| The Chinese students learn English as a foreign language for aboutten years before they are admitted into universities, only to find that theycan’t use the language as they are required to. The most direct way forthem to know how well they’ve learned English is by taking anexamination. In NMET, English is a subject that greatly influences theirfinal marks. For teachers, how to teach English efficiently is a difficultissue to deal with. For students, how to learn English efficiently andeffectively is an urgent task to face. Therefore, there is much significanceto do the research. According to the latest researches into the Englishlearning, there are many factors affecting the English learning of studentsin senior school. Xu Guihang (2010) points out that inner factor and outerfactor of students affect the process and result of English learning. As forinner factor, they are psychological state, the basic knowledge of English,learning strategy and learning attitude. About outer ones, there arelearning environment, learning contents, the purpose of learning andteaching method. Among the above elements, Xu Guihang puts emphasison the basic knowledge of English, which is so fundamental to the wholeprocess of English learning for the students, and the other one is aimed at teachers, namely teaching method. Vocabulary, as one of the basiclanguage elements, has long been the focus of research in Englishlearning at home and aboard. Wilkins (1972:111) said “without grammar,very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can beconveyed.”It is known that vocabulary teaching should focuses on theteaching of form, meaning and use. In the teaching process, it is popularfor the teachers to teach the vocabulary by giving examples, hoping thatstudents can learn to use it. Unfortunately, what the students have learnedof vocabulary are mainly form and meaning. As a result, they can’t usethe words to express their ideas freely. One of the reasons is the teachingof vocabulary without context. It is known that the meanings of thevocabulary are affected by so many factors, such as the culturalbackground, the relationships among the characters, and occasions and soon. Therefore, it is of great importance to improve students’ability to usevocabulary with the help of context.Whether students can improve their ability of using vocabulary with thehelp of the analysis of the context is worth studying. This particularresearch will focus on linguistic context and non-linguistic context,especially the situational context, that is, the influence of situationalcontext analysis on students’ability to use English vocabulary. Twoclasses of Grade2are at the same English proficiency level with similarlearning background serve as the subjects. One of them is control class and the other is experimental class. The methods are key to theexperiment. One questionnaire is given to the students in theexperimental class to investigate their opinion on vocabulary learning;two vocabulary tests were given to all the students in the experimentalclass and the control class before and after training to make a comparisonbetween the performances of the students in these two classes before andafter training. By analyzing and discussing the data collected, the resultsare positive and the following hypotheses are proved:Firstly, students can infer the meaning of vocabulary and understandthe vocabulary much better. Secondly, students can use vocabularycorrectly. Thirdly, students’reading ability has been improved.The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter introduces thebackground and significance of the research, followed by a summary ofrelevant research at home and abroad. The research questions are alsopresented clearly here. In the second chapter, some key terms are definedand theoretical basis of the research is provided. Chapter three descibesthe methodology. In chapter4, the results of the questionnaire and thetests are discussed. The last chapter offers the conclusion of the research. |
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