A Study Of Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High Schools On The Basis Of Context Theory

In China, the teaching of English vocabulary has always played an important rolein English teaching. However, most students in senior high schools have somedifficulties in some aspects, including memorizing words and using vocabularylearning strategies, for the simple reason that the teachers still use the traditionalmethods to teach vocabulary. With the higher requirement of language knowledge inthe new English curriculum standard, more and more teachers begin to focus theirattention on the new vocabulary–teaching methods.The concept of context theory was first put forward by Malinowski, a Polandanthropologist. In the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century, linguists began tocombine the context theory and vocabulary teaching. With the help of the researchfrom linguists at home and abroad, the author focuses her study on how to combine thecontext theory and the vocabulary teaching methods in order to achieve good results.According to the research of some linguists, context can be divided into linguisticcontext, situational context and cultural context. In this thesis, the author puts forwardthe context teaching method, based on the context theory and the vocabularyacquisition theory. The characteristics of this new method are as follows: Firstly, theteacher applies the context theory to teaching vocabulary in the stages of presentationand consolidation. Secondly, the direct teaching method and indirect teaching methodare both used in the teaching process. Thirdly, this method is communicative andassociative. Fourthly, the teacher pays more attention to the teaching of vocabularylearning strategies, like guessing words in context.In order to verify the reasonableness of this method, the author did a four-monthcomparative experiment in her internship school. The author used the context teaching method in the experimental class, including the stages of presentation andconsolidation. And she used the traditional teaching method in the control class. Fourmonths later, the author tested the two classes and analyzed the results with the aid ofthe SPSS17.0software. Successfully, the correctness of the three assumptions putforward by the author was proved. And the three assumptions are: the context teachingmethod has positive impact on senior high school students to memorize vocabulary;the context teaching method has positive impact on students’ abilities to guess words incontext; there is difference between learners of higher efficiency and those of lowerefficiency in memorizing vocabulary, all of whom are influenced by the new method.At the end of this thesis, the author gives some suggestions on thecontext-teaching method according to her study. They are: the context should bedesigned to stimulate the students’ interest; the teacher should lead the students toacquire the vocabulary learning strategies; the students’ dominant position should berespected; the teacher should encourage his students to take part in class activitiesactively; the teacher should consider different proficiency levels among students.