Cultural Context In English Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary acquisition has been the focus of foreign language learners because vocabulary ability is closely related to communicative competence as well as language proficiency. Word meanings intensively convey the information of a language, which reflects the society full of cultural phenomena.Foreign language learning is a process of foreign culture learning so that integration of culture into language acquisition, especially into vocabulary acquisition is becoming increasingly popular. It is necessary for people to go beyond linguistic knowledge and skills and get rid of the cultural barriers between two languages. In doing so, foreign language learners can improve their communicative competence. Therefore, cultural context attracts much more attention. This thesis conducts a tentative study of vocabulary acquisition under cultural context.The author introduces some schools of context theory in language acquisition, Hymes'theory of communicative competence, concepts of vocabulary acquisition and the relationship among language, culture and communication. On the basis of these theories, this thesis stresses that present vocabulary acquisition should be communication-aimed and culture should be a valuable component of the foreign language program. Lack of cultural knowledge may prevent good foreign language learners from improving their communicative competence as well as acquisition efficiency further and make sense of the world around them. The author takes the approaches to cultural context and English vocabulary acquisition from the perspective of interrelation among culture, language and communication. This thesis also analyzes some components of cultural context, such as geographic environment, customs and habits, value system, religions, pattern of thinking with their applications in vocabulary acquisition; and some strategies concerned are discussed as well, pointing out that the improvement of vocabulary acquisition embodies not only the innovations of techniques and strategies, but also the development of language learners'communicative competence, cultural awareness, the construction of cultural context and dynamic analysis of cultural context.