On English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High Schools From Cultural Perspective

The development of culture has an enormous impact on the formation anddevelopment of language. The cultural differences can lead to misunderstanding orerror in language communication. Vocabulary is the basic element of language whichcontains rich connotative meanings of a nation. It also plays a significant role in socialintercourse. Vocabulary teaching is the most important part in language teaching.V’ocabulary teaching affects the development of a leanrers language proficiency, suchas listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. Also, it affects thedev’elopment of a learners ability to use language comprehensively in socialintercourse.This thesis starts with a biref literature review to show the close relationshipbetween language, culture and vocabulary. Based on that, the author explains theimportant role that the cultural factors play in vocabulary teaching and learning. Thena questionnaire and a testing paper are designed for senior high school students toinvestigate the current understanding of the cultural factors within vocabulary and theexisting problems in their vocabulary learning. A questionnaire is also designed forsenior high school English teachers to investigate their attitudes toward these culturalfactors within vocabulary and their current teaching methods.According to the investigation in this thesis, most students and teachers canrealize the impotrance of cultural factors in vocabulary learning and teaching. On thecontrary, most teachers are reluctant to improve their teaching methods due to theeffect of traditional teaching methods and the exam-oirented education system. Basedon the theoires discussed and the problems found in the investigation, the authormentions several feasible suggestions for both in-class and off-class activities. Allthese suggestions are given with the purpose of improving their understanding ofcultural factors within vocabulary and the ability to use English vocabulary correctly.