An Experimental Study On English Vocabulary Teaching Based On The Theory Of Frame Semantics In Senior High School

Vocabulary plays an important part in language teaching and learning so the significance of vocabulary in any language system can never be overlooked. However, the present situation of English vocabulary teaching and learning in some senior high schools is far from satisfactory. Many students complain that memorizing vocabulary is time-consuming and boring. Worse still, they learn words in isolation that they forget the words quickly. As a result, their vocabulary size is small and gradually, many students lose interest in vocabulary learning. In order to help students solve these problems, the author tries to find out a useful approach by conducting an experimental study based on the theory of Frame Semantics.This paper employed vocabulary tests, questionnaires and interview to explore whether the approach based on the theory of Frame Semantics can enlarge students' vocabulary size and raise their vocabulary learning interest. The following two questions are put forward:(1) Will the teaching based on the theory of Frame Semantics enlarge students' vocabulary size?(2) Will the teaching based on the theory of Frame Semantics influence students' vocabulary learning interest and attitude?100 students in senior grade one in a senior high school participated in the study. And they were randomly divided into two classes: the experimental class(Class 4) and the control class(Class 3), with the number of 50 in each class respectively. The pre-test, Vocabulary levels Test designed by Schmitt et al.(2001), was adopted to test students' vocabulary size. In the vocabulary learning class, students in the Experimental Class were instructed to learn words under the guidance of Frame Semantics; while in the Control Class, conventional vocabulary teaching methods were used. After the experiment, a post-test was carried out in these two classes. Besides, questionnaires were carried out in these two classes before and after the experiment to check whether the methods under the theory of Frame Semantics can raise students' vocabulary learning interest and attitude. Meanwhile, an interview was conducted and analyzed. After 15 weeks, all the data of the tests were collected and analyzed with independent samples t-test. The data of the questionnaire were analyzed with percentage method and the interview was recoded and analyzed.The results show that the approach under the theory of Frame Semantics can enlarge students' vocabulary size, and their vocabulary learning interest and attitude have been influenced. Students' vocabulary learning interest has been raised. And their vocabulary learning attitude and method have been changed positively. Besides, some pedagogical implications can be concluded: First, it's of great importance to cultivate students' awareness of using the theory of Frame Semantics to vocabulary learning. Second, it is necessary for teachers to give instructions to students on vocabulary learning approaches. Finally, keep learning to acquire encyclopedic knowledge for it can benefit the understanding of language. According to the theory of Frame Semantics, language is rooted in human's life experience, and experience can enrich frames, so scholars advocate an encyclopedic view of meaning and suggest that we should keep enriching encyclopedic knowledge.