Cultivation Of College Students' Pragmatic Awareness In English Vocabulary Teaching

As an important composite of language, vocabulary failed to get sufficient emphasis in traditional teaching methods. With the development of English teaching methods, English vocabulary teaching has got concerns gradually. Influenced by structural linguistics, pragmatic factors in English vocabulary teaching failed to be sufficiently engaged in English teaching in China, with vocabulary size or teaching of literal meanings of words emphasized. On the basis of tracing back to the past English vocabulary teaching, the author in this paper suggests that pragmatic factors should be contained in English vocabulary teaching, and students' pragmatic awareness be cultivated.Word meaning and the contextual theory are two important concepts in this paper. These two should be effectively combined in English vocabulary teaching. The author thinks that contextual theory should be employed to cultivate students' pragmatic awareness effectively in English vocabulary teaching, avoiding pragmatic failures caused by shortage of pragmatic knowledge. The concept of "context" was initially put forward by B. Malinowski. Context in this paper contains two parts—linguistic context and non-linguistic context. Linguistic context is composed of lexical context and grammatical context, and nonlinguistic context of siruational context and cultural context. Taking advantages of concrete contextual environment, students can master the meanings of words comprehensively, and reinforce their own pragmatic competence by using words for communications effectively. Meanwhile, application of contextual theory can also enhance the interest of English vocabulary teaching by transferring it from mechanical memorization of words to the use of words for communications, which prevents the dullness of English Vocabulary Teaching. The whole paper is divided into five chapters. The author made a brief introduction to the whole paper, such as the purpose of writing it, and its framework in the first chapter. The second chapter briefly introduces the importance of English vocabulary teaching, the traditional English vocabulary teaching methods and historical trends and present situation of English vocabulary teaching, making the readers have a comprehensive understanding of English vocabulary teaching. In the third chapter, the author introduces the research achievements of scholars at home and abroad in respect of the contextual theory, the types of context and concrete applications of it in English vocabulary teaching in detail. The author holds the idea that words must be taught in concrete contexts, instead of teaching the literal meaning of words unilaterally. A broader category is contained in the contextual theory—culture. Any language is part of the culture it belongs to, and English Vocabulary Teaching cannot be separated from its cultural background. To know students' vocabulary size and their mastering of pragmatic knowledge in vocabulary, and to explore whether a direct connection exists between these two aspects, a questionnaire investigation is made in chapter four. The result shows that the students who have a certain large vocabulary size are not necessarily good at pragmatic competence and vice versa. Thus, correctly using words in concrete contexts is the basis of English vocabulary teaching. Several strategies in English vocabulary teaching are put forward by the author to cultivate students' pragmatic awareness and to improve their pragmatic competence in chapter five. Students' pragmatic awareness can be fully cultivated in English vocabulary teaching and their pragmatic competence to employ words be improved by application of the contextual theory, communication activities, and paying attention to the associative meanings of words and different cultural connotations of words. The author believes that the strategies mentioned in this paper must be beneficial for cultivation of students' pragmatic awareness in English vocabulary teaching.