A Study On The Application Of Context Theory To English Vocabulary Teaching In Junior High School

Vocabulary is not only the most essential element of the language,but also an important foundation of English learning.The lexical competence of learners directly determines the language proficiency.As a result,vocabulary teaching is a very important part in English teaching.The New Junior High School English Curriculum Standards requires junior high school students to learn 1,500 to 1,600 words and 200 to 300 idioms and fixed collocations correctly.When teachers teach these words and phrases,they should associate with their culture and real life,and should not be regarded as an independent element.However,at present,there are still some problems in English vocabulary teaching in junior high school.The vocabulary teaching methods of most teachers are still traditional,which leads to the low efficiency of students’ vocabulary learning.This study attempts to apply context theory to a junior high school to teach English vocabulary,in order to verify its feasibility and effectiveness in junior high school English teaching.The two research questions are as following: What are the effects of the application of context theory to vocabulary teaching on students’ vocabulary competence? What are the changes of students’ attitudes towards vocabulary learning after the application of context theory to English vocabulary teaching? The author conducted a 10-week experiment in two parallel classes with the same vocabulary level in a middle school in Shenyang.During the experiment,the traditional vocabulary teaching method was used in the control class,and the context-theory was used to guide vocabulary teaching in the experimental class.Questionnaires and interview were used as experimental tools to explore the change of students’ attitudes towards English vocabulary learning.Two vocabulary tests were used in the two parallel classes before and after the experiment,and then the author used SPSS 22.0 to analyze the test results and explored the impact of context-based vocabulary teaching methods on students’ ability to use English vocabulary.The results show that the students’ interest in learning English vocabulary in the experimental class has improved to a certain extent,and their vocabulary competence has also improved.Hence,a conclusion can be drawn that the application of context theory to English vocabulary teaching method in junior high school is an effective method.