Teaching English Vocabulary In Primary Schools: Towards A Model Of Memorization Via Word-groups

Vocabulary is of great importance in language.Without efficient vocabulary,learners will have difficulty in mastering the knowledge of language,let alone improve language competence.The accumulation of vocabulary is an important basis of enhancing students’ abilities of listening,speaking,reading and writing.Vocabulary teaching has always occupied an important role in language teaching.To a certain extent,the effect of vocabulary teaching determines the effect of language teaching.Therefore,in language learning,especially in the primary school,vocabulary teaching is an indispensable link which teachers and students should attach much importance to.In 2011,the Ministry of education revised the English curriculum standard,reducing the number of vocabulary is the most obvious adjustment of English teaching in primary school.At the same time,the curriculum standard clearly points out that when the students graduate,they should master the number and content of vocabulary.This has led to a new stage in English vocabulary teaching of primary school,furthermore,a lot of research results of English vocabulary learning and memorizing have come to the fore.However,in the primary stage,most of the studies are limited to the theoretical period,and empirical studies are few.This paper takes the students in Grade 6 as the research object,aims to verify whether the strategy of classified vocabulary memorizing has a positive effect on the English vocabulary learning or not,and then increase their interests of learning English,thus helping students to improve their English learning performance.In this paper,I try to solve the following problems:1)What is students’ response to different classifications of memory?2)Among the methods of vocabulary classification,what are the students’ preferences? and Why?3)The use of classified memorizing can help students improve their English learning.On the basis of vocabulary teaching practice,I choose two classes,who have similar English learning foundation,to carry out the experiment.One is the controlled class,in which the teacher adopts the traditional vocabulary teaching method--the teacher leads,the students follows,the students memorizes words,the teacher tests them in the form of dictation;The other is the experimental class in which the teacher uses classified memorizing method to guide students to memorize vocabulary.The specific method is: firstly,the Teacher teaches students the method of classified memorizing method.;Secondly,the teacher and the students learn the words by heart of the new unit,then,under the guidance of the teacher,the students classify the words according to their own characteristics or rules(such as the part of speech of the words,synonyms,homonyms,word formation,semantic groups,etc.),they can also classify words according to their own unique ideas;Next,the students consolidate what they have learned;Finally,the teacher tests students’ dictation according to specific categories.The test methods include English-Chinese translation,test papers of each unit,questionnaires,and individual interviews and so on.After the implementation of English vocabulary classification and memory strategy,I found that: Firstly,students are more willing to use this method to memorize words and have more confidence in memorizing words;Secondly,among various classification methods,students prefer to use inductive classification memorizing method,or adopt multiple methods,such as inductive classification memorizing method,associative memorizing method and formation memorizing method,and mind mapping memorizing method.Thirdly,after learning the English vocabulary classification and memory strategy,students’ English vocabulary dictation and test scores have shown a significant upward trend.After analyzing the results of the experiment,the author throws out the following recommondations:(1)Teachers should teach students more specificly to use the vocabulary classification strategies,firstly by cultivating students’ awareness of Chinese vocabulary classification,and then transition to English vocabulary.At the same time,they should also pay attention to the differences between English and Chinese culture.(2)When teaching students vocabulary classification strategies,teachers should pay attention to the guidance of underachievers and enhance their self-confidence in learning English.