Vocabulary Teaching Based On Contextual Approach

It is universally recognized that vocabulary teaching constitutes an integral part of any language teaching program. In China, while the teaching of English as a whole may have had great strides in recent decades, research seems to be lacking in the area of vocabulary teaching. Vocabulary has not received the recognition it deserves in the English-teaching class, not that it has been characterized by any neglect in terms of quantity, but lack of the effective vocabulary teaching methodologies. A vast amount of teaching time is consumed by the explanation and definition of words. Class-room blackboards are often littered with masses of new lexical items and students copy page upon page of vocabulary according to lists that they rarely have opportunity to practice. After the students memorize a great number of words, they do not seem to develop their competence of lexical application correspondingly. They still have problems when they actually try to use the words in a sentence.The thesis mainly studies the vocabulary teaching through context-based approach. An experimental study was carried out to test how the students' context awareness affected their use of vocabulary. The following two hypothesis were examined: â‘ Teaching vocabulary in context can improve the students' interest in vocabulary learning and has a positive influence on developing the students' vocabulary learning strategy. â‘¡ Teaching vocabulary in context is helpful in developing students' competence of vocabulary application.During the three-month experiment, a questionnaire and two vocabulary tests were given to the students by the researcher. In the end, the result that is analyzed by SPSS 10.0 shows that the scores of the experimental class in which vocabularies are taught through systematic context-based approach are much better than those of the control class in which vocabularies are taught mainly through word lists. The author, therefore, discovers that learning vocabulary in context is more helpful to junior high school learners in improving their vocabulary application. Moreover, it can improve the students' interest in vocabulary leaning and has a positive influence on developing their vocabulary learning strategy.