Effects Of Chinese And English Glosses On Junior High School Students’ English Vocabulary Acquisition

As a basic factor in language learning,the vocabulary acquisition plays an important role in English learning in junior high schools.However,it is still a weak section in “teaching” and “learning” vocabulary.For teachers,it is an urgent problem to create a proper language environment and to improve vocabulary teaching.For students,besides remembering the vocabulary,it is also a trouble on how to use vocabulary correctly.Recently,many linguists have put forward the receptive and productive vocabulary as two dimensions of acquisition into English teaching.And their studies show that can facilitate the vocabulary acquisition.Based on the input and output theory,learning transfer theory,and meaningful learning theory,the study compares the Chinese and English glosses in English teaching,to discuss the effects of Chinese and English glosses on junior high schools students’ English vocabulary acquisition,so that to improve students’ ability on English vocabulary acquisition and cultivate thinking pattern of English.According to the dimensions of English vocabulary divided by Nation and Laufer,receptive vocabulary refers to those can be recognized and to understand the meaning of English vocabulary,while productive vocabulary refers to those can be used.The following 2 questions are discussed:(1)What are the effects of Chinese and English glosses on junior high schools students’ acquisition of receptive vocabulary?(2)What are the effects of Chinese and English glosses on junior high schools students’ acquisition of productive vocabulary?In this thesis,60 students from two parallel classes in grade two of a junior high school in Yueyang,Hunan Province were selected as subjects for a 16-week teaching experiment.The experimental class uses the English glosses to teaching English vocabulary,while the regular class uses Chinese glosses.During the experiment,the author applied the English glosses into teaching process to cultivate the ability of English thinking.The pre-test and post-test papers are based on the receptive and productive vocabulary level test which were written by Nation and Laufer.The experimental data is statistically analyzed by SPSS 23.0 software.The questionnaire aims at student’s attitude towards Chinses and English glosses.The interview supplemented the results of the questionnaire,which shows that students can accept English glosses in learning English and realize ways of glosses can improve their ability on English vocabulary acquisition.The results of experiment show that:(1)Chinese and English glosses have positive effects on receptive vocabulary acquisition.Receptive vocabulary focuses on meanings of English vocabulary.Students in junior high schools are familiar with the Chinese glosses,which can bring the comprehensible input and save time when using it.English glosses also increase the input quantity invisibly.Vocabulary can be optimized and reorganized by students when learning it.It is good for improving the level of receptive vocabulary.(2)Chinese and English glosses also have positive effects on productive vocabulary acquisition.But the effects are not significant.Productive vocabulary focuses on the use of English vocabulary,which means that students not only have to remember the meanings,but to understand the vocabulary.The process of producing causes too much time so that the effects are not significant.However,English glosses can create a language environment to make students obtain enough input quantity.English vocabulary glosses can also be reorganized with students’ acquired knowledge,which produce the meaningful study,and improve the level of receptive vocabulary.Chinese and English glosses have positive effects on both receptive and productive vocabulary acquisition,and the former is better than the later.Receptive vocabulary is easier to acquire than productive vocabulary.Compares with Chinses glosses,students make a positive evaluation on English glosses,which can be widely used in vocabulary teaching.Based on these findings and the data analysis,in order to deal with inexperienced learners’ difficulties in using English glosses,the quantity of input should be increased consciously in vocabulary teaching.Vocabulary input should be increased during teaching process.In regular teaching,teachers should lead students to use English glosses to improve the ability of the using vocabulary to achieve communication in English.In the study,due to the shortage of experimental subjects samples and time,there are also disturbing variables such as the limitations of teaching methods and the differences in students’ learning levels.Therefore,this research needs further improvement and development.It is expected that more researchers will explore the best methods of vocabulary acquisition and teaching from multiple dimensions,and promote students’ comprehensive language use ability.