A Study On The Application Of Situational Approach In English Vocabulary Teaching In Rural Middle School

In the past decades,English and English vocabulary teaching have gradually attracted many educators’ attention.Nevertheless,the present situation of vocabulary teaching is not optimistic,such as simple vocabulary teaching method,low teaching efficiency,rigid ways of memorizing words.In the traditional English vocabulary class,the vocabulary teaching is lack of specific situations.Teachers just explain the meaning of words and let students read after them and then assign recitation and dictation tasks.Such teaching method leads to some problems,for example,students just recite and write words but are unable to use the vocabulary flexibly.At the same time,this teaching method neglects to cultivate the students’ thinking ability and learning interest.Language environment is very important for foreign language learners,so teachers should try to create appropriate situations in English class to improve students’ interest and learning efficiency.Since the 20 th century,the scholars and educators from all walks of life have paid great attention to the Situational Teaching Method.How to combine this method with vocabulary teaching,and how to create situations in vocabulary class has become one of the problems that many English educators have concerned.Based on the theory of Constructivism and Situational Cognition,the author tries to apply situational teaching method to the rural middle school English vocabulary class,and verifies whether this teaching method has a significant effect on the school’s English vocabulary teaching through teaching practice.This study mainly explores two questions: 1)What is the influence of Situational teaching method on students’ vocabulary learning style and learning interest? 2)What is the influence of Situational teaching method on students’ vocabulary performance?Two classes from a rural middle school were chosen to take part in the teaching experiment.There are 35 students in Class One which is the experimental class,while class Two which has 34 students is the control class.During the experiment,the Situational Teaching Method is applied in class one,while class two is adopted the traditional teaching method.Questionnaires were respectively conducted for teachers and students to survey the specific situation of vocabulary “teaching” and “learning”before and after the experiment.Two vocabulary tests were also conducted in the two classes.Finally,SPSS was used for statistical analysis.The experimental data showed that the average score of the experimental class in vocabulary pretest was 12.34,while the control class was 12.12.According to the independent sample t-test of SPSS 20.0,there was no significant difference in the scores of the two classes.After a semester of teaching experiments,the average score of the post-test of the experimental class was15.04,which is higher than that of the control class,which was 11.65.The vocabulary scores of class one have been significantly improved,which shows that the effectiveness of the Situational teaching method is remarkable.After the experiment,the author made a statistical analysis of pr-experimental and post-experimental questionnaires in the experimental class.The first dimension of the questionnaire is students’ vocabulary learning style.The data shows that only34.3% of the students memorized vocabularies by remembering the situation before the experiment,and the proportion rose to 80% afterwards.Before the experiment,only 17.1% of the students used situational guessing when they encountered new words,which rose to 65.7% later.Before the experiment,only 5.7% of the students review vocabularies by using situations,while the number rose to 42.9% after the experiment.This indicates that after applying the situational teaching method,students have realized the importance of this method and have made corresponding changes to their learning methods.The second dimension of the questionnaire is students’ interest in situational teaching method.Data shows that only 25.75%students like situational teaching method before the experiment,but the proportion rises to 77.1% after the experiment.Before the experiment,31.4% of the students hoped that teachers could create more situation when they learn new words in class,and the proportion rose to 65.7% afterwards.Therefore,it can be seen that after the experiment,all the students have a positive attitude towards the situational teaching method,and their interest in learning vocabulary is also significantly improved.From the above research data,we can draw conclusions as follows: Situational teaching method has a positive effect on students’ vocabulary learning,which can not only change the students’ vocabulary learning styles and improve their learning interest,but also promote their vocabulary grades.