Application Of Context Theory In Vocabulary Teaching In Junior Middle School

As is known to all, vocabulary is vital to second language acquisition and vocabulary teaching constitutes an integral part of language teaching. In China vocabulary teaching has gradually shifted from the traditional methods to various methods. Traditionally the teaching of vocabulary in the English teaching class is not characterized by the neglect of quantity, but by lack of the effective vocabulary teaching methodology. A vast amount of teaching time is consumed by the explanation and definition of words. 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.This 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 the vocabulary .The following two hypotheses were examined; 1: Teaching vocabulary in context can improve the students' interest in vocabulary learning and has a positive influence on developing the students' vocabulary learning strategy.2: 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 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 improve the students' interest in vocabulary learning and has a positive influence on developing their vocabulary learning strategy.