Effect Of Depth Of Vocabulary Knowledge On English Writing

Lexis plays a vital role in writing. Vocabulary knowledge, in terms of breadth and depth, is essential to writing. The role of depth of vocabulary has received limited attention from SLA researchers. In recent years, as hina has put more emphasis on the training of students'comprehensive ability in English, writing comes to play an important role. However, English writing ls has not been paid much attention. Researches revealed that errors on vocabulary use are characteristics of high school students'English writing. Previous researches on depth of vocabulary knowledge and writing just indicated that depth of vocabulary knowledge andwriting were highly and positively correlated. And according to researches on vocabulary teaching & learning and writing, instruction on vocabulary helps trigger receptive knowledge to productive knowledge.Based on relative researches and focusing on the writing requirement of the Criteria of English Curriculum,the present research tends to find a way to improve writing from the perspective of depth of vocabulary knowledge. Different from previous researches, this paper wants to emphasize the importance of depth of vocabulary knowledge in the study of English writing, especially in junior high schools in China.The theoretical bases are the vocabulary knowledge framework by Nation and Craik and Lockhart's theory of depths of processing. Depth, one of the two primary dimensions in vocabulary knowledge, is mainly focused in the research. The major objectives of the study are as follows:1. Does the depth of vocabulary knowledge enhance overall English writing quality?2. Does the depth of vocabulary knowledge help to improve the complexity of vocabulary use in English writing?3. Is syntactic complexity in English writing produced with the improvement of depth of vocabulary knowledge?Both qualitative and quantitative research designs were applied. 7 junior high school teachers and 62 students were involved in this study and they were from No. 2 Affiliated High School of Northwest Normal University. At beginning of the study, they were all administrated questionnaires on English writing quality of junior high schools students. The data in the questionnaires indicated that errors on vocabulary use are typical of junior high school students'English writing. Then the teaching of depth of vocabulary knowledge was carriedout and 62 students (subjects) took four writing tests, however, there were only 58 valid subjects. All of the data of writing were analyzed with Excel and SPSS 11.5.What revealed by the present experiment includes that 1) for junior school students, the depth of vocabulary knowledge enhances their overall English writing quality, that 2) the depth of vocabulary knowledge helps to improve the complexity of vocabulary use in English writing, which was judged by the vocabulary scores and type/ token ratios, and that 3) syntactic complexity in Engcabulary knowledge, which was judged by the length of t-units. Thus the conclusion was drawn that the depth of vocabulary knowledge has positive effect on English writing in junior high schools.Some useful implications obtained from this study include 1) Vocabulary instruction. Knowing a word means more than just introducing meaning and form of a word. Requirements and strategies in teaching and learning vocabulary should be made in teaching syllabus. 2) Writing instruction. Helping students put the words learned into practice is vital. And different scoring criteria make salient the significance of vocab...