HowtodoVocabularyTeachinginMiddleSchool

1、How to do Vocabulary Teaching in Middle SchoolAbstract: 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 m

2、ethods 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 who

3、 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, competence22摘 要：单词是语言最基本的因素之一。 它在人们的交流

4、中起着很大的作用如果没有词汇我们则完全无法表达任何东西。 因此，词汇教学是英语教学中不可缺少 的一部分。 一些中学英语教师在讲授词汇时， 把词汇从上下文中脱离出来， 忽略了科 学的学习规律； 从长远来看， 这种传统的词汇教学方法不仅不利于学生形成和提高英 语语言能力， 反而会导致他们对英语失去兴趣。 作为中学生学习英语的启蒙老师， 中 学英语教师在教学中需注意这些。 在我的论文中， 我提供了 6种比较科学的词汇教学 方法。我希望这几种方法对中学英语教师会有一定的参考价值。关键词 :教学方法；词汇；语境；语言能力ContentsAbstract iContents iiiIntroduction

5、 11 The importance of vocabulary teaching in middle school21.1 The importanee of word 21.2 The importanee of vocabulary teaching in English curriculum 22. The vocabulary teaching methods of middle school 32.1 Three distinguishing features of English vocabulary 32.2 The drawbacks of several traditi o

6、nal vocabulary teachi ng methods 52.3 Six scientific methods of teaching vocabulary 102.4 The useful of scientific methods in vocabulary teaching 153. The importance of keeping student interested and encouraged inlearning vocabulary 163.1 The importa nee of keep ing stude nt in terested in lear ning

7、 vocabulary173.2 The importa nee of en couragestude ntto lear ningvocabulary17Conclusion 18Bibliography 19Acknowledgements 20IntroductionIn China, English teachers have sometimes tended to overlook the importance of lexical system. This is especially obvious in the middle school. This phenomenon mig

8、ht 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 different from the Chinese gram

9、mar 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 structurexemplify parts of the sound system. However, without lexicon the major meaning-caring element in language is missing. Ther

10、efore, 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, so, in the following part,

11、 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 school1.1 The importance of wordWord is one o

12、f 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 language study Institute,1987).

13、1.2 The importance of vocabulary teaching in English curriculumLittle 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 linguistic settling tend to pick

14、 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 important part of English lessons in mi

15、ddle 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 for them in the long run, he coul

16、d 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 teaching methods of Middle School2.1 Th

17、ree distinguishing features of English VocabularyBefore 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 is a spelling system While the later

18、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 the letter “o ” the five words are al

19、l 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 history of development and variation,

20、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 American accent,the word “ clerk”is also pro

21、nounced 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 cover, as a thing to be read. Accordin

22、g to onelearners dictionary. But the same dictionary then goes on to list eight moremeanings ofboaoska”noun, tow meanings ofbook” as a verb and threemeanings where“ book ”+preposition makes phrasal verbs. So we will have tosay that the word“ bosookm”etimes means the kind of thing you read from,but i

23、t 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 know facts about word formation and how to twist w

24、ords 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 “death”, “ dead”, “dying ” and “ die”. Students also

25、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 teachers to deliver vocabulary teaching.2.2 The draw

26、backs of several traditional vocabulary teaching methodsi. Teach words in isolationMiddle 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 students pick out all the new words in the text ,list them

27、 on a paper, and consult the dictionary for the Chinese or English meanings; forcc | |?“ |? “?“| j_ aexample, “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 object; for example, they hold up a picture of a car and

28、 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 meaning of the word in isolation: how “carc”ontrasts

29、 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 appropriate ness in exploiting the English words. Being tau

30、ght 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 teachers tend to teach English words in one to onecorrespon

31、dence 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 the long run the overuse of this method is harmful to th

32、e developme nt of stude nts Ian guage compiOttynCe. Especthe 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 equivalent word in Chinese language, but this equivale nt w

33、ord 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“thweoArdm”erican culture refers to cold milk,because Americans ne

34、ver drink boiled milk as we Chinese do. This example shows us that the same wordk”h“asmdiflferent social meanings in differentcultures, In fact, many linguists believe that no word can be exactly translated into another language. Learning the vocabulary of a second language is not just to memorize t

35、he 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 equallySome English teachers treat all vocabulary equally. That is ,they generally imply that students should be able to p

36、roduce 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 that all speakers are able to recognize more words them they

37、 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. Teachers who do notice this fact ask students to concentrate

38、 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 cooperation of sense organsAccording to the experiments of linguists, an

39、 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 students remember vocabulary by incorrect ways. On one hand, they t

40、reat 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, classroom i”nstead of “ cl- - - - - - - - -, classroom ”Th.is stupid

41、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 the word “ moutha”nd “ mouth ”if h,e ask the students to pay atte

42、ntion 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 Generally, a new word would well turn into an active one in stude

43、nts 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 usual link. That is to say, when students come across this word in

44、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 speaking and writing as if it is their native word. Most students

45、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 longterm memory. Shortterm memory means that the storation of input only

46、 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 forthe whole life. In fact, our memory process is a recycling process. According to the survey of linguists, the more times the word is used, the better your

47、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. Theresome teachersseeing the longterm rule. However, they never succeed in applying the memory rule in classro

48、om. They claim that the time of each period of class in limited that they can t spend so much time on the repetitionof vocabulary teaching. As for as I m concerned, I don t think their emake any sense. What matters is their ignorance of scientific teaching techniques and irresponsibility for the dev

49、elopment of students.vi. Harmful method of punishmentI 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 students to copy marry times of new words which they make mistakes in. This a

50、wkward 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 interest. And they like their English teacher, too. But with the misuse of te

51、aching 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 Vocabularyi. DrawingsDrawings illustrating vocabulary may be hung around the classroom.These are especially effective if they illustrate

52、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 students themselves providing the association: He picture are made by students,

53、here is a way to use students artistic talents for the introduction of new vocabulary.ii. Using Known V ocabularyThe teacher can use known vocabulary to teach the meanings of new words:a. Synonyms and antonyms out of context:1) A synonym of fest is rapidly. What is the synonym of rapidly?2) The oppo

54、site of big is little. What is the opposite of littleb. 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 tender meat.2) Tom was lazy while is brother Jack was industrious Jack worked all the ti

55、me.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 yowhen you speak so quickly.3) Categories: Names of categories can be taught verbally if the

56、 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 a beverage.T: Tennis is a sport. Baseball is a sport. What is another sport?S: Football is a

57、 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 foreigners learn the second language. A singer is a person who sings A girl who is “bad news”

58、is not very pretty. She is ugly.iii. GroupingMany 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 point out similarities and differences among them. BrightStudents 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) No