College English Vocabulary Teaching Based On Prototype Category Theory

In Chinese college English teaching, the new curriculum requirement for college students makes some requirements especially about vocabulary size and vocabulary competence. However, in reality, the current situation of college English vocabulary teaching is far from satisfactory due to its low efficiency and time-consumption. So how to help students to store words quickly and use words efficiently is a top priority for us teachers in college English teaching. Although traditional vocabulary teaching methods play an irreplaceable role in vocabulary teaching, we can't neglect the instructive effects any newly-born linguistic theory has on vocabulary teaching in order to make it improved. This thesis is intended to make attempts in applying Prototype Category Theory to college English vocabulary teaching.This thesis is divided into four chapters. It begins with the importance of vocabulary and the overview of vocabulary research and study both at home and abroad. Next the author mainly interprets category, categorization, prototype category theory and their implications for vocabulary teaching. With a purpose to testify whether vocabulary teaching based on prototype category theory will enlarge students' vocabulary size, extend students' vocabulary retention and promote students' vocabulary productive competence, the author elaborates a teaching experiment in Jishou Information Management College where 100 first-year students from two intact classes were involved. The experimental class employed vocabulary teaching based on prototype category theory, while the controlled class stuck to the traditional methods. The experiment lasted a semester. It is proved in the end that the experimental teaching, which puts prototype category theory into classroom lexical instruction, can produce satisfactory results by enhancing the students' lexical competence, enlarging the students' vocabulary size and contributing to a certain degree to providing solutions to some of the lexical problems of Chinese college students. Furthermore, words selection, activities and games that involve them and arouse their interest make the classroom atmosphere much better and the students show more interest in English vocabulary learning. At the end of this thesis, the author points out the limitations of the experimental study.