Application Of Basic Level Categories To Vocabulary Teaching Of Non-English Majors

As the crucial element of language, vocabulary plays an important role in language learning. As D.A. Wilkins argues,"Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed". English is not an exception. Therefore, vocabulary teaching is of utmost importance, influencing the development of listening, speaking, reading writing, and translating. Currently, many scholars have studied English vocabulary teaching from the structural, TG, systemic-functional and cognitive perspectives, many of which have obtained outstanding achievements. However, studies under the framework of Basic Level Category Theory in Cognitive Linguistics are still inadequate, let alone targeting at the non-English major students. Therefore, the thesis tries to conduct apply Basic Level Category Theory to vocabulary teaching for non-English major students. By means of empirical research, the thesis testifies the feasibility of the application of Basic Level Category Theory into English vocabulary teaching and explores an efficient way to enhance the students'vocabulary memorization.The thesis is divided into six chapters:Chapter One"Introduction"introduces the research objectives, research rationale and the layout of the thesis.Chapter Two"Literature Review"reviews previous studies of vocabulary teaching and points out the gaps and undone problems.Chapter Three"Theoretical Basis"presents the definition of Basic Level Category Theory along with its strategy targeting at the gaps of previous studies on vocabulary teaching, and paves a foundation for this present research.Chapter Four"Methodology"describes the research questions, research design and collected data.Chapter Five"Data Analysis and Discussion"analyzes the data with SPSS, and discusses the research questions one by one. Chapter Six"Conclusion"draws a conclusion for the thesis, based on the research results, this chapter points out some implications in English vocabulary teaching, limitations of the thesis and the orientation of future study.