An Application Of Schema Theory In Junior High School Vocabulary Teaching

Vocabulary, which is the elementary factor in learning English, plays an importantrole in developing four language skills listening, speaking, reading and writing.Vocabulary learning is closely related to the success or failure in English study. However,the current English vocabulary teaching in junior high schools has serious drawbacks.Many teachers still use old-fashioned teaching methods in class, which leads to studentsinefficient vocabulary learning. Vocabulary has become a big obstacle in their Englishlearning process. Therefore, schema theory is employed in this research in junior highschool vocabulary teaching, hoping to change students’ vocabulary learning methods so asto improve their vocabulary scores.Students in Class6Grade9, the experimental class, and students in another threeclasses of the same level, the control classes, in Nantong No.3Middle School are chosen asthe subjects of the research. The control classes are Class5, Class7and Class8, which aretaught by three different teachers. Before the experiment, a test on the participant s abilityof vocabulary learning is applied in the research. Two questionnaires are also applied tofind out the teachers classroom vocabulary teaching and the students vocabulary learningmethods. Some of the participants are taken at random to have a further talk. Then aresearch on the application of schema theory in vocabulary teaching has been carried onfor a whole term. The survey and the talk about vocabulary learning methods are done afterthe experiment, along with the comparison of students’ test results to further testify theadvantages of applying schema theory in vocabulary teaching. According to the results of the experiment, the conclusion can be drawn as follows:1) The application of schematheory in vocabulary teaching can help improve students vocabulary learning methods.2)The application of schema theory in vocabulary teaching can help improve studentsvocabulary learning as well as their vocabulary scores.In order to improve students vocabulary learning, the author strongly suggests thatteachers should attach importance to vocabulary teaching, help students to apply schematheory in their vocabulary learning and guide students to find their own vocabularylearning methods. Because the number of the subjects is small and the experiment period isshort, the results of the experiment have yet to be further scientific validation.