A Survey On Vocabulary Proficiency Of Students In Key Schools

Vocabulary is the building material of language, and vocabulary acquisition is therefore one of the most important aspects in language learning. When learners are listening, speaking, reading or translating with a second language, they need to master a certain number of vocabularies. Vocabulary acquisition began to rouse the awareness and interests of scholars and researchers in the 1980s. Ever since then, a handful of studies have been carried out in this area both at home and abroad, which have provided a reliable and scientific foundation to get an insight into L2 learners' vocabulary knowledge. However, most of the studies are about students' vocabulary proficiency in one stage of English learning, and studies of middle school students to university students in this area especially of key school students are far from enough.The thesis reports on an empirical study conducted in a key middle school and a key university to estimate the English vocabulary proficiency of students of junior 3, senior 3, freshmen and sophomores, altogether 326 students. The subjects were tested with two instruments: a vocabulary proficiency test and the second language proficiency test. The tests were designed to measure students' vocabulary size, the acquisition order of words, and the relation between L2 vocabulary size and L2 proficiency.The results show that 1)the vocabulary size of junior 3 students is 1481 of the total 9023 words assessed, students of senior 3 students 2683 words, freshmen 3525 words, and sophomores 4081. There is a significant difference on vocabulary proficiency of students between students in different grades: the higher grade students are superior to the lower ones. The growth of vocabulary size between freshmen and sophomores is the most distinctive. 2) Words that most students are familiar with are words of elementary level, and few students know words of advanced level. The acquisition order of students' vocabulary is investigated to show that the length of word itself and its pronunciation have some influence on students' vocabulary acquisition. Besides, reoccurrence and word-formation knowledge also play an important role in helping students keep a long memory of words. 3) The relation between vocabulary size and L2 proficiency follows the rule that the higher the students' L2 proficiency is, the weaker the relation there is.Based on the findings of the study, the thesis further explores the implication and puts forward some suggestions on English vocabulary teaching and learning in Chinese key schools.