An Action Research On Thematic-Context-Based English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

The English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools(2017 edition,revised in 2020)states that all language learning activities should be conducted in a certain thematic context.English courses should regard the inquiry of thematic meaning as the core task of teaching and learning.Thus,vocabulary learning is not simply memorizing words or practicing a single word,but a comprehensive language practice activity combining specific themes in a specific context.However,according to the author’s observation of English class in Yuxi No.1 Middle School,there are two problems in the process of vocabulary teaching.On the one hand,vocabulary teaching is separated from thematic context.On the other hand,when learning vocabulary,students have a weak awareness of context and they are short of vocabulary learning strategies,which make it time-consuming and laborious for students to memorize vocabulary while easy to forget.Based on the theory of context,the theory of schema and problems existing in current vocabulary teaching in high school,the author created the mode of vocabulary teaching based on thematic context,and carried out a one-term action research,aiming to explore what influence this mode have on Grade 10 students’ vocabulary learning strategy and what influence this mode have on Grade 10 students’ ability to use vocabulary.The author chose 40 students from a class of Grade 1 of Yuxi No.1 Middle School in Yunnan Province as subjects,and carried out a one-term action study of English vocabulary teaching based on the thematic context.The tools used are questionnaires about vocabulary leaning strategies,vocabulary tests,and interview outlines.According to the statistical analysis(using SPSS software)of the results of questionnaires,tests and the analysis of interviews,the study comes to the following conclusions:(1)vocabulary teaching in thematic context have a positive influence on Grade 10 students’ vocabulary learning strategy;(2)vocabulary teaching in thematic context have a positive influence on Grade 10 students’ ability to use vocabulary.This action study provides the following enlightenment: first,teachers should create theme-based context which is close to students’ real life.Teachers can also use the theme discourses and theme activities contained in the textbook;second,teachers should establish the consciousness of carrying out vocabulary teaching in the theme context,instead of putting vocabulary in a separate context;third,teachers should use the vocabulary network to help students organize their vocabulary,build new knowledge structures based on themes;fourth,“student-centered” principle should be implemented in English vocabulary teaching,so students are encouraged to be fully involved in classroom;fifth,teachers should expand the scope vocabulary of teaching based on thematic context,for example,carrying out revision of vocabulary of high school entrance exams or college entrance exams.However,there are two shortcomings of this research.First,the research just took a short period of time so it is difficult to change students’ vocabulary learning style and strategies;second,the teacher did not pay enough attention to students of different levels and did not give enough guidance on learning strategies to those students.The author hopes to use this action study to change the inherent way that teachers teach vocabulary and the inherent strategy for students to learn vocabulary and memory vocabulary,but it takes a longer time and a wider range of research to support it.