An Experimental Study Of Constructivism-based Autonomous Vocabulary Learning In Senior High School

The English Curriculum Standards for Senior Middle School (2003)(TheStandards) clearly state that English teaching in high school should develop thestudents’ ability of autonomous learning and cooperative learning. It is also issuedthat students should be offered opportunity to learn independently, to associate, inferand conclude, thus analyzing and handling problems by themselves. The standardsclearly state that students ought to learn and have a good command of about3,500English words when they finish their study in high school. There is no doubt thatvocabulary plays a vital part in English learning and it is the foundation of the Englishlanguage. Limited vocabulary has a negative effect on students’ comprehensiveabilities, including listening, speaking, reading and writing. What’s worse, limitedvocabulary can even lead to students’ losing interest in the subject and losingconfidence in English learning. However, most English teachers have beenteaching vocabulary in traditional ways, explaining it one by one in the word list,about how to use it, its relative phrases and so on. The students take down everythingthe teacher have taught and remember all mechanically after class, becoming moredependent on their teachers and less willing to learn by themselves. In addition,learning vocabulary in this way for a period of time may lead the students to learn thewords in the textbook only and they can not master the words comprehensively. BothEnglish teachers and students find it inefficient and boring to teach and learnvocabulary.Under such circumstance, the author tries to find a way to solve it. Constructivismis indeed a good idea to improve the present situation. Under the direction ofconstructivism, the author conducts an experiment, during which the teacher teachesvocabulary in traditional way in the control class and leads the students to learnvocabulary autonomously under the direction of constructivism. The author finds thatstudents in experimental class perform better in examinations and behave more confidently and actively in classroom learning after the experiment. The result showsthat learner autonomy under the direction of constructivism is beneficial invocabulary construction.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One describes the present situation ofword teaching and learning in Guiyang No.1High School, analyzes the reasons of theproblems and the necessity as well as importance to reform are also stated in thischapter. Chapter Two describes the definition of constructivism and the relatedresearches on it abroad and at home. Learner autonomy and the present researchesabout it at home and abroad are also stated in the second chapter. In the third chapter,some specific teaching methods and skills of autonomous learning are applied underthe direction of constructivism to lead the students to learn vocabulary autonomously.The data of questionnaires, pretest and posttest are analyzed by SPSS in Chapter Fourand the statistics show that autonomous learning under constructivism is efficient andthe students’ attitude as well as performance in English can be improved. ChapterFive is the conclusion of the thesis.