A Study On The Teaching Of Vocabulary In Junior High School English Reading Class

Vocabulary is an important part in junior high school English reading class,which is an essential foundation for students to learn English.At the same time,vocabulary teaching in junior high school is also an important aspect of teachers' teaching and students' learning.During the practicum,the author has found out that some English teachers attach importance to vocabulary teaching,but they are not very clear about how to systematically teach the vocabulary in reading passage.Some teachers do not know which lexical items to choose to teach.Some teachers treat the vocabulary as isolated and specific unit or teach the words out of context.Some of the teachers use conventional vocabulary teaching method,such as reading the word list to memorize pronunciation,form and meaning.And students learn vocabulary by recitation.Teachers responded that vocabulary teaching effect was not good and students complained that vocabulary learning was difficult.Therefore,the author believes that it is necessary to carry out the investigation and research on the present situation of vocabulary teaching in junior high school English reading.This paper mainly used the theory of context as the theoretical framework,adopting the research methods of classroom observation,questionnaire and interview to collect data and information to systematically study the present situation of vocabulary teaching in junior high school English reading.Through the investigation of the present situation,this paper explored how the current teachers were dealing with the reading passage and vocabulary teaching;what vocabulary teaching strategies teachers used were effective and what problems existed in vocabulary teaching.The author analyzed the reasons and put forward relevant teaching strategies according to the theory of context.Through the investigation,the author has found out that the current teacher deal with reading passage and vocabulary teaching in two ways: one is the separation of vocabulary teaching and textual understanding;the other is the combination of vocabulary teaching and text understanding.The author believes that the second one,which combines the reading passage and rely on the text context for vocabulary teaching is effective.Through the classroom observation,it is found that some of the vocabulary teaching strategies adopted by the current teachers are effective,such as,creating a living situation that stimulated students' interest inreading,creating picture context,using context,using word formation,setting repetition activities,designing role-play activities and essay writing activities.However,vocabulary teaching also has certain problems,for example,vocabulary teaching is out of the text;vocabulary teaching is out of the subject;vocabulary teaching objectives are not clear;vocabulary recurrence rate is low;vocabulary teaching strategies are meagre and vocabulary teaching strategies are not good for students' ability of thinking.The author believes that the reasons are as follows,such as the impact of the examination-oriented education system,the heavy task for teachers,and the lack of professional skills of teachers.The author analyzed the reasons and put forward relevant teaching strategies according to the theory of context.First,teachers should pay attention to the continuous improvement of their teaching methods and level.Second,teachers should design diversified consolidating activities to cultivate students' thinking ability.Third,teachers should choose the target vocabulary on the basis of reading passage.Fourth,teachers should design diversified activities to improve the vocabulary recurrence rate.At last,teachers should interpret the reading passage from language level,information level and ideology level.