An Experimental Study On Teaching English Vocabulary Through Games In Junior High Schools

As is described in the syllabus published by Education Department of China in 2002, the main goal inlearning English for junior students is "...to arouse and educate students' interest and develop the positive attitude towards English learning as well as help students build up the confidence in English learning, so that the students can master an adequate basic language knowledge on English to meet the communicative need." (syllabus, 2002) For the vocabulary, the students are expected to master about 800 words, 200 phrases productively, and 100-400 extra words receptively after graduating from junior high school. However, we find that most students can't achieve the goal. They are poor in pronouncing, spelling, and comprehending these words, not mention improving the communicative competence. According to the author's teaching experience, it's mainly because the students are not interested in vocabulary learning—they are tired and bored by the traditional vocabulary teaching methods, which are dull and boring to them. Language learners are well aware of the importance of mastering enough words in language learning, so, as a language teacher, it is the main duty for him/her to find an easy and effective way to make students learn English words happily and effectively. In this thesis, the author adopts an exciting method in vocabulary teaching--teaching vocabulary through games, to teach new words to junior high school students.According to psychological motivation theory and the specific mental characteristics of teenagers, teenagers who are involved and excited in game-like activities learn anything easily and effectively.To meet the need of teaching vocabulary in junior high schools, this study tries to investigate: 1) if teaching vocabulary through games can arouse junior students' interest in learning vocabulary; 2) if teaching vocabulary through games is more effective in vocabulary learning than the traditional method in junior high schools; 3) if teaching vocabulary through games, which includes teaching a word's pronunciation, spelling, multiple meanings, and normal collocation together, can improve students' integral competence in English learning.By using two questionnaires and an experiment, the research hopes to achieve the following results:1) Arouse junior students' interest in learning vocabulary and English through teaching vocabulary through games.2) Improve junior students' vocabulary mastering through teaching vocabulary through games.3) Improve students' integral competence in English learning through teaching vocabulary through games. This research includes six chapters.Chapter one is an introduction. It contains an overview of the problem, the questions to be studied, the significance of this study, the significance of using games in vocabulary teaching, and the definition of the word "game" in this investigation.In chapter two, literature review is presented, including the research on teaching vocabulary through games abroad and present research on teaching vocabulary through games in China.Chapter three presents the theoretical basis of the related literatures discussed in chapter 2. Theories of motivation and the teenagers' mental characteristic are discussed closely, and the inner relationship between the motivation and teaching vocabulary through games is another important aspect to be focused on.In chapter four, a thorough research plan is made with a view to guaranteeing the feasibility and validity of the study. It contains hypotheses, subjects, instruments, and procedures of the research. The principles of choosing games in the teaching process and some suitable games used in this study are also discussed in this chapter.Chapter five presents the results answering the specific research questions the author put forward in Section 4.1. The quantitative results analyzed by SPSS are reported under two main headings, namely the frequency and its percentage in questionnaires and the significant differences in the three tests. By looking into the different coefficients between the different data, it is easy for us to find the possible relationships between some research variables:1) The students who enjoy learning vocabulary through games increase obviously after the 18-week experiment in EC.2) After the experiment, the number of the students who think learning interest plays an important role in English learning in EC is larger than that before the experiment.3) With the time goes on, the students in EC perform better and better than the students in CC either in the vocabulary knowledge or integral competence.In chapter six, some discussions based on the results presented in chapter 5 are showed. The basic conclusions in this investigation are made. Several limitations in the study are also conveyed.