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A Study Of Senior School Students’ English Vocabulary Acquisition Based Upon The Output Hypothesis

Posted on:2014-04-01Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y JinFull Text:PDF
GTID:2267330425959082Subject:Education
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Vocabulary is the premise and important part for the language learners to learn and use the language. However, in the traditional teaching and learning process, most Chinese teachers only teach some basic vocabulary knowledge, and students spend much time memorizing vocabulary. This teaching and learning method can not make students memorize a large number of words well and use them properly in writing and speaking. Exploring positive and effective approaches is critical to master vocabulary knowledge and develop vocabulary capability. Vocabulary acquisition has been attached importance to by many linguists. Researchers have made a large number of researches about second language vocabulary acquisition from different aspects, and the current study aims at exploring the effects of output activities on vocabulary acquisition.This study is on the basis of output hypothesis theory. The study aims to explore the effects of output activities on the vocabulary acquisition, and find out effective methods to improve the quality of English vocabulary teaching and learning so as to develop vocabulary acquisition. The study is conducted in Tianjin Huiwen Senior School. Two parallel classes are randomly selected as the participants. One class is chosen to be the experimental group (EG) and the other is the control group (CG). These two classes are considered equal in English proficiency and vocabulary size since their scores of final English examination at last term are almost equal. And they are taught by the same teacher.The whole procedure of the study consists of the following parts. First, pretest is conducted to make sure that participants don’t know or know little about the target words and confirm the EG and CG are nearly equal in English proficiency and vocabulary size. Then the teacher teaches the target vocabulary in the same way in the two classes. In order to better master the meanings and written forms of the target words, the CG is arranged to do some input activities, including words matching, reading in which the words newly learned are included and translating the English sentences into Chinese. However, the EG is arranged to do some output activities, including translating the Chinese sentences into English, reading comprehension, speaking and writing. The immediate posttest1and posttest2are conducted right after vocabulary activities. The aim of posttest1is to test which activities are more effective on mastering the meanings of the words newly learned. The aim of posttest2is to test which activities are more effective on mastering the written forms of the words newly learned. The posttest3and posttest4are imposed one week later, which aim to test which activities are more effective for L2learners to master the meanings and written forms of the words in the long term. At last, the collected data is analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS).From the results of the study, we safely conclude that the EG outperform the CG on mastering the meanings and written forms of the words newly learned. Compared with the input activities, output activities have better effects on vocabulary acquisition. Although the EG outperform the CG in the delayed two posttests, output activities and input activities can not ensure learners to better master the words in a long time. As time goes by, the knowledge of target words is forgotten quickly. This indicates that students should do output activities frequently, revise and strengthen their vocabulary knowledge learned timely so as to help them acquire vocabulary better.Due to the restrictions of time and study conditions, this study has some limitations. It is hoped that the study provides some suggestions for English teaching and learning in China both theoretically and practically.
Keywords/Search Tags:Vocabulary Acquisition, Output Hypothesis, Input Activities, Output Activities
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