A Study Of Effectiveness Of Situational Method In English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

With the development of New Curriculum Reform, English teaching has also been enriched constantly. Vocabulary, as one of the three basic elements of language, has got more and more attention. New Standard not only requests students to grasp more vocabulary but also advocates students to learn vocabulary through communication. The final purpose of vocabulary teaching is no longer just memorizing the meaning but understanding and using vocabulary accurately. However, the traditional vocabulary teaching method is often very simple, that is to say, teachers just try to explain the words without its contexts and students try to memorize the meaning of words without knowing how, when and where to use it. As a result, the teaching is ineffective and time-consuming both for teachers and students.In order to improve the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching, many language schools have come up with many vocabulary teaching methods from different aspects, such as Cognitive Psychology, Second Language Acquisition theory, Cognitive Linguistics and Situational Teaching Method. Situational Teaching Method in English vocabulary teaching has become more and more popular in primary and junior schools in China since it was recommended from abroad at the end of last century. The effectiveness of the teaching method has been confirmed by a number of experts and scholars. However, because of a doubt about whether it is suitable for all common senior high schools, this paper tries to explore the effectiveness of Situational Teaching Method in English vocabulary teaching in senior high school for four months. By analyzing the data from the research, we found out that it is effective and feasible to apply the Situational Teaching Method to the vocabulary teaching. Teachers create active and lively situations in which students can learn vocabulary by experiencing the language. Not only can it arouse students' enthusiasm in learning vocabulary but also it can achieve the objectives effectively.This paper is divided into five parts. The first part is Introduction which refers to the background and significances of this research. It is mainly about the current situation in English vocabulary teaching in senior high schools during the process of the New Curriculum Reform. The second part is Literature Review. It includes vocabulary teaching theories and Situational Teaching theories. The former is related to the definitions of word and vocabulary, vocabulary acquisition, relevant vocabulary teaching theories at home and abroad and the New Curriculum Standard of English vocabulary teaching in high school. The latter is related to the concept of situation and Situational Teaching Method and the relevant researches at home and abroad. The third part is Research Design which includes research purpose, research methods and its concrete procedures of the experiment. The fourth part is Data Collection and Analysis which is based on the questionnaires, interview survey and experiment. The fifth part is Research Result. The effect is checked according to the data. Then it gives the summary involving the problems existing during the experiment and some suggestions to the later vocabulary teaching.