The Usage-based English Vocabulary Learning Strategy

Words are the building blocks of a language since they label objects,actions,ideas without which people cannot convey the intended meaning,so vocabulary serves as a basic constructing element of language,which appears to be as significant as cells for human body.As far as English vocabulary learning and use are concerned,learners may face the puzzle of native like selection.The puzzle is out of many grammatically possible ways of expressing a given conceptualization,why do native speakers of a language so frequently select a particular word——to the extent that others,though apparently quite similar in meaning,will sound distinctly non-native like? To solve this enduring question confronting both English language pedagogy and linguistic study,this thesis is intended to develop an effective vocabulary learning strategy——the usage-based English vocabulary learning strategy.As the core concept in this thesis,the usage-based model deserves a brief introduction. Ronald Langacker who first introduces the term "usage-based" in his book Foundations of Cognitive Grammar,vol.1:Theoretical Prerequisites(1987) seeks to highlight his theory of cognitive grammar with emphasis on the usage events.In a usage-based model, substantial importance is given to the actual use of the linguistic system and a speaker's knowledge of the use.It is "a non-reductive approach to linguistic structure that employs fully articulated schemas"(Langacker,1999:91).After the usage-based model is introduced into language research,theorists believe that language structure emerges from its actual use or usage events.Furthermore,usage-based theories of language acquisition (Tomasello,2003) hold that we learn a language while using it,and an individual's linguistic competence emerges from the memories of the utterances in their history of language use and the abstraction of regularities within them.On the whole,most present works on the usage-based model make contribution to language structure and language acquisition,few of them provide a profound thus satisfactory account of language learning strategy,especially vocabulary learning strategy.In debt to the attention that the usage-based models of language and vocabulary learning strategies deserves,the present thesis aims at digging deep into this issue.It attempts to develop a complete theory of Usage-based Vocabulary Learning Strategy(or the UVLS theory) that is based on usage events,presents operating models for a usage-based vocabulary learning strategy and examines its effectiveness in senior middle school in China.The thesis is composed of five chapters.Chapter One briefly states the significance and objectives of the study.Chapter Two reviews the previous researches on vocabulary knowledge and learning strategies.The assumptions and inadequacies of previous vocabulary learning strategy are discussed,and thus a new approach,the usage-based approach is introduced.Through the researches on usage-based models of language are reviewed,especially Evans' theory of lexical concept and cognitive models(2006) and Tomasello's usage-based language acquisition theory(2003),it is a fact that language structure and language acquisition are closely connected with or assisted by the ideas and the specific principles in usage-based model.As for vocabulary research,the implications are not only theoretical,but also practical.To a certain degree,the usage-based model influences the integration of lexical concept and vocabulary acquisition,thus the investigation to the usage-based vocabulary learning strategy is practical to language learners.Based on the previous researchers' investigations,Chapter Three presents a theory of Usage-based Vocabulary Learning Strategy(or the UVLS theory).In this chapter,the core conception of usage event or exemplar is first described.Then the usage-based vocabulary knowledge concerning form,meaning and use is discussed.As a matter of fact,there are two major points.One is that vocabulary forms emerge or generate from language use,and the other is that word meaning is in its use.And then the three principles of UVLS theory are observed:the frequency and productivity,the entrenchment and the bottom-up characters of vocabulary learning.At last an operating model for the UVLS training is developed.In order to testify the newly built model,the author conducts an experiment research. Chapter Four is devoted to the methodological discussion of the research.Hypotheses concern three aspects——The UVLS can promote the receptive vocabulary knowledge of the learner subjects in the experimental group;The UVLS can promote the productive vocabulary knowledge of the learner subjects in the experimental group;The UVLS can promote both the receptive and the productive vocabulary knowledge of the learner subjects in the experimental group.The research is conducted as follows:firstly, questionnaires are distributed to learner and teacher subjects to investigate the most effective learning strategy used at present.Secondly,the same English teacher gives instructions on the same target words to the two groups of learners applying "learning in context",the most effective learning strategy assumed by investigation in control group and the UVLS in experimental group.Lastly,posttests are conducted with an interval of two weeks in between.Through the statistical analysis of the data,the experimental group outperforms the control group in the receptive and the productive vocabulary knowledge posttests.It is safe to conclude that the UVLS is an effective strategy for senior middle school students in China.Meanwhile,these findings can be explained with theories embedded in the new model.The last chapter summarizes the major points of this thesis and emphasizes the pedagogical enlightenment,and suggestions for future study.