The Application Of Goal Setting Theory In Vocabulary Teaching Of Junior School Students

Vocabulary is the primary language unit. As everyone knows, vocabulary is a foundation stone of a language. Wilkins (1972), a famous linguist in language teaching, proposed, "Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed." Vocabulary is also the basic unit of language learning, especially for Junior School students. There are still some problems existed in vocabulary teaching in Junior Schools in China today, which are ascribed to the teacher-center(?)d way of vocabulary teaching. According to the New Curriculum of vocabulary teaching, junior students must learn and understand 1600 key words and 2100 extensive words in four years' study. The vocabulary amount is almost doubled than that several years ago. To master a certain amount of English vocabulary within the limited time is the great challenge to junior students and their teachers both in learning and teaching.In Locke's (1968) Goal Setting Theory, a goal is seen as the engine to fire the action and provide the direction which to act. Researchers have identified types of goal orientations. These orientations have been contrasted as mastery goal and performance goal. Although there are so many researches on Goal Setting Theory, few scholars write articles on applying Goal Setting Theory to vocabulary teaching of Junior School students. Even fewer ones talk about how to combine Goal Setting Theory with vocabulary teaching of Junior School students. Thus, it is necessary for us to do some researches in this field. The current study has explored the application of Goal Setting Theory in vocabulary teaching of Junior School students. The purpose of this study is to find out whether Goal Setting Theory is helpful for the Junior School students to improve their vocabulary learning efficiency. In the experiment,...