:120) presents a three-point argument as follows:1. if the words are presented as isolated elements, there is no point of support, no “

30、cognitive hold” for them in the learners memory, so despite sometimes considerable learning effort, they are quickly forgotten again.2. isolated words do not present a linguistic reality, as the meaning of a word is in most cases partly defined by the context (beheydt 1987:55-67).3. isolated words o

31、r words in isolated sentence do not present a psychological reality, because they do not carry a message. for this reason they cannot evoke emotions or involvement in the learner, a factor which plays an often underestimated, but yet important part in long-term acquisition (leontjew 1979:89-102).the

32、se arguments can explain why many students cannot remember words explained by the teacher on the word-list base and cannot find the right words to express themselves. considering this we may find an alternative in presenting words, that is, contextualization.presenting words in context can avoid the

33、 negative effects caused by presenting words in a list. first, words in context carry messages, the understanding of which involves the students cognitive activities, and the meaning of the words will remain in his mind in a natural way. another reason is that context presents a linguistic reality w

34、here the meaning of a word in this situation can be exactly identified. also, the context supplies a pragmatic condition that shows how the word is used. finally, when new words are taught throughout the teaching of the text, the students attention will frequently switch from one activity to another

35、, and as a result, their memory burden can be reduced.although contextualized presentation has its advantages, presentation through word-list is not totally negative. if words are handled in proper quantities, the concentrated explanation can draw students attention. therefore, in dealing with the n

36、ew words in a text, the teacher can divide the words into two categories. one category contains words whose meanings can be figured out in the text context. the other category includes words whose meanings are difficult to infer in the text. for the latter the teacher can present their meanings befo

37、re teaching the text, and the methods of presentation should be flexible, from translating into chinese to creating context in which a new word may appear.b. approach to memorizing wordslike presenting words, there are also many methods for memorizing words. here we have to determine which approach

38、to take in memorizing words: rote memorization or memorization through reading.memorizing a word includes memorizing its meaning, spelling and usage. although “there may be learners who enjoy and succeed in learning material through memorization” (richards 79), rote memorization takes more time and

39、effort than memorizing words in context. when memorizing a word in isolation, the learners attention is focused only on its spelling and one of its meanings. but how to use the word becomes another question. the consequence of this approach is the inability to use words appropriately on the part of

40、the student.to avoid the negative effect of rote memorization, we can turn to another alternativememorizing words through reading. after learning a text, the students are encouraged to review the passage as soon as possible to have further comprehension of the text and better understanding of the ne

41、w words. they need to read the text several times. while reading, the student should pause at the places where target words occur, examine how they are used to express the ideas, observe their collocations, and then read and memorize the chunks or the sentences that contain those words. this kind of

42、 reading should be followed by oral and written activities for using those words. different from reading or writing a word repeatedly in isolation, using it in different contexts is meaningful repetition and involves cognitive activities. this kind of memorization is related to meaning, spelling and

43、 usage simultaneously.iii. techniques for vocabulary instructionlexical items refer to words, phrases, idioms and fixed expressions. in vocabulary teaching and learning, we regard each of these items as one unit. for the sake of convenience, we just use word to represent all of them. the first step

44、of teaching vocabulary is to present word meaning. as discussed above, presenting a word in context is an effective way. however, not every word can be presented in context. therefore, we need to look at different techniques for presenting word meaning. in conveying the meaning of a word, we should

45、integrate several techniques to achieve he best effect.a. skills of presenting vocabulary1. visual aidsvisual aids can be everyday objects, pictures, models, blackboard drawings and mimes. these are used to convey the meaning of words for an object, an action and a concept. it is not enough to show

46、a toy of panda and say “panda” or “this is a panda”. the teacher can repeat the word several times by putting it in sentences, such as “l(fā)ook at this panda”, “the panda has black eyes”, or “the panda is a cute animal”.2. word relationsanother technique of conveying the meaning of a word is to relate

47、it to other words. synonyms and antonyms are two common types of word relation. the synonym of a word should not only have similar meaning but also have the same grammatical function. an antonym is opposite in meaning, but it should have the same grammatical function as the target word.3. stems and

48、affixesa knowledge of latin affixes can help students guess unfamiliar words by relating these words to the known words. by teaching the meaning of prefixes and suffixes, the teacher is building in students an ability to figure out the meaning of many words. if power is a familiar word, when the stu

49、dent knows that super- means “l(fā)arger”, “greater”, then he may guess superpower might have something to do with “very powerful” or “extremely strong”.4. using the text as contextas discussed before, contextualization is an effective way of presenting a word. apart from the context created by the teac

50、her, the most effective context is in the text. words have a habit of changing their meaning from one context to another (labov, 1973, quoted from nagy, 2002:64-83). nagy argues that there are two types of contextual variation in meaning: sense selection and reference specification. in the case of s

51、ense selection, a word is assumed to have two or more senses, and the effect of context is to select one of these. in the case of reference specification, where one word, for example, boy, might refer to two different individuals and call up quite different images and associations, the interpretatio

52、n of a word is any given context is necessarily more specific than the meaning stored in the mental lexicon. therefore, the text context can help the reader understand the exact meaning of this word and arrive at the total meaning of a sentence. in deciding the meaning of a word from context, the re

53、ader has to use his knowledge of grammar and context clues. 5. translationtranslation has an important role in conveying word meaning although we do not encourage overusing this technique. there are numerous situations where the meaning of a word cannot be made clear by whatever means except transla

54、tion. abstract words belong to this group, and so do a large number of culture-loaded words or words for concepts that are new to students. for such words, translation is the only effective way to convey meaning.b. skills of consolidating vocabulary1. blank fillingthe students are provided with a certain number of sentences with a blank in each. they are required to fill in each blank with an appropriate word taken from the text. this type of exercises is commonly used in textbooks.2.