An Empirical Study Of English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School Based On The Prototype Category Theory

As the cornerstone of language(Wilkins,1972,p.111),vocabulary has attracted increasing attention from experts and scholars in recent years.However,inefficiency is still the problem that needs to be solved urgently in the current English vocabulary teaching in senior high school.With the flourishing of cognitive linguistics,there are more and more researches on the application of the prototype category theory to English vocabulary teaching,but the majority of them focus on the theoretical studies on teaching polysemy to advanced English learners and there is a lack of empirical studies targeting students in senior high school.Therefore,during the period of internship in a senior high school,in the light of the theoretical enlightenment of the prototype category theory,the author conducted an empirical study which aims to explore the effects of the application of the theory on vocabulary teaching and learning by means of deploying the prototype effects on word class,word form and word meaning.Based on that,the study tries to offer some pedagogical inspiration for the purpose of improving students' vocabulary learning,prolonging their vocabulary retention,facilitating their independent learning,etc.To achieve the research purpose,the four-month experiment was carried out at the two parallel classes in Senior Grade One of a key senior high school in Hangzhou,with one experimental class and one control class.During the process,the vocabulary teaching strategy based on the theory was adopted in the experimental class while the students in the control class were still instructed in the conventional way.Both the qualitative and quantitative methods of research were applied and various research instruments were employed in this study---questionnaires,interviews and vocabulary tests to collect data and set up a database.Then SPSS 23.0 was used to conduct a quantitative analysis for the purpose of working out the improvement of the learners' vocabulary learning.The study aims to deal with the following three research questions:1.What's the present situation of vocabulary teaching and learning in senior high school?2.To what extent does vocabulary teaching strategy based on the prototype category theory affect students' vocabulary learning?3.How does vocabulary teaching strategy based on the prototype category theory associate with students' vocabulary memory?The results show that:(1)despite the fact that the students realize the importance of vocabulary learning,they still lack vocabulary learning initiative,especially in the aspect of autonomous vocabulary learning;their difficulties of vocabulary learning mainly focus on the three aspects,i.e.word meaning,word form and word class,among which the first aspect is the toughest one;meanwhile,they are badly in need of some effective strategies of learning vocabulary in the above-mentioned aspects;(2)the vocabulary teaching strategy based on the theory can contribute to enhancing the learners' efficiency,interests and confidence in vocabulary learning,enlarging their breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge,improving their capability of discriminating synonyms and facilitating their mastery of polysemous words;(3)the application of the theory to vocabulary teaching has no considerable effect on the learners' short-term vocabulary retention;nevertheless,it has conspicuous influence on their long-term vocabulary retention.From the study,the following pedagogical implications can be offered:(1)teachers are expected to give priority to the teaching of the basic-level term and guide students to construct the semantic network which centers on the basic-level vocabulary,try to introduce superordinate and subordinate words,emphasize the differences and similarities among synonymous words and finally enlarge students' breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge;(2)teachers are supposed to attach importance to the association among the prototypical meanings and the extended meanings of a polysemous word;(3)teachers can take advantage of prototype features of vocabulary so as to strengthen students' awareness of word class and word-formation.