Application Of Situational Teaching Method In English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

Vocabulary, as one of three basic elements of a language, plays a vital role in the process of language learning. Vocabulary size is essential in each phase of language learning. Therefore, vocabulary teaching is paid increasing attention. However, the results of vocabulary teaching are not so satisfactory at present. In vocabulary classroom, teachers neglect to create situations to teach vocabulary, which is not conducive to enlarging students’ English vocabulary size and improving students’ attitudes toward English vocabulary learning.The situational teaching method refers to the way which teachers create a series of situations with the aid of physical objects, pictures, images, slides, video and music according to teaching goals and activities in the process of teaching. Based on the theory of situated cognition and constructivist learning theory, the author carried on a period of two-month study to try to testify the effectiveness of the situational teaching method on increasing the students’ English vocabulary size and improving their attitudes to English vocabulary learning,hoping which can help demonstrate the feasibility of application of situational teaching method to English vocabulary teaching in senior high school. Through analysis of the collected data from the instruments, this paper concluded that it is feasible and effective to apply the situational teaching method to English vocabulary teaching in senior high school.The instruments used in the study were a questionnaire and two vocabulary tests. The participants of the study were 100 students randomly selected from two parallel classes. The situational teaching method was used in the experimental class while traditional teaching method adopted in the control class. Through analysis of the data from pre-test and post-test and from the questionnaires by SPSS 17.0,(p=.000<.05), this paper concluded that the application of situational teaching method to English vocabulary teaching in senior high school can increase the students’ English vocabulary size and improve their attitude toward English vocabulary learning.This paper can be divided into six parts. Chapter one introduces the whole thesis which discusses briefly importance of vocabulary, purpose and significance of the study. Chapter two is about literature review concerning studies on situational teaching method, vocabulary teaching and the application of situations in English vocabulary teaching. Chapter three is concerning theoretical framework of situational teaching method including the theory of situated cognition theory and constructivist learning theory. Chapter four describes research design concluding research questions, objects of experiment, instruments of experiment, research procedure, data collection and analysis. Chapter five is about results and discussion. Chapter six is concerningconclusion, pedagogical implication and limitations of the study.Based on the results and previous study, the author offered some implications: teachers create real situations and let students experience language in the scene to master vocabulary, which can change students’ attitude toward English vocabulary learning and increase students’ English vocabulary size, but there are some limitations to the study.