A Study On English Vocabulary Proficiency Of Senior Middle School Students

The popular proverb 'Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed' (Wilkins, 1972: 111) reveals the significance of vocabulary in second language acquisition (SLA). Vocabulary acquisition began to rouse the awareness and interests of scholars and researchers in the 1980s. Ever since then, a handful of studies have been done on this field both at home and abroad, which have provided a reliable and scientific foundation to get an insight into L2 learners' vocabulary knowledge. However, studies on the vocabulary acquisition of middle school students in China are relatively far from enough.This article reports on an empirical study conducted in a middle school to estimate the English vocabulary knowledge of a large sample of senior middle school students. The subjects were tested on their understanding of words that occur in their textbooks and Middle School English Curriculum with two instruments: a vocabulary proficiency test and a L2 achievement test. The tests were designed to measure the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge.The results show: 1) on average, students of different grades have a total number of 1894, 2290 and 2494 English words respectively. The figure of grade three students falls far short of the 3300 words they are expected to be able to acquire. Only a small proportion of students come close to the requirements, in terms of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge, and the depth of vocabulary knowledge is inadequate. 2) Striking difference between groups of students in vocabulary proficiency demonstrates that students' vocabulary knowledge is increasing through years' study at school, but the increasing rate in the last year is lower than that in earlier years. 3) The acquisition order of students' vocabulary illustrates the importance of recycling in long-term vocabulary retention and the negative influence of word association in the early stages of students' vocabulary learning. 4) The correlation between vocabulary size and L2 proficiency is not so significant, but the lower students' L2 proficiency is, the higher correlation there is.Based on the findings of the study, the article further explores the implications on vocabulary teaching and learning in Chinese middle school and suggests ways in...