A Tentative Study Of Vocabulary Learning And Teaching For Vocational School Students

It is known that vocabulary plays a crucially important role in language learning. Without words, people could not at all convey information or communicate with each other. Learning a language requires learning of thousands of words. This is also the case for the Chinese learners to study English as a foreign language. However, because English is learnt as a foreign language in China and the number of vocabulary is huge, it seems to the students that vocabulary learning blocks their further learning just like a"bottle-neck".This thesis is a study based on the investigation of vocabulary learning and teaching among local vocational college students and teachers, aiming to improve the current situation of vocabulary learning and teaching. It includes four chapters. In chapter 1, an investigation of vocabulary learning strategies among Sichuan Information Technology College students is conducted. The findings via investigation show that the overall frequency of the students'use of vocabulary learning strategies is not high, the use frequency of extracurricular activities strategy ranks the lowest of all the categories, and the use frequency of the others is just a little higher, but still they are just at the medium level. Subsequently, some interviews with the teachers on the teaching method they use in classroom as well as strategies are conducted. These interviews indicate that teachers use grammar-translation method more frequently than other methods. In chapter 2, based on the investigation of vocabulary learning and teaching, a review of relevant vocabulary learning theories is done from psychological and linguistic perspectives in order to make clear the vocabulary learning process itself, characteristics and some factors involved in the process. The relevant vocabulary theories claim that the use of learning strategies will promote the success of language learning; strategies that more actively involve the learner's mental process would be more effective for learning; these strategies can become automatic after repeated use. The Depth of Processing Hypothesis says that the retention of new information is conditional upon the level of the learners'processing, the deeper the information is processed, the more"coding characteristics"it probably has and the better retention the learners will have (Craik and Lockhart 671).In chapter 3, an analysis of what to learn and teach about vocabulary is made in order to make clear the question of what knowing a word means. Because of the complexity of word meanings, which causes students difficulty in learning, the writer has a special discussion on the learning of the meanings of vocabulary.In chapter 4, based on the previous chapters, the writer talks about how to teach and learn vocabulary. Techniques and strategies involved and the respective role of teacher and student in the actual language teaching practice are discussed.Finally, some helpful suggestions about vocabulary learning strategies are put forward in the hope of helping vocational students to improve English vocabulary learning.