The Application Of Constructivism Theory High School English Vocabulary Teaching

According to the English Curriculum for Senior High School students, seniorhigh school students have to meet high demands in vocabulary. They are requiredto have a command of about three thousand and three hundred words and four tofive hundred important phrases, which is a big challenge for them. However, thelearning and teaching of vocabulary in senior high schools haven’t been paid muchattention to. There does not exist a system of vocabulary teaching methods for theteachers, nor is there a system of vocabulary learning strategies for the students.The result is that students show a little interest in learning English vocabulary,which restricts the improvement of their English level. The purpose of the researchis to change the status quo and to solve the difficult problems students have inlearning vocabulary. Success in teaching vocabulary can establish a firmfoundation for the whole English teaching and learning in senior high schools.The main contents of the research include the following aspects. The thesiswhich has the theory of Constructivism as its basis systematically illustrates theConstructivism ideas about knowledge, teaching and learning, including four mainteaching patterns based on the Constructivism theory. The writer makes adescription of the four basic teaching patterns according to the theory, which arescaffolding instruction, anchored instruction, random access instruction andcognitive apprenticeship instruction. The basic teaching pattern based onConstructivism theory is as follows: learning is the core. In the whole teachingprocess, teachers play roles like an organizer, a guide, a helper and a facilitator. They should use environment factors like situations, cooperation and dialogues tobring students’ initiative and enthusiasm, pioneering spirit into full play to reachthe purpose of making students effectively constructing the knowledge they arelearning. The famous experts in Constructivism and their thoughts are also listed inthe thesis. It makes a description of what vocabulary is and what the categories ofvocabulary strategies are. From the theoretical point of view vocabulary strategiescan be classified as follows: regulating strategies, resource strategies, cognitivestrategies, memory strategies and activity strategies and so on. The features anddrawbacks of traditional vocabulary teaching are stated, so are the contents andfundamental principles of senior high school vocabulary teaching. Generally,vocabulary in senior high school English teaching includes the following four parts:meaning, vocabulary information, and usage and vocabulary strategy. The writerillustrates the basic principles in vocabulary teaching for senior high schoolstudents, which are defined as quality, system principle, situation principle andmeaning principle. Several important vocabulary learning strategies that aresuitable for students are introduced according to the Constructivism theory andaccording to the writer’s teaching experience and practice, such as creatingsituations, building words, stimulating interest, grouping words and phrases,grasping key words in the context, making use of dictionary and internet resources,consolidating skills, and communicating in situational activities and so on. Amongall the strategies co-operating, creating situations and communicating are the mostimportant spirits in teaching and learning vocabulary. Besides, these strategies canbe regarded both as learning and teaching strategies, Guessing from context, grouping words together within a storyline，using the internet are also importantteaching techniques．We need to employ a greater variety of methods to help seniorhigh school students learn English vocabulary effectively. In order to make eachstrategy easy to operate, the writer employs many examples and shows theprocedures. To improve the effectiveness of these vocabulary learning strategies,the writer has done the methodological research through the means of vocabularytest papers, questionnaires, and interviews, based on which a conclusion has beenreached that under the instruction of the theory of Constructivism the applicationof teaching and learning strategies can effectively promote students’ learningvocabulary and the study of English. Before the methodological research, the twoclasses were divided into two groups. One class was defined as control group,while the other class was experimental group. Before, during and after the research,the two groups took part in tests. The results of all the tests were analyzed usingthe software SPSS. There are twenty two questions in the questionnaire which wasdesigned according to the true situations. The questionnaire was employed to makea survey on the students among four hundred and seventy-six senior two studentsin a senior high school at the beginning of the research, the purpose of which is toknow about the strategies and methods of learning vocabulary that senior highschool students use at present to figure out the existing problems and effectivelearning strategies. In the process of teaching vocabulary, ten teachers in theEnglish department were interviewed face to face. The purpose of interviewing theteachers is to have a better understanding of the present vocabulary teachingstrategies and teaching methods they are using, teaching difficulty they have and teaching procedures they follow and to figure out the problems in the teaching. Theresearch not only aims to find out the reasons why teachers are still insisting onusing the traditional teaching strategies and methods but also aims to ask theteachers to make some comments on the students’ vocabulary learning situationand to show the reasons why students have difficulty in learning vocabulary fromtheir point of view. The writer collected and made a detailed analysis of data drawnfrom test papers and the questionnaire, based on which a conclusion was made.The innovation of the research is the combination of Constructivism theory andvocabulary teaching. All the teaching and learning strategies are based on thetheory, making vocabulary teaching more systematic and effective. Students canchoose from the strategies and make adjustments according to their own realities.The situation of learning and teaching vocabulary will completely change. Studentscan study vocabulary in a good environment. The teaching and learning strategiesare much better than the traditional ones. The application of Constructivism canpromote vocabulary teaching and learning, even the whole English learning insenior high school.