An Empirical Study On The Application Of Information Processing Theory In Senior High School English Vocabulary Teaching

Vocabulary is the foundation of language learning.Mastering a certain volume of vocabulary is the prerequisite of implementation of listening,speaking,reading,and writing.Therefore,the accumulating of vocabulary plays an important role.Lots of researches have been done on it and many results have already been obtained,but to many senior high school students in our country,vocabulary learning is still one of the major difficulties they have in English learning.Therefore,it is necessary to explore an effective method in English vocabulary teaching and memorizing.Gagne put forward information processing theory.Information processing theory thinks that memory is to encode information.If the information is attended,it goes into short-term memory and stores in the form of semantics,and then enters into long-term memory after retelling,fine processing,coding and so on.The thesis based on the information processing theory,aims to explore the effects of application of this theory in senior high school vocabulary teaching.An empirical study starts from September 2017 to December 2017.The subjects are two classes of Leifeng Senior High School in Fushun.One class is randomly chosen as the experimental class with 41 students from class three,grade one;the other is controlled class with 40 students from class two,grade one.The students in two classes are taught by the same teacher with the same teaching material English Book 1(Compulsory 1).Teaching method of experimental class based on Information Processing Theory,traditional method applied to the teaching of vocabulary in controlled class.The experiment lasts for 16 weeks.The aim of the study is to verify the effectiveness of applying Information Processing Theory in English vocabulary teaching and learning.Thus the following hypotheses need exploring: 1.The students are more proficient in vocabulary learning after experimental teaching based on information processing theory.2.The students in the experimental class get more effective vocabulary learning strategies than those in the controlled class after experimental teaching based on information processing theory.The statistics of the pre-test and post-test are collected and analyzed by SPSS 19.0,the results of questionnaires are also analyzed scientifically.The pre-test shows there is no significant difference between the controlled class and experimental class,sig.(two-tailed)=0.947.The post-test shows the significant difference between controlled class and experimental class,sig.(two-tailed)=0.019,which indicates the application of Information Processing Theory on vocabulary teaching can enhance students' vocabulary proficiency.The results of post-questionnaire show the significant difference between controlled class and experimental class,sig.(two-tailed)=0.000,which indicated this theory help experimental class' s students get more effective vocabulary learning strategies.Therefore,the application of Information Processing Theory in senior high school English vocabulary teaching is favorable and useful.