A Study On The Application Of Schema Theory In English Vocabulary Teaching In Secondary Vocational School

Vocabulary is an important part of language, and it plays an important role in the teaching and learning of a second language. However, we don't give enough emphasis on vocabulary teaching. Vocabulary memorization has always been a major ocean for second language learners. In recent years, instructed by our government, many vocational schools began to raise the number of students, but the English level of the students is lower and lower. Furthermore, in our English teaching, we find many students lose interest in English. Some of the students even give it up. The students who are better in English are also recite English words mechanically. As a result, English vocabulary teaching and learning turn out to be unsatisfactory.Schema theory presents the process of English vocabulary learning from a cognitive perspective. The teaching method based on schema theory can cultivate the student's interest in English vocabulary learning and make the process of remember new English words at their own initiative.The study at present intends to probe how to apply schema theory to English vocabulary from the cognitive perspective. Therefore, students can make use of their abundant knowledge to construct the schematic network, so as to instruct the students to alter the habit of reciting new words mechanically. The aim of the study is to explore the following two aspects:(1) Whether the schema-based teaching methods can make the students'memorization of vocabulary easily. (2) Whether the schema-based teaching methods can help students consolidate previous-learned vocabulary?This thesis summarizes the present situation of English vocabulary learning in vocational school. It also reviews the related theories and studies on English vocabulary teaching and learning. Then, the author took schema theory as the rationale, and explored how to acquaint the students with schema theory and how to apply the methods based on schema theory to English vocabulary learning. A term-long comparative between an experimental class and a control class is designed to study the process. In the experiment, the subjects were 100 grade-two students majoring in preschool education in No.3 Vocational School of Anshan, Liaoning Province.The author takes concrete evidence method, supplementary investigation method. The result of the study was processed by Spss 14.0By comparison, we find that the students with comparatively higher level achieved an obvious improvement, while the students with poor foundation in English have not.The result shows that compared with classroom rote repetition, the schema-based teaching method is significantly different in textbook new words retention and old words consolidation.In the last part of the thesis, the author gives us some implications and raises some suggestions on vocabulary teaching and learning. Finally, the author put forward the weakness of the study.