初一年级英语词汇教学方法.doc

AbstractVocabulary acquisition is the main task of learning a second language. Therefore, vocabulary teaching is a significant procedure in English teaching; effective vocabulary teaching plays an important role in learners learning. This thesis is mainly aiming at exploring the vocabulary learning strategies used by the sampled students and providing several vocabulary teaching and learning methods. It is hoped that the learners can employ effective vocabulary learning strategies to improve their vocabulary learning. The thesis aims to offer help for both English teachers and beginners in junior school. Key words: beginners in junior school; vocabulary learning; vocabulary teaching strategy摘 要词汇的获取是第二语言学习的主要任务，因此词汇教学是英语教学中一个重要的组成部分，有效的词汇教学对于初学者学习语言有着重要的影响。本文通过对部分学生词汇策略使用的调查，讨论了较为科学的词汇教学方法和学习方法，旨在为中学英语教师的词汇教学和中学生词汇学习提供参考。关键词：初学者；词汇学习；词汇教学Content1. Introduction.11.1 Background of the Research.11.2 Significance of the Present Study.11.3 Aim of the Present Study2 2. Literature Review.22.1 Learning Strategies.2 2.2 Related Theory.3 3. Research Design .33.1 Research Question.4 3.2 Research Subjects.4 3.3 Research Instruments.4 3.4 Data Collection.4 3.5 The Results and Analysis of Questionnaire4 4. Vocabulary Teaching Strategies for Beginners.8 4.1 Learning the List on the Textbook Page 8 4.1.1 Pronunciation and Spelling.9 4.1.2 Showing the Meaning of the Words.10 4.2 Learning Vocabulary in Context.10 4.3 Cultivating Learners Motivation.12 4.3.1 Classifying Words.12 4.3.2 Reviewing Vocabulary Regularly.13 5. Conclusion.14 References.16 Appendices.17 1. Introduction1.1 Background of the ResearchAs is known, grammar, sound and vocabulary are the three main elements of a language. Just as Wilkins said if there is no vocabulary, people can express nothing (Wilkins, 1972). However, it is a common phenomenon in junior school that many students have no interests in learning English after they learn English for a few days or a few months because they cannot keep new words in minds. Many English beginners complain that they spend a large amount of time in memorizing new words but with poor results. As Allen (2002) points out, “Pronunciation and grammar were emphasized, but there was little or no emphasis on vocabulary”. Most language learners begin learning another language by starting with vocabulary and the learning of vocabulary seems to accompany a learner throughout the learning process even after all the basic grammatical rules have been learned (Wang, 2006). Whats more, language teachers give little attention to techniques for helping beginners learn vocabulary. That is the main reason why beginners find it difficult to learn a new language and gradually lose confidence in English learning. Therefore, vocabulary is a big obstacle in English learning. 1.2 Significance of the Present StudyWilkins indicates: “If there is no grammar, people can only express something; but if there is no vocabulary, people can express nothing (Wilkins, 1972:36)”. The acquisition of vocabulary is an integral part of English teaching and the success of vocabulary teaching has a bearing on improvement of students English competence for the beginners. Especially, vocabulary is the most fundamental when learners begin to learn a language. McCarthy indicates that “No matter how good ones grammar is and how beautiful ones pronunciation is, but if one has no adequate vocabulary to express ones own feelings or to understand other opinions, one still cannot communicate with others in this language” (1990:140). Harmer (1990) also points out that “If we compare language structure as the sketch of language, vocabulary is the thing that provides important organ as well as blood and flesh.” Teaching beginners good vocabulary learning knowledge can not only enable them to memorize, classify and store words more efficiently, but also to raise their study interests.1.3 Aim of the Present StudyIn this paper, the author focuses on vocabulary teaching techniques and aims at demonstrating the application of vocabulary teaching techniques with the hope that it can offer both teachers and students something useful. 2. Literature Review2.1 Learning Strategies English learning strategy, which derives from the terms “learning strategy”, refers to techniques and approaches or deliberate actions that learners of English take in order to facilitate the acquiring, storing, retrieving and manipulating of information while learning English (Li, 2005:80).Learning strategies are the particular approaches or techniques that learners used to learn a second language. They can be mental, for example, using the linguistic or situational contexts to infer the meaning of new word.2.2 Related Theory “Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonetic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the worlds language (He, 1999)” ;The lexicologist McCarthy (1990) echoed that learning grammar well and mastering the sound of a L2 successfully are far from enough. Communication in a certain language can happen on the basis that there are words to express a wide range of meaning. Schmitt (1997:213) claims that culture is another learners characteristic that has been shown to be important for vocabulary. Wang said: “mechanical practice is necessary for many skills” (Wang, 2006:94). So after teaching, the long lists of vocabulary and their translations in the exercise books we find what we do somehow always seem to defy memory, and recall the vocabulary we want, it does not always seem to fit comfortably into our own sentence (Jim Scrivener, 2002:73). A word can not be encountered at least seven times in different context before it can be produced by the students (Wang, 2006:125). From the above theories, it is easy to know that teaching strategies play an important role in language learning, and any language learning needs to have good teaching methods. 3. Research Design3.1Research QuestionThe research mainly focuses on one question, that is, what problems exist in vocabulary teaching.3.2 SubjectsThis study chooses a sample of 40 students in two classes, all of whom are from Class 96 and 97 in Grade One of Man Wan middle school.3.3 Research InstrumentsIn this thesis, only questionnaire (see Appendix I) is used, which focuses on surveying beginners vocabulary learning strategies. The questionnaire provides 15 questions for students; they choose “often”, “seldom” or “no” to express their views about learning strategies. 3.4 Data CollectionAt the beginning of the study, the researcher selected two classes from junior school with 40 students as the subject. Then, they are requested to finish the questionnaire within 20 minutes and to respond honestly to each question. Because the students are all beginners, the researcher put the Chinese meaning after each question (see Appendix II). After students finished answering the questionnaires, answers to the questionnaire were collected and scored.3.5 The Results and Analysis of QuestionnaireLearning strategiesOftenSeldomNo1Studying words by using phonetic.8713%02Using Chinese words, which have the same sounds as English words.68%13%19%3When you learn words, you only read repeatedly, but do not write or only write instead of reading.1627%574Learning words according to similar pronunciation or spelling.26%19%55%5Using words lists to memorize words meaning one by one to Chinese.6116%23%6Using new English words in a sentence.33%27%40%7Learning words in text.39%30%31%8Using new words into practice. (Communication, dialogue, making story.)17%10%73%9Making a plan, and asking yourself to learn certain words per day or week.41%34%25%10Grouping words, for example, you can put the color words together to study them.2711%62%11Using key words to review vocabulary. (familymother, father)14 22% 64%12Using a notebook to write down the words you are not familiar with.3710%53%13Using synonyms and antonyms2227%51%14Learning words as long as you have time. 56%30%14%15You have confidence in English vocabulary learning.3340%27%From the questionnaire above, we wan easily find that English beginners do not have the realizations that they should use strategies to learn vocabulary. According to the questionnaire, there are three problems in vocabulary teaching:(1) From question 1 to 4, we can see that beginners do not know what strategy is, and the methods they chose are very simple, usually most of which are some traditional ways, such as reading and writing by repetition. Whats more, beginners even choose Chinese words instead of English sound, and they try their best to find a similar Chinese sound to replace the words pronunciation, since they are afraid of forgetting the pronunciation of the words. Being taught in this way, beginners might lose interests in English learning.(2) From question 5 to 8, it appears that most students adopt the traditional strategies to learn vocabulary meaning, that is, learning words one by one to Chinese. Some interesting methods are not used in their vocabulary learning, for instance, marking story, putting the words into context, or real communication. In the long run, the overuse of this method is harmful to the development of students language competence, especially in the elementary stage.(3) From question 9 to question15, in beginners minds, learning is boring, and they think English vocabulary is difficult and useless for them, they cannot remember words, and it is easy to forget. Some of them do review the words after class, but with a poor result because of lacking some effective methods, such as classifying the words, keeping a notebook, using synonyms and antonyms. From the questionnaire, it shows that students strategies of learning vocabulary are very poor. Therefore, teachers should give some effective and interesting skills to guide them.4. Vocabulary Teaching Strategies for Beginners Vocabulary teaching is of great significance in foreign language teaching and learning. Language teaching experts have provided a lot of methods of teaching the vocabulary in their articles or books, which are certainly very useful to us. But sometimes we may feel it very difficult to follow their advice when we are teaching the vocabulary in a class consisting of so many students. For effective teaching of vocabulary, it is always useful for a teacher to have a repertoire of techniques, many students devote large amounts of time and energy to the learning of vocabulary, but often end up with dissatisfaction with the learning results as they still fail to achieve the expected level of comprehension or they complain that they cannot help forgetting (Wang, 2006:133). Therefore, it is important for the teacher to introduce vocabulary learning strategies to the beginner so that they can choose through their own experiences after trying them on.4.1 Learning the List on the Textbook Page Although asking students to learn vocabulary list isolated is not scientific, it is very important that much of the basic vocabulary in lessons for beginners will be needed for writing and speaking English in future months and years, it is necessary to present the list words for beginners. 4.1.1Pronunciation and Spelling Different from Chinese vocabulary, English vocabularies are spelling letters. The sound and form of a vocabulary are highly united. The speech sound of a vocabulary may influence its spelling, learners memory and the amount of English vocabulary. The sound of a vocabulary is the key point. It concludes its pronunciation and its pronunciation rules, which includes stress syllable, open syllable, closed syllable, monogram, and so on. Only when students pronounce well, they can spell those vocabularies correctly according to pronunciation rules. In English the pronunciation of each word is corresponded to its spelling. Each word has a close connection with other words in pronunciation, spelling and meaning. So one of the key steps in English vocabulary teaching is to show the nature of English vocabulary system and connection, making students acquire the rules in variation and conversion of English vocabulary, encouraging students to learn, observe and think over the connection in pronunciation, and spelling. However, many beginners cannot grasp the rules among pronunciation, phonetic and spelling. Therefore, teachers can generalize the rules according to phonetic and spelling while presenting the list of words. For example, A ask basket class father glass a:B age baby cake eraser game eiC each tea read teach reach i:In list A, the letter “a” in the five words are all pronounced as /a:/; and in list B the letter “a” in the five words are pronounced as /ei/; and in the list C “ea” in the five words are pronounced as /i:/ There is no harm in realizing this relationship for learners, since they tend to remember a word more easily if they hear, see and say each word. But with the influence of other languages, the spelling of English words dont always observe this rule; for example,” a” in the word “each” is pronounced /i:/, while in the word “sweater” is pronounced /e /.In a word, pronunciation and spelling is a long-term training for the beginners, which requires teachers have the ability to guide learners gradually possess the ability of combination pronunciation and structure after learning the rules of spelling and pronunciation, this way of learning vocabulary should be profitable for learners to have a good starting on learning a new language. Just as Wang said: “mechanical practice is necessary for many skills” (Wang, 2006:94).4.1.2 Showing the Meaning of the Words Just as Allen (2002) pointed out teachers could use many ways to present the meanings in vocabulary lesson for the beginners. Pictures, labels, real objects, actions, diagrams and maps, comparison and association could be used in showing meanings. In English teaching, those methods could provide opportunities for students to use multiple senses to get familiar with the newly learned words.4.2 Learning Vocabulary in ContextLanguage is the tool of communication. The aim of language study is to communicate. The most important thing in language communication is the meaning produced by combining vocabulary and context. A word can not be encountered at least seven times in different context before it can be produced by the students. (Wang, 2006:125). So, teachers should create contexts closely related to learners life experiences where the newly learned words might be used. Creating real situation to teach vocabulary in scene, playing games like songs are most welcomed by students. They can help and encourage students to sustain their interest in learning, help to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful (Yuan, 1998).Lets take “name” for example, the teacher could make learner do dialogue.Sa: whats your name?Sb: my name is Allen Green.Then the teacher could make students c and d do the continue dialogue.Sc: Hi, whats Sas first name?Sd: his first name is Throughout the dialogue, learners have the information gap to use the word “name” and get involved in the situation, practicing (especially outside classroom) and listening to the teachers repetition can arouse the interest for them to learn. If the context is not enough, the meaning of vocabulary can not come up. So when teachers introduce, explain and practice the meaning and usage of a new word, they must try to set up all kinds of language communicating context. Since real experience can deepen the impressions of things for students, teaching by communication has a great advantage that the new words presented in the conversation immediately become an active word which students can exploit freely and properly. In this way students can acquire the vocabulary and the ability to communicate in a real context or mock context.4.3 Cultivating Learners MotivationDue to limited class time, students will not able to learn all the vocabulary simply from class teaching, considering the massive English vocabulary, thus it is necessary for the teacher to guide students to organize the words they encounter so that they are able to take ownership of the words, start using them confidently and form a good habit of learning a new language, especially for the beginners. “Habit is a constant and often an unconscious inclination to perform and act. It is acquired through frequent repetition and practice. The good habit is benefit for the arrangement of ones own and collective life and study and poses a good effect on these activities, while the bad habit poses a negative effect (Yuan, 1998:304).”4.3.1 Classifying WordsThe classification of English words means putting the words which have similar or same meanings together to be convenient for studying. The process of classifying is also the process of learning and memorizing. When we classify some Englis