An Investigation On The Acquisition Of New Student Standard In Grade 8 Students

Vocabulary is the foundation of English learning. As Wilkins (1972) points out,’Without grammar very little can be conveyed. Without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed.’According to New English curriculum for Chinese Primary Schools and Junior/Senior Middle Schools, the students should master level5words when they complete Grade9of compulsory education, including1500-1600words and200-300idioms or collocations. We should carry out summative assessment (such as end of term exams and graduation exams) according to the requirements of the curriculum standards.Since vocabulary acquisition became an important research field, many foreign scholars and researchers have carried on studies on the breadth and the depth of the vocabulary knowledge, providing a scientific foundation and valuable experience for the study of the second language acquisition in China. China has achieved a lot in researching vocabulary acquisition since it opened up to the outside world, but there are few studies on the curriculum vocabulary acquisition of middle school students in China.About90subjects from two regular classes in a foreign language school in Changzhou took part in the study, which was conducted at the beginning of Grade8. Tools of the research are four English vocabulary tests designed by Ma Guanghui. The study tested the subjects’acquisition of words occurring in their textbooks in Grade7and New English Curriculum for Chinese Primary Schools and Junior/Senior Middle Schools. This thesis aims to measure the vocabulary size, use of polysemy and collocation of the subjects and investigate the relationship between gender and vocabulary size.The results show that:I) The students acquire words of level2better than those of level5. Students acquire405.06words (level2) with a percentage of98.1%of the total vocabulary population (413) and451words (level5) with a percentage of72%of the total vocabulary population (626).2) No matter whether they are level2or level5vocabulary, students master the material meanings much better than those appearing outside the textbook.3) There exists a gap between the acquisition of the level2words’and level5words’collocation. On average, students can use the collocation of67.40words (level2) correctly, taking a percentage of84.3%of the total words tested (80), while they can only write56.30words, taking up a percentage of70.4%of the total words tested (80).4) This study did not find girls have the advantage of learning words over boys.According to the findings of the study, this paper further explores the implications to the middle school students’vocabulary teaching and learning in China, and then put forward some suggestions for the English teaching in the middle school.