Problems And Solutions Of Vocabulary Teaching And Learning In Jiaoxi Junior High School In Zhenyuan County Of Guizhou

Since the publishment of the National English Curriculum Standards (NECS) in 2001. the English curriculum reform in China has been implemented in pilot schools. Thus come the sets of People's Education Press Junior English textbook Go for it!, which are widely used in China. Moreover, English vocabularies play an important role in teaching and learning of English as Second Language or Foreign Language. There are great demands on vocabulary for high schools in NECS. Lots of researches prove that language learners can never make solid progress in their listening, speaking, reading, or writing without enough vocabulary. In recent years, scholars abroad make great achievement on the study of vocabulary teaching. They concern effective vocabulary learning strategies and provide with foundation for the improvement of foreign language learning. Scholars at home carry on the study of vocabulary teaching from different perspectives. Some focuses on the memory of vocabularies. Other scholars show interests on the cultural factors in English vocabulary teaching. However, seldom research pays more attention to the vocabulary teaching and learning in high schools of rural areas. Meanwhile, it is also neglected whether the widely-used textbooks do benefit for teaching and learning in rural areas. Consequently, this thesis pays close attention to find out the problems of English vocabulary teaching and learning with Go for it! in Jiaoxi Junior High School and then solve the problems.The present study consists of five chapters. The first chapter gives a brief introduction of the research background on the importance of vocabulary in junior high school, vocabulary requirements in the National English Curriculum Standards. It also explains the current situation of vocabulary teaching and learning in the junior high school. The second chapter presents a literature review on vocabulary, vocabulary teaching and vocabulary learning. The theoretical foundation of the thesis is based on task-based language teaching. It mainly discusses the features of task-based language teaching, principles of task-based language teaching and teachers' and students'roles in task-based language teaching. The third chapter describes the research method. The research questions, subjects, instruments and research procedures are listed in detail. Chapter four reports the results to the research questions and discusses the findings of questionnaires and interviews. In the last chapter, the implications, limitations of the thesis and the suggestions for further study will be discussed so as to provide references to further vocabulary learning and teaching research.134 students from three grades and ten English teachers in Jiaoxi Junior High School in Zhenyuan County of Guizhou Province were selected as research subjects. An investigation was focused on the problems of teaching and learning vocabularies by using Go for it!. In accordance with the vocabulary requirements in the National English Curriculum Standards, the questionnaires and interviews were mainly developed. The researcher spent seven weeks in conducting the investigation. This research tries to deal with the following question:Question 1:What are the vocabulary teaching problems when teachers use Go for it! in Jiaoxi Junior High School in Zhenyuan County of Guizhou?Question 2:What are the vocabulary learning problems when students use Go for it! in Jiaoxi Junior High School in Zhenyuan County of Guizhou?By analyzing questionnaire and interview data, the problems of vocabulary teaching and learning could be categorized into two types:problems of vocabulary teaching and learning belief and problems of vocabulary teaching and learning methods. As for the teaching problems. English teachers in Jiaoxi Junior High School do not have a clear understanding about vocabulary requirements in the National English Curriculum Standards. They also can not fully comprehend the basic spirit of compiling the English textbook Go for it!. In their vocabulary teaching practice, teachers do not take advantages of the textbook. Furthermore, teachers here pay more attention to the vocabulary knowledge instruction instead of the ways of vocabulary learning and using. Meanwhile, teachers teach vocabulary without the context and the teaching can not meet students' needs and simulate students' interests. With respect to learning problems, many students in Jiaoxi Junior High School do not recognize the importance of vocabulary in English learning. They largely depend on teachers' instructions. Moreover, they do not attach importance to more effective vocabulary learning methods. Most of them just learn new words by rote. What is worse, they seldom take part in classroom activities.According to the problems above, the solutions in the junior high school are still from two aspects:solutions towards vocabulary teaching and vocabulary learning. On one hand, English teachers need clear and systematic understanding about vocabulary requirements in the National English Curriculum Standards and Go for it!. At the same time, it is necessary for English teachers in the junior high school to pay more attention to the development of students' language competence rather than vocabulary knowledge itself. In addition. In order to meet students' needs and simulate students' interests, it is better for English teachers to enrich the ways of vocabulary teaching and make the most of activities or exercises in Go for it!. Thus, teachers apply effective vocabulary teaching strategies into teaching practice and make the vocabulary teaching effective. On the other hand, students need to attach importance to vocabulary learning and more effective vocabulary learning methods. Besides, students should be aware of the advantage of taking part in activities in classroom. In taking part in activities, students have chances to use the new language to talk with others in the class and to participate in more open-ended exchanges.Although the research is constrained by some limitations, such as the limited research time, limited research samples, it clarifies the problems of vocabulary teaching and learning in the junior high school. It also sheds light on further study on textbook compiling for textbook writers.