Research On The Influences Of Cultural Understanding On Vocabulary Acquisition In College English Study

Vocabulary and culture are closely related. Vocabulary is shaped and influenced by culture and at the same time it also reflects culture. Vocabulary, as a basic element and essential part of language, plays an important role in language learning. A nation’s culture has a profound influence on its language, and the influences are mainly reflected in its vocabulary. Therefore, the acquisition of a second language should be connected with the understanding of the culture. The study of vocabulary cannot be separated from the study of culture. When we conduct study on vocabulary in English as second language acquisition, we need to associate the study of vocabulary with the study of the English culture. Undoubtedly, Vocabulary teaching without the involvement of cultural instruction is a failure. However, for a long time, cultural instruction of the vocabulary teaching has been undervalued. In the college English class, vocabulary teaching tends to focus on the aspects of spelling, pronunciation and inflection. The ignorance of cultural factors in vocabulary teaching greatly undermines the effectiveness of foreign language study.In view of this, based on an in-depth explanation of the value of cultural instruction while teaching vocabulary, this thesis tries to put forward some constructive suggestions concerning how to understand culture while teaching vocabulary so as to promote the efficiency of language study and improve learners’ability to communicate successfully in intercultural communication.The thesis is composed of eight chapters:ChapterⅠserves as an introduction, which gives a general account of the current situation of vocabulary teaching in China. It reports that the cultural aspect of vocabulary teaching has been greatly ignored, which results in inhibition of the development of students’communicative competence. ChapterⅡprovides a detailed literature review concerning the topic, and explains the traditional research on the relationship between cultural understanding and vocabulary learning. ChapterⅢanalyzes the current problems for college students in vocabulary acquisition. It concludes the ignorance of cultural factors in vocabulary learning, which undermines the effectiveness of foreign language acquisition, and also weakens the learners’ability to communicate appropriately in intercultural communication. ChapterⅣfocuses on a contrastive analysis of Chinese and English vocabulary. ChapterⅤprovides some techniques on cultural instruction in vocabulary acquisition. Chapter VI uses a case study in City College Wuhan University of Science and Technology. In the survey,100 students are randomly chosen to be the subjects. The investigation is conducted among the students to test their ability in learning vocabulary and using words. ChapterⅦis about the results and discussion. This chapter begins with results presenting, and then reports the results followed by a discussion which illustrates the practical techniques applied in English vocabulary acquisition. ChapterⅧis the conclusion, reinforcing that vocabulary teaching should be integrated with cultural understanding. It provides some suggestions on how to combine cultural understanding with vocabulary teaching; the author also summarizes the limitations of culture teaching, and puts forward hopes of further studies.