语境理论与词汇教学英语毕业论文

1、The Application of the Context Theory to the Vocabulary Teaching in Junior High School 语境理论在初中英语词汇教学中的运用研究 AbstractVocabulary plays an important role in English learning, and also its a difficult task for teachers to teach it well. Previous vocabulary teaching researches show that the application of

2、 context theory can help to promote the quality of vocabulary teaching. Therefore, this study mainly talks about the vocabulary teaching in junior high school based on the context theory. The author firstly gives a brief overview of the various aspects of context theory and the development of vocabu

3、lary teaching both abroad and at home, then points out the importance, function and the applicability of context. Then do a survey by using the questionnaire with the pre-service teachers and do some interviews for the in-service teachers to know the current teaching situation. Finally, based on the

4、 findings of this survey, the author tries to put forward some practical suggestions and provide some useful ways for the pre-service and in-service teachers, help to improve vocabulary teaching methods. Key words: context theory; word meaning; vocabulary teaching摘 要词汇在英语学习中十分重要,词汇教学对教师而言是一项艰巨任务。之前大

5、量词汇教学教学研究表明，语境理论的应用对词汇教学很大促进作用。对此，本文将以语境理论为指导，首先总结陈述国内外相关语境与词汇的研究，探讨语境在词汇教学中的重要性，功能性和可应用性。接着选取部分即将入职的英语老师进行问卷调查和有丰富实践经验的在职教师进行访谈对比，调查研究语境理论在词汇教学中的应用情况，找到词汇教学现状及存在问题，以语境理论为指导，给出一些可行性建议来帮助改善词汇教学方法，提高教学效率。关键词:语境理论; 词汇词义; 词汇教学Contents1.Introduction. 12.Literature review. 22.1.Previous studies on context

6、. 22.1.1.The definition of context . 22.1.2.The classification of context . 32.1.3.The function of context. 32.2.Previous studies on vocabulary teaching. 42.2.1.Previous studies on vocabulary teaching in the west. 42.2.2.Previous studies on vocabulary teaching in China.42.3.The application of the co

7、ntext theory to the vocabulary teaching. 52.3.1.The importance of the application of the context theory to the vocabulary teaching. 52.3.2.The application of vocabulary teaching in the west.52.3.3.The application of vocabulary teaching in China. 63.Methodology . 7 3.1.Purpose.73.2.Subjects of the su

8、rvey.73.3.Research methods. 83.4.Results & analysis. 84.Suggestion for junior English teaching.145.Conclusion.15 Reference.17Appendix.19III1. IntroductionNowadays, English is the official language and has been used in the whole world. Teaching English as a Foreign Language or Second Language becomes

9、 popular. China keeps pace with the development of the world and put great emphasis on the English education. In the process of English learning, the main task its mainly mentioned four basic skills that are listening, reading, writing and speaking, and the final purpose for every English learners i

10、s to gain communicative competences and improve from all the four aspects. During the English learning process, there are three basic and necessary elements-phonetics, grammar and vocabulary. Among three of them, vocabulary is like a carriage which is the basis and helps to build other parts. So in

11、English teaching, the vocabulary teaching should be treated as the head one for the teachers.According to the requests of National New English Curriculum Standard for junior high school students in 2001, in which request students to be able to skillfully spell the words by themselves according to th

12、e spelling rules, and to be able to quickly discern and memory the derivative forms and the compound words according to the rules of word building. When students graduate from junior high school, they need to grasp and mastered to use about 800 words, about 200 idioms and set structures. In addition

13、, it also requires the students to grasp 400 to 500 words which need to be read correctly. So added the words that students learned in primary school, they totally need to learn around 1500 words,and the new teaching material Go for it used in junior high school from 2011, in which the more words li

14、sted in the words table of the the textbook and requires students to learn and use them in the daily life. So students face the big challenge of learning vocabulary well. Meanwhile the New English Curriculum Standard requires English teachers to change their educational concepts, abandon the traditi

15、onal and inefficient teaching ways, try to explore a new teaching mode to guide students to learn English well with wise ways. But in fact,the current situation both teaching and learning in English vocabulary have a lot of problems. During the teaching, most of teachers just guide the students to r

16、emember the meaning of words in the words list and compulsively ask the students to recite again and again just like a machine and always regardless of the usage in the context. Some teachers spend a lot of time on grammar,ignore the variable interpretations of vocabulary in the certain context whic

17、h leading a terrible result - students only can remember the meaning of words listed in the textbook, while other meanings are totally ignored and cant be used next time in other context. Gradually the students learn vocabulary mechanically and inefficiently. As for this kind of teaching situation,i

18、ts so difficult for teachers and students to reach the goal written in the Standard. So practical vocabulary teaching methods are eager to be discovered and presented.As a potential teacher and who also had the experience of the educational internship in junior high school, the author deeply felt th

19、e importance of the vocabulary teaching and the barriers while teaching. So the author writes this paper, firstly review the relevant survey about the context theory and the vocabulary teaching, then purposely to design the questionnaire and outline of the interview, aimed to find the problems and b

20、ewilderments in the process of vocabulary teaching, then based on context theory,put forward some feasiblemethods which can be applied in the junior high school vocabulary teaching, and trying to find out some practical advises to help the pre-service and in-service teacher to improve the efficiency

21、 of the vocabulary teaching.2.Literature Review2.1.Previous Studies on Context 2.1.1.The Definition of ContextIn the Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, context is defined as following two meanings: “the situation in which sth happens and that helps you to understand it; the words t

22、hat come just before and after a word, phrase or statement and help you to understand its meaning. ”(2009:429). From long years ago till now, how to define the context in linguistics area is still controversial and cannot give certain answer. In 1923, Malinowski published the book The Meaning of Mea

23、ning together with Ogden and Richards, the word “context” was firstly wrote in this book and context was simply defined as a kind of situation and later more researches appeared. In 1988, context was defined from other aspects,which was treated as “morphological, syntactic and discourse information

24、in a given text, which can be classified and described in terms of general features”(NationCoady, 1988:102). Goodman(1986) gave the definition like this: “information that reduces uncertainty about the elements of a text, their meanings, and the meaning of the text as a whole”(Goodman, 1986:17). Als

25、o in China, there were so many linguistic experts full of enthusiasm about the context. Wang Dechuan(1867) claimed that “context is the situation of language use in consisting of objective factors”(Wang, 1867:43-47). As a growing and developing concept in communication theory, context is the environ

26、ment that language depends on for existence, use and development, which restricts language using and in other aspects that the future of language determined by it. So the exact definition is yet to be found.2.1.2.The Classification of ContextWith the increasing attention being paid to the research o

27、f context, many linguists try their best to present their ideas about the classification of context from different fields. Malinowski(1923)was the first one to distinguishes two types of context -“ situational context ” and “cultural context ”. J.R.Firth(1957) mainly states that context should be cl

28、assified into linguistic, cultural context and situational context. In China, the famous linguistic expert Zhang Weiyou(1999:149)divides context into the linguistic context and non-linguistic context. Bai Jiehong(2000) classifies context into dynamic context and static context on the base of linguis

29、tic context. In the book Outline of Hanyujingxue(Feng Guangyi,1998:3), Feng views that context should be divided into linguistic which including lexical context, grammatical context and verbal context. While non-linguistic context, including situational context and cultural context. 2.1.3.The Functi

30、on of ContextThe reason why context theory should be combined with the vocabulary learning or teaching is because the function of the context. As for the function of context, different linguisticians have different opinions. In the book Guiding of English Words Learning(Zhang Weiyou, 2001:175), Zhan

31、g briefly presents that the context influences the words by the following ways: Elimination of ambiguity, indication of referents, provision of clues for inference of word meaning. Harmer(1990)states that context has three functions: distincting polysemy, eliminating ambiguity, indicating referents.

32、 From all the description, a conclusion can be drew like this: the context help to memory and distinguish the words and which one is benefit for the vocabulary teaching. 2.2.Previous Studies on Vocabulary Teaching2.2.1.Previous Studies on Vocabulary Teaching AboardWith the growth of foreign language

33、 teaching, the vocabulary teaching ways have changed accordingly. Grammar Translation Method is the most primitive language teaching method which mainly focuses on the grammatical rules and supplies the direct vocabulary teaching instruction, with this kind of way, more vocabularies are taught accor

34、ding to the word list. But little attention even none of any attentions have been paid to the context of the words. Later The Direct Method becomes popular, and this method claims that new words should be taught by the relative objects in the class, then words should be presented with pictures and r

35、eal objects(Rivers,1983:87-99), so vocabulary teaching in this way helps to build the direct relation between meaning and the targeted language and it also may create a vivid image for some simple culture-bound words. But as a result that failed to mention the various word meanings in specific conte

36、xts. To some extent, it hard to illuminate culture knowledge carried in vocabulary. And The Audio-lingual method states that “learning vocabulary in context”(Brooks,1964). In conclusion,vocabulary teaching has gone a long way and more findings and new concepts will be found in the future.2.2.2.Previ

37、ous Studies on Vocabulary Teaching in ChinaIn China, English teaching has been greatly influenced by the main trends of language learning in the West. But the Grammar Translation Method is the most influential one, which was based on definition and inflection and supplied some vocabulary instruction

38、. But this teaching way has some limitations such as vocabulary listed just presenting the corresponding Chinese meaning, especially the literal meaning. The Audio-lingual method was introduced into China in the 1960s. One of the scholars Wang Meijun(1994) states that vocabulary instruction is depen

39、dent of the sentence pattern teaching. For this way, the pronunciation and form of words were emphasized more. And in the 1980s, the Communicative Language Teaching Method, mainly advocates vocabulary should be learned through the reading, speaking, listening and writing activities and so many other

40、 activities. In this method, though the social contexts were emphasized, the focus was not on vocabulary, especially how to teach vocabulary with context in junior high schools classes.2.3.The Application of the Context Theory to the Vocabulary Teaching2.3.1.The Importance of The Application of the

41、Context Theory to the Vocabulary TeachingZhang Weiyou(2001) states that the words that come just before or after a word or sentence and that help you understand its deep meaning, the specific situation, detail events, or related information that are combined with something and for which can help you

42、 to understand it to some degree. Words can have distinctive or certain meanings only when they occur in certain contexts, so the goals of vocabulary teaching is not only to get the words morphology, sound, meaning, and also can use the vocabulary accurately and appropriately. Language communication

43、 is always used in the specific context, so vocabulary learning needs context as carrier. Teaching vocabulary combined with context also helps to create linguistic atmosphere, develops the ability of using English and linguistic sense. Therefore, it is very important to teach students words in conte

44、xt.2.3.2.The Application of the Context Theory to the Vocabulary Teaching in the WestVocabulary teaching has been undervalued for a long time. Since 1970, more attention has been paid to the role of vocabulary in foreign language teaching. The change derived peoples attention to vocabulary, especial

45、ly the meaning of vocabulary. For example, Widdowson (1978) has claimed that native speakers can better understand ungrammatical utterances with accurate vocabulary than those with accurate grammar and inaccurate vocabulary. Vocabulary teaching has been developing greatly since 1980. With the Natura

46、l Approach,which was developed by Tracy Terrel in the 1980s, vocabulary teaching was paid much attention to. Natural Approach methodology emphasizes comprehensible and meaning input than grammatically correct production.For students beyond the beginning level, Krashen suggested that reading was the

47、most efficient means by which to acquire new vocabulary (Krashen,1989:49). In short, Krashens view is that free voluntary reading is the optimal form of comprehensible input; reading provides“messages we understand presented in a low-anxiety situation”(Krashen,1993:23). In fact, what the approach in

48、sists is that vocabulary should be acquired naturally by the large exposure to natural language (Wu Yihua,2000:129) and the emotional readiness for vocabulary acquisition to take place.Moreover, several works entirely concerning with vocabulary teaching also came out during this period. In 1983, Tec

49、hniques in Teaching Vocabulary written by V.F.Allen was published which was devoted to the presentation and exemplification of practical techniques in the teaching of vocabulary. Later, in 1986 Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman co-authored Working with Words: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Vocabulary.

50、 This book was written in the light of the principle of vocabulary serving learners. In the book there are various kinds of vocabulary exercises, which may inspire the consciousness of participation by individual.2.3.3. The Application of the Context Theory to the Vocabulary Teaching in ChinaIn Chin

51、a numerous studies have been made in the aspect of vocabulary teaching through the context. Xie Yunguang (1994)says different courses should also have different demands toward vocabulary teaching. Only in this way, it is workable to enlarge the amount of vocabulary. In discussing the way of memorizi

52、ng words quickly, Guo Jingru(2010) alerts us that because of the principle of interference, words which are similar in sound, spelling or meaning should not be taught simultaneously. After analyzing those viewpoints, Chen Shifa(2001) pointed out disputable strategies should be adopted flexibly according to particular instance. Guo Zhenpeng(2007) points out vocabulary teaching should follow cultural principle as well as the systematic principle, communicative principle, cognitive principle, and affective principle. Whats more, in recent years, intercultural communication ha