The Application Of Cognitive Context To The Thinking Model Vocabulary Teaching In Junior Middle Schools

"Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed" (Wilkins.D,1972:111). Although vocabulary has constantly been stressed its significance in communicating, language teaching and language acquisition, etc., it doesn't receive the recognition it deserves in the classroom. What's more, the traditional linguistic studies used to concentrate on the analysis of grammatical rules, and for vocabulary, it was simply treated as infilling for the grammatical structures. Although Grammar-Translation teaching approach has been condemned for a long time, it is still widely accepted by many foreign language teachers in their practice. With the booming of cognitive linguistics studies, the context studies were shifted from traditional contextual theories to cognitive contextual researches. Meanwhile, scholars set about exploring the possibility and feasibility of employing cognitive insights in foreign language teaching. The traditional vocabulary teaching has a tendency of "isolationism" and teacher-fronted, which will discourage students from learning vocabulary. Therefore, there will be a lack of vibrant thinking in classes. By adopting the Thinking Model vocabulary teaching, the English teachers can guide students to construct vocabulary knowledge system and summarize the effective vocabulary learning strategies via constant cognitive conflicts in the class. And the students finally will be able to apply them into real situations.Firstly, the essay reviewed the development of cognitive context theory and expounded the elements of this theory. Meanwhile, it presented the main vocabulary teaching methods and introduced the Thinking-Model Teaching Mode. Based on these studies, the essay mainly discusses the application of cognitive context to the Thinking Model vocabulary teaching in junior middle schools, analyses the representations of cognitive context in every teaching steps of Thinking Model vocabulary teaching, and then does the experiment combined with the teaching practice to verify the hypothesis. The essay aims to eliminate the isolation of vocabulary teaching and to arouse teachers' attention to the significance of the cognitive context. By doing this the efficiency of vocabulary teaching can be improved, and students can also gain the quantity and quality of vocabulary. In a word, this study will contribute a new perspective for English vocabulary teaching in junior schools.