A Study Of The Acquisition Of English Culturally-loaded Words By High School Students

Vocabulary learning is of crucial importance for students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The acquisition of vocabulary comprises the knowledge of conceptual meaning and associative meanings, such as cultural connotation. As the present English textbooks and exams in high school are more culturally demanding, EFL students are increasingly perplexed by problems resulting from cultural differences. Meanwhile, the knowledge of cultural meaning of vocabulary is the necessity of cross-cultural communication. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the acquisition of culturally-loaded words.This research investigated the acquisitional situation of culturally-loaded words among the English learners in high school. Totally 150 high school students in second year from Suzhou No. 1 Middle School, Tian Jiabing Experimental Middle School, Suzhou No. 10 Middle School, and Suyuan Middle School took part in the research. Data were collected through a vocabulary test, a mid-term exam, and class observation to answer two research questions: (1) What is the present level of high school students'acquisition of English culturally-loaded words? (2) What is the relation between the level of acquisition of English culturally-loaded words and English language proficiency? Analysis was made in SPSS 17.0. Findings drawn from the research are as follows: High school students in Grade 2 possess a good acquisition of culturally-loaded words. Girls performed slightly better than boys; Students'acquisition level of English culturally-loaded words is significantly correlated to their English proficiency. The gender difference is evident with regard to the correlation coefficient of boys. When answering the above questions, two more findings were discovered in vocabulary teaching: Culture teaching in the present vocabulary instruction is sporadically carried out without adequate attention of teachers; The teaching methods applied in class vocabulary instruction turned out to be very limited. Therefore, some pedagogical implications in vocabulary teaching were also proposed.