A Cognitive Research On English Vocabulary Teaching And Learning In Vocational Colleges

It is commonly believed among the students that inadequatevocabulary and ineffective use of words cause difficulties in listening,speaking, reading and writing. According to Basic Requirements ofEnglish Curriculum for Vocational Education, students are required tomaster 3400 words and related phrases (including 1600 words in middleschool). Students in vocational colleges have a poor foundation ofEnglish and it is not easy for them to meet the demand.How to teach and learn vocabulary effectively has become animportant field of research. Most researchers and scholars at home andabroad have made theoretical and empirical study of this field whichcovers such aspects as the methods of vocabulary acquisition, the breadthand depth of vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary learning strategies.The findings of their studies can be the guidance for vocabulary teachingand learning. However, relatively few researches combine vocabularyteaching and learning and students' experiences and cognitive abilities.On the basis of research findings of the second language vocabularyacquisition and under the guidance of theories of cognitive linguistics, thethesis proposes a model of English vocabulary teaching and learning invocational colleges according to cognitive characteristics, demands andgoals of vocational college students. The model of multidimensionaldirect vocabulary teaching attaches importance to interpretation ofsemantic motivation and the vocabulary learning model focuses onstrengthening training and use of vocabulary learning strategies. Both models put emphasis on combination with students' experiences,knowledge and cognitive abilities.In direct vocabulary teaching, we give attention to basic wordsaccording to basic level category and prototype theory. Basic words areprototype categories as well as the basic mental level when human beingscategorize the entities in the world. Basic words are neutral, frequentlyused, productive in word formation and havemore metaphorical andmetonymic meanings. Furthermore, they play an important role in theprocess of formation of superordinate and subordinate. Therefore wehighlight multiple meanings and collocations of basic words so thatstudents will lay a better foundation of basic knowledge. On the basis ofmastering basic words, we teach vocabulary at vocational college levelfrom three main dimensions which involve word structure, word meaningand sense relations. The dimension of word structure pays attention torevealing regularities of word formation which is helpful to increasevocabulary rationally. The dimension of word meaning involvesculturally-loaded words and polysemous words teaching. Concepts arethe product of cognitive categorization and constructed on the basis ofhuman experience by means of cognitive model and culture model.Cultural connotation is rich at lexical level. Learning culturally-loadedwords can help know about western culture, comprehend the texts moreaccurately and thoroughly and use words appropriately in communication.The principle underling the meaning relations of polysemants ismetaphorical mapping of concrete onto abstract concepts. Interpretingrelationship among meanings of a polysemous word, that is, relationshipbetween concrete and abstract meaning can not only help students know about the laws and cognitive mechanism of meaning extension butunderstand and infer word meanings. The dimension of sense relationsinvolves formation of semantic network. We add some subordinatesproperly and activate synonym, antonym and collocation of a word.Cognitive motivation of collocations is revealed. Deep semanticprocessing will facilitate memory. Word meaning is dynamic and changesin context. We need to instruct students to search for contextual clues toinfer word meaning. Word knowledge can be acquired in context.Activation of frame and script related to a topic can facilitate organizationand memorization of vocabulary. We help students find vocabularylearning strategies which are appropriate to their individual needs.Memory and metacognitive strategies can be used to learn, consolidateand use words. Using vocabulary learning strategies is the key factor indeveloping students' lexical competence.