Culture Transfer In English Vocabulary Teaching In Junior Schools

Although China has made great achievements in English teaching, there are still manyproblems to be solved in junior schools’ English vocabulary teaching. Through thequestionnaire and interview, the author finds the following problems that exist in Englishvocabulary teaching and learning.(1) lack of diversified methods for vocabulary teaching;(2)insufficient attention on English culture teaching;(3) lack of diversified methods forculture-introduction;(4) the fossilization of the combination of vocabulary and culture inEnglish teaching;(5) vocabulary teaching and learning inefficiency;(6) difficulties inaccurately applying the vocabulary.The reasons that cause English vocabulary teaching and learning inefficiency can besummed up as the following points.(1) different characteristics between Chinese words andEnglish words result in different ways of thinking;(2) little attention is paid to the teaching ofthe combination of vocabulary and culture;(3) teachers’ knowledge of vocabulary culture andEnglish culture is deficient;(4) students’ knowledge in English culture is not enough;(5)students’ learning habit, attitude, method and interest in English vocabulary learning are notsatisfying.According to the analysis of questionnaire and interview, the author comes up withseveral strategies for the solution of problems existing in the English vocabulary teaching andlearning.(1) helping students improve the efficiency of English vocabulary learning;(2)teaching vocabulary within text;(3) helping students in developing a habit of thinking inEnglish;(4) helping students in developing cultural awareness;(5) strengthening thecombination of vocabulary teaching with culture teaching;(6) strengthening culture learningof the teachers and students in junior schools. The author takes culture as the main line and tries to research the vocabulary teachingdifficulties from the perspective of culture transfer. Culture transfer in this thesis mainlyincludes values transfer, aesthetic taste transfer and ways of thinking transfer which haveinfluence on the English vocabulary teaching and learning in Chinese junior schools. Forexample, the word “dog”, in the sense of language, has no difference in China and the Englishspeaking countries. Yet there are big differences between the two cultural groups in thecultural meaning of the word “dog”.“Dog” in the eyes of Chinese people, it has a derogatorysense. For example, there are phrases of “狼心狗肺,汉奸走狗，狗眼看人低,狗仗人势”and so on. Most of them are derogatory phrases. While in English, dog does not containderogatory meanings. In the eyes of English speaking people, dog is a very loyal animal, andthere are sayings of “love me, love my dog”,“lucky dog” and so on.According to the differences between Chinese culture and western culture, it is necessaryto combine vocabulary teaching with culture teaching. Thus, the author tries to analyze thereasons that cause difficulties in English vocabulary teaching and learning from theperspective of culture transfer and comes up with targeted strategies from the perspective ofculture transfer.The paper is made up of seven parts.The first part is the introduction. This part mainly includes the background, orientationand significance of the paper. The organization of the paper is also included in this part.The second part is the literature review. In this part, the author mainly states theachievements abroad and at home. The language transfer on English vocabulary teaching andthe limitations of the previous researches are introduced.The third part is the theoretical framework. It includes the definition and theclassification of language transfer, and the implication of culture transfer in Englishvocabulary teaching. The forth part is the research design.The fifth part is about the results and analysis. In this part, the author mainly investigatesthe present situation of English vocabulary learning and vocabulary teaching in junior schoolsat first. Then the author analyzes the data and finds out the reasons that cause difficulties invocabulary learning and teaching.The sixth part is about the strategies of overcoming the difficulties in English vocabularylearning. In this paper, the author comes up with six strategies to overcome the difficulties inEnglish vocabulary learning.The seventh part is about the conclusion. Through the research, the author has somefindings about vocabulary teaching and learning of junior schools students and thepedagogical implications. Although the author has done a lot of work to finish this thesis,some limitations still lie in this thesis.(1) the samples involved in the research are small insize;(2) questions in the questionnaire cann’t completely reflect students’ vocabulary ability;(3) some potential variables are uncertain.