Studies Of English Vocabulary Teaching And Learning Strategies Based On Newly-issued Senior English Curriculum Standards

Vocabulary,as one of the three essential components that constitute language knowledge, is the basic building material of all languages."No matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in a L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way. (Schmitt & McCarthy, 2004:140)."In China, newly issued Senior English Curriculum Standards also clearly argues that vocabulary teaching is one of the important parts in English instruction and that teachers should teach students some vocabulary knowledge in a planned way. Senior students are required to master at least 3,000 words in addition to a quality of useful expressions and vocabulary learning strategies. Since the 1970s, many foreign scholars (e.g. Nation, 1990; Cohen, 1998;etc.) have focused their research on how to optimize learning strategies to improve vocabulary-learning efficiency and enlarge vocabulary size. Similar research in China began in the 1980s, most of which is about relevant theory instruction(Wen Qiuwang,1996; Bai Renli,1999,etc.)and study subjects are mainly aimed at collage students( Wu Xia,Wang Qiang, 1998; Chen Hui,2001, etc. ). In the 1990s, the appearance of constructivism, another branch of cognitive theory, becomes a good guidance to vocabulary learning. According to constructivism learning view, knowledge cannot be transmitted but lies in learners'self-construction; students are not passive accepters but active knowledge constructors. So we are urged to shift the teaching model from teacher-center to learner-center, which is consistent with one of the five basic beliefs ---"optimize learning strategies and develop autonomy learning ability". Nevertheless, our current foreign language teaching overemphasizes on developing low-level skills and neglects the cultivation of advanced-level skills such as learning approaches and learning strategies, etc. As a result, students do not know how to learn effectively and hence have a low learning efficiency. The writer, as an English teacher for many years in a senior high school, deeply understand students'learning suffering (they can not understand the listening or reading comprehension, nor speak English or write in English) from lack of suitable vocabulary learning strategies, and is affected by the necessity and urgency that the research on vocabulary teaching strategies and its implementation should be strengthened.