Application Of Situational Language Teaching Method In Middle School English Vocabulary Teaching

This is an empirical study on the application of situational language teaching method in middle school vocabulary teaching.It is very important to master new words in junior high school for students, for it is a basic task. However, the results are not so satisfactory at present. Many students found it hard to memorize new words. They forgot it easily. In English classes, teachers put emphasis on language knowledge instead of situation creation. As a result, students often know the meaning of a word but are not able to use it properly. How to improve the efficiency of teaching new words is a difficult problem for teachers to solve. With the popularization of situational language teaching method, many scholars have begun to make researches on it.In terms of vocabulary teaching, situational language teaching is an effective paradigm in English instruction. Situational approach refers to powerful and suitable techniques which teachers use in creating emotional and lively situations according to their teaching aims. Innovative types, such as concrete situations and language presentation, are used to form images. And the images in students’ brain can help them understand the materials better. The situation can inspire students to combine the images with their own experiences, which helps students obtain knowledge and skills. In this way, students’ ability of further comprehension towards new words are developed. This thesis presumed that situational language teaching method helps to improve vocabulary teaching more effectively and situational language teaching method helps to improve students’ interest in learning vocabulary.In order to support its feasibility, the experiment included 120 students and lasted for four months. The author used different teaching strategies to make a comparison between the experimental class and control class. Students’ tasks for the two classes, such as word spelling and vocabulary amount, were kept the same through the four months. The research instruments used in this study were questionnaire and word test. Firstly, in the first week of the experiment, the two groups were given the pre-test and questionnaire. The purpose of questionnaire was to find out students’ attitude towards English vocabulary teaching method and the situation of vocabulary learning. After the survey, the author interviewed some students of both classes to know more details about vocabulary learning. Then the scores of word test of the two classes were analyzed to make sure that the two classes were in the same level. From the second week to the seventeenth week, the experimental group was given the teaching treatment based on situational language teaching method which aimed to improve their interest in learning vocabulary and ability of using words. The teacher would teach new words by creating different situations while the control group received traditional teaching method. In the final week, both of two classes received post-test and the questionnaire again. The data analysis of word test and questionnaire showed that the experimental group had significant difference after the experiment. Students in experimental class changed their attitude; they paid more attention to vocabulary and they became interested in vocabulary learning, which suggested that vocabulary teaching on the basis of situational language teaching method was effective in improving the students’ ability of remembering and using words. In addition, the teaching treatment in experimental group has proved to be effective in cultivating students’ enthusiasm and interest. And the teaching treatment improved students’ ability of memorizing and using words. Students’ improved grades in experimental class were due to situational language teaching method.Before the experiment, the average score of experimental class was 22 and the average score of control class was 22. The highest score of experimental class was 33 while control class was 34. After experiment, the average score of experimental class was 30 while the average score of control class was 25.5. Average score of experimental class increased 8 while average score of control class increased 4. The results of experimental class showed that situational language teaching method could change students’ studying attitude. Their attitude changed from passively to actively. And it could make students and teachers communicate with each other better. A series of scenes can make the abstract words into specific. The scenes could develop students’ imagination as well as learning interest. Therefore, situational language teaching was perceived to be a useful and desirable system for English vocabulary teaching as well as a good teaching method in middle school English vocabulary teaching.