English Vocabulary Teaching And Learning In Senior High School Based On Prototype Category Theory

As we know, vocabulary is the foundation of language. Vocabulary teaching is a key part in senior high school English teaching. After the reform of new curriculum, the New Curriculum Standard makes higher requirements in vocabulary size and vocabulary competence. It is a big challenge for both teachers and students. What’s more, traditional vocabulary teaching methods increasingly show their shortcomings. Therefore, innovating English vocabulary teaching becomes an important issue that must be solved. As an English teacher in senior high school, the author does the research in an attempt to apply the prototype theory to vocabulary teaching to try a new approach from a new perspective-- the cognitive perspective.According to category theory, category is the basic conception which reveals the essential attributes and the links between objects. As the major focus of cognitive linguistics, category is the foundation for cognition. Regarded as a cognitive reference point, prototype is a typical instance of a category, while other members are constructed based on prototype. Members on the basic level category are the simplest and the easiest to be accepted. Members on the superordinate level category are the most general and abstract while members on the subordinate level category are the most specific and concrete. Prototype category theory throws much light on vocabulary teaching and learning. This paper mainly introduces the application of prototype category theory to senior high vocabulary teaching. During a whole semester, the author applies the prototype theory to vocabulary teaching in her school, and does an experiment in the experimental class, expecting the effectiveness. Based on the experiment, the author analyzes the data and confirms the prototype theory has positive effects on students’ understanding, memory, size and depth of vocabulary, and has positive effects on English vocabulary teaching in high school. And some implications can be made from the experiment. For example, attach importance to basic words; build hierarchical structure to learn superordinate words and subordinate words; classify the same category words such as synonyms, and words with the same affixes or roots; construct semantic network to learn synonyms and polysemous words. Under the guidance of prototype category theory, these ways are used in vocabulary teaching to facilitate students’ vocabulary learning and enhance their vocabulary ability.