Contextualized Vocabulary Teaching And Learning:A Case Study Of Weibin Senior High School

Besides pronunciation and grammar, vocabulary as another element of language is the foundation of language learning. Vocabulary is the key of language input and output. With the new curriculum standard, there is a higher requirement of vocabulary in senior high school. Thus vocabulary teaching is significant for English teaching and learning in senior high school.The study is a case study of Weibin Senior High School in Baoji, Shaanxi. It attempts to explore the situation of vocabulary learning and the effect of contextualized vocabulary teaching method. The author uses questionnaires, tests and interviews as the instruments of data collection. The questionnaires include students and teachers’ questionnaires aimed at investigating the students’ use of vocabulary learning strategies and the teachers’attitude towards using and creating context for vocabulary teaching. The subjects of the questionnaires are119senior one students and21English teachers in Weibin Senior High School. The author also carries out an experiment in two classes in grade one. The author uses the traditional vocabulary teaching method in one class and the contextualized vocabulary teaching method in the other. And all the119subjects are both given pre-test and post-test to test their proficiency in English vocabulary. Then the author makes a contrast analysis of the results. The conclusion shows that contextualized vocabulary teaching method makes students keep the words in mind longer than traditional methods and use them correctly. Applying context theory in vocabulary teaching is essential. Contextualized vocabulary teaching has many advantages. Firstly, this method can stimulate students’learning motivation. Using different aids to create different kinds of context can make the class interesting. Students are willing to participant in the class and learn knowledge actively. Secondly, it is good for giving guidance to students’ reading comprehension. Thirdly, it helps to improve the efficiency of vocabulary learning. Linguistic context benefits meaning guessing. Situational context is conducive to expand students’vocabulary. Cultural context contributes to accurate comprehension of words’connotative usage.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter1is an introduction of the study, including research background, research significance, research questions, and organization of the thesis. Chapter2is the literature review. This part reviews the past and current research of vocabulary and context theory at home and abroad. Chapter3is the research methodology. This part describes the research subjects, instruments, data collection and research procedures. Chapter4is the results and discussion. Through analyzing the results of the questionnaires, pre-test, post-test and interviews, the author makes a discussion on contextualized vocabulary teaching in senior high school. Chapter5is a brief summary of the study where the author also puts forward some suggestions for the future research.