An Empirical Study On English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School Under The Guidance Of Prototype Theory

Vocabulary is the basic foundation of English learning.Wilkins pointed out that without grammar,we could express few things,however,without vocabulary,nothing could be expressed.Vocabulary teaching is a significant component in English language teaching and it is salient in enhancing learners' language competency.However,the current situation of vocabulary teaching and learning in China is not so satisfied,because most teachers and students use the traditional vocabulary teaching and learning method,which is quite exam-oriented,low-efficient,mechanical and isolated from other language skills such as reading,speaking,etc.,consequently,the students tend to easily forget the new words and could not use the words that they have learnt flexibly.Therefore,it is imperative to find an effective vocabulary teaching method to facilitate students' vocabulary learning.This thesis tries to explore a new effective method of English vocabulary teaching method by applying prototype theory from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.Cognitive linguistic is a branch of linguistic which is set in the cognitive science and embodied philosophy.It came into being on the basis of the opposition of transformational-generative grammar in 1980s.It refers to artificial intelligence,linguistics,psychology and many subjects,it puts forwards that the construction,study and application of the language should be based on human's cognition,therefore,it holds that the cognitive ability is fundamental in learning knowledge.As one of the basic theories of cognitive linguistics,prototype theory is the basic tool and measure to acquire language,which could provide an effective guideline for vocabulary teaching in senior high school.The author applied the cognitive theories to English vocabulary teaching during her internship in No.l high school in Development Zone of Dalian and expected effectiveness.The experiment lasted for 5 months from September in 2016 to January in 2017,which involves 110 students in two parallel classes of Grade One.In order to compare with the traditional vocabulary teaching method,several research instruments were applied,such as questionnaire,vocabulary tests and so on.Based on the contrast experiments,this paper aims to explore the following two research questions:1.Whether prototype theory could enhance students' understanding,memorization and vocabulary capacity in vocabulary learning.2.Whether prototype theory could facilitate effective English vocabulary teaching.Through the contrast analyses of the experiments,this paper could provide a new effective method for the English teaching and learning in the senior high school in the future.