A Study Of SL Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies For Children In The Perspective Of Cognitive Linguistics

Vocabulary is the foundation of all the language skills. Famous linguistics D.A.Wilkins said, "Without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed (Lewis,1993:16)." It speaks volumes for the importance of vocabulary in language learning. When children are acquiring the second language, they first facing vocabulary problem. They need to master required vocabulary no matter they are listening, speaking, reading or writing in second language, which can make these activities go on.For the past few years, with the developments of society, economy and culture, China's society has attached more importance to child English education than ever before. In 2001, the Ministry of Education (MOE) issued the Reform Outline of Compulsory Education Curriculum, which requires that English education begin in grade three. MOE also requires the students should grasp 600 to 700 words and about 50 phrases related to the topics at Level Two before they graduate from primary school. However, in some developed cities, children are required to start to learn English in grade one in primary school, even before primary school education. It also puts forward new requirements about children's second language vocabulary acquisition.Based on the previous study, this thesis made an empirical study on children's second language vocabulary acquisition strategies based on the theoretical frame of Piaget's Piaget's view of cognitive development and Categorization and prototype theory. The ability to categorization plays an important role in our daily life just as Lakoff (1987) said, "Without the ability to categorize it, we could not function at all, either in the physical world or in our social and intellectual lives." Well then, whether children possess any cognitive and psychological characteristics when they acquire L2 vocabulary? Is categorization strategy a basic ability for children to acquire and use vocabulary?So, in this study the author carries out a-15-month case study concerning about her daughter's naturally second language acquisition in daily life, using observation diary,audio-taping and think-aloud as data collection methods. Data collection last 14months, started from January,2010 to March,2011.The analysis of data showed that children cognitive psychology process do really affects children's second language acquisition. The result of this research shows two characteristics of children L2 vocabulary acquisition. And then the author generalized two obvious strategies children apply in acquiring L2 vocabulary in the perspectives of cognitive linguistics'prototype theory and basic level category theory.After this study, the author finds that there are many things could be done for the study on children's second language acquisition in the future. We should emphasize children's cognitive and psychological process of second language vocabulary acquisition, stimulating their interests in English and be confident to learn English well. What's more, applying categorization and prototype theory when we help children to acquire second language vocabulary can help children effectively grasp more vocabulary and make children to be successful beginning learners of English. But because of the author's limited knowledge of cognitive linguistics, this paper still has some shortcomings and the problems need further research.