An Empirical Study On The Context-based English Vocabulary Teaching In High School

As a basic and core part of language, vocabulary is an inseparable element to development the communicative competence. However, as for the English vocabulary teaching inhigh school, owing to the long-time control of the teacher-centered, examination-oriented and grammar-based teaching thought, teachers still paid more attention in pronunciation, morphologyand words phrases than usage in context. The time-consuming and low efficient vocabulary teaching which mainly depended on reciting the vocabulary list mechanically made students lost their interest. Therefore, it is essential to explore efficient methods to improve the vocabulary teaching.Contextplays an important role in defining and confining the words meaning, when the same word may have different meanings in different contexts. Therefore, English vocabulary teaching cannot be detached from contexts. Proper context input is helpful for learners in understanding words meaning and usage. In recent years, some scholars and English teachers have engaged in studying the application of context theory in English vocabulary teaching. However, there exists insufficiency in systematic context empirical study.Therefore, this thesis aims to explore how to apply the context theory to stimulate students’ interest and improve the vocabulary teaching, especially in words presentation and consolidation.Two questions were supposed to answer:(1) whether the context-based English vocabulary teaching can stimulate students’ interest in vocabulary learning and improve their vocabulary learning strategies or not?(2) whether the context-based vocabulary teaching canpromote the students’ achievementinlearning vocabulary or not?In order to answer these two questions, the author did the empirical research with 103 students from two classes of grade 2 in the Middle School Attached to the Guizhou Normal University.The results of the pretest show that there is no significant differencebetween the two classes in vocabulary level before the experiment. In the research procedure, one class was the control class using traditional method in vocabulary teaching, and the other was the experimental class with context-based vocabulary teaching whose teaching design was based on sufficient preparation before the teaching experiment.The teaching design in the experiment includes presentation and consolidation, in both of which creating situation and guessing training were both implemented. The experiment lasted 12 weeks. The data were mainly from the questionnaires and testing papers before and after the experiment. The data of the questionnairesform the experimental class showed that students became willing to take an active part in the vocabulary teaching activities and memorize words in context, which could prove that the application of context-based English vocabulary teaching could simulate students’ interest and improve their learning strategies. The data of testing papers showed that the average score and passing rate of the experimental class were higher than those of the control class after the experiment, which demonstrated that context was helpful in promoting students’ English vocabulary achievement and their ability in use dimension.Finally, some suggestions with hope were put forward to inspire the teachers in improving vocabulary teaching in high school.