A Study On Application Of Culture Infiltration In English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

Nowadays, English is becoming more and more important as a communication tool. Vocabulary is an important and basic element of English, which has rich cultural connotation. It is necessary for language learners to master the cultural connotation of vocabulary because culture is different among countries. However, the traditional approach to English vocabulary teaching in senior high school only focuses on the pronunciation, spelling, and literal meaning. Without teaching students the cultural meaning, it is difficult for them to communicate with native speakers fluently and successfully.Based on Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, Language and Culture Transfer Theory and Acculturation Model, the author applies culture infiltration method to English vocabulary teaching in senior high school to explore whether it can train and improve students’ cross-cultural communication competence.The study aims at the following two questions:1. Can culture infiltration teaching on English vocabulary improve the students’ interest in learning vocabulary in senior high school?2. Can culture infiltration teaching on English vocabulary help students use the culturally-loaded words accurately in senior high school?The participants of the experiment were 100 students from two classes in Grade Two of the No.1 High School in the Development Zone of the Yingkou, who had the similar educational background and English proficiency. One class was the Control Class and the other was the Experiment Class. In the research, they finished the pre-test, post-test, questionnaire and interview. In addition, the traditional approach to English vocabulary teaching was adopted in CC while the English vocabulary teaching based on culture infiltration was used in EC. The experiment lasted for four months. Then SPSS 17.0 was used to analyze the data obtained from the tests and questionnaire. As for the interview, it was analyzed in the qualitative way.This study gets the following conclusion: first, the cultural infiltration in English vocabulary teaching can improve the students’ interest in learning English vocabulary in senior high school. Second, the cultural infiltration in English vocabulary teaching can help students use the culturally-loaded vocabulary accurately in senior high school.Although there are some limitations in this research, it is no doubt that the cultural infiltration in English vocabulary teaching is effective in cultivating students’ cross-cultural communication competence.