A Contrastive Experimental Study On The Influence Of Lexical Approach On Receptive And Productive Vocabulary Of Non-english Major Learners At University Level

Since mid 1970's, researchers have found that not only grammar but also vocabulary is an important standard for evaluating learners'language proficiency; and researchers abroad and at home began to focus on the study of vocabulary. Researchers find that learner's receptive vocabulary increases during language learning, but as to whether productive vocabulary develops as similarly as receptive vocabulary, researchers disagree with each other; so there is a need to further study how to improve productive vocabulary efficiently. From the view of receptive vocabulary and free productive vocabulary, the present research will explore the influence of Lexical Approach on receptive and productive vocabulary of non-English major learners at university. Meanwhile, this study will also discuss whether the receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary develop similarly under the influence of Lexical Approach.The present study took 105 students of two classes from School of Physics and Electronic Technology and Information in ILI Teacher's College as subjects. Class A (54 students) was control group and Class B (51 students) was experimental group; and students in the two classes were taught with different methods. The experiment lasted totally eighteen weeks. During the first week, the researcher tested the subjects for the first time and introduced the content, objective and operation of the experiment to the subjects; from the second week to the seventeenth week, the experimental group subjects were taught with Lexical Approach, and the control group subjects were taught with normal teaching method; during the eighteenth week, the researcher tested the subjects for the second time. The present study took Nation's Receptive Vocabulary Size Test Version 1 and Version 2 as measurement for receptive vocabulary. As for productive vocabulary, the researcher asked students to write compositions and then the researcher typed the compositions into Range (software invented by Nation) to analyze. Based on the data, the following conclusions are drawn:(1) Lexical Approach can increase the receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary (free productive vocabulary) of non-major English learners at university.(2) The influence of Lexical Approach on the receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary of non-major English learners at university is significantly larger than that of the normal teaching method.(3) Under the influence of Lexical Approach, the receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary of non-major English learners at university don't develop similarly; the receptive vocabulary develops faster than the productive vocabulary.Theoretically, the research further validates that Lexical Approach can improve the receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary of non-major English learners at university, which provides new evidence and complementarities for the relevant studies on receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary; meanwhile, this research also validates that applying Lexical Approach to English teaching is feasible and operable. Practically, the present study introduces the ideas and principles of Lexical Approach to English teachers of non-English major at university. According to the implication of this study, English teachers of non-English major are advised to apply the ideas and principles of Lexical Approach to their teaching, to help students learn the Lexical Approach, to train students to use lexical chunks correctly and fluently. Moreover, the researcher advises non-English major learners to further their understanding about vocabulary and Lexical Approach, to learn vocabulary through lexical chunks, which will improve their vocabulary and other language skills.