A Study On The Application Of Production-oriented Approach To English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

Vocabulary plays an indispensable part in language learning.Learners’ vocabulary level is closely related to the overall development of their listening,speaking,reading,and writing abilities.However,some problems still exist when teachers give vocabulary lessons in senior high school,such as lacking systematic theories or attaching more attention to learning than use.Besides,quantities of students also lack interest and suitable strategies for vocabulary learning.The “Production-oriented Approach”(POA),proposed by Professor Wen Qiufang,is dedicated to overcoming the shortcomings of “separating learning from use”,which has provided a new perspective for language teaching.Multiple studies have shown that it has positive effects on college foreign language teaching.Based on the theory of POA,this research aims to find out whether the use of POA in vocabulary learning by the senior high school has positive significance.A 14-week experiment is conducted on a total of 115 freshmen in two parallel classes at A Senior High School in Tang Shan,Hebei Province.The experimental class was treated with the POA-based vocabulary teaching model,while the control class received the traditional teaching approach.It attempts to address the following three questions:(1)What are the effects of the POA-based teaching model on students’ interest in vocabulary learning?(2)What are the effects of the POA-based teaching model on students’ vocabulary learning strategies?(3)What are the effects of the POA-based teaching model on students’ vocabulary knowledge(lexical meaning,collocation,and use)?This study utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods,mainly adopting vocabulary tests,questionnaires,and interview instruments.The data from tests and questionnaires are processed with SPSS 23.0.After the overall experiment,the coding method of grounded theory is employed to analyze the data from the semi-structured interview in an attempt to learn about the change of interest in vocabulary after the experiment.Several major findings are made as follows: First,the majority of students arouse their interest in vocabulary learning after the experiment in the experimental class.Additionally,students were able to use vocabulary strategies better after learning vocabulary guided by POA.Third,the POA-based vocabulary teaching model could improve students’ English vocabulary knowledge from the perspective of meaning,collocation,and lexical use.To sum up,the thesis sheds light on pedagogical practice to reinforce senior high school English vocabulary teaching.Based on the findings reported above,the current study makes the following recommendations: Foremost,teachers are supposed to focus more on presenting communicative scenarios of to-be-finished tasks.Secondarily,teachers should act as“scaffolds” to assign output tasks,facilitate students’ vocabulary learning,and evaluate students’ output tasks.Finally,it is essential for teachers to guide students to adopt vocabulary learning strategies with consciousness.