A Research Of The Application Of Dual Coding Theory To English Vocabulary Teaching In Junior Middle School

As one of the three basic factors of language,the foundation of human communication,and the main carrier of information,vocabulary plays an important role in language learning process.Under the requirements of “English Curriculum Standard”,middle school students should have a vocabulary of about 1500-1600.Therefore the vocabulary teaching becomes a key part in the English leaning process.Because the vocabulary is large and difficult to understand and remember,many learners feel so powerless and bored that their learning efficiency is very low.English vocabulary learning needs long-time accumulation,and only under the guidance of the effective vocabulary learning method can achieve the ideal effect.The Dual Coding Theory was proposed by Allan Paivio in 1971.According to this theory,human’s cognition includes two coding process system.One is the verbal system that is responsible for the representation and processing of language information;the other is the nonverbal system specialized for dealing with non-lingustic objects and events.The two systems not only can work by itself,but can operate in parallel or in integrated way.An important point of the Dual Coding Theory is that presenting information to learners in verbal and nonverbal forms can enhance their memory and recognition.This paper aims to research on the teaching of English vocabulary based on Dual Coding Theory in junior middle school.In order to provide more help for English vocabulary teaching in junior middle school,this study tries to answer the following three questions:1)Can the application of DCT to English vocabulary teaching in junior middle school improve students’ English learning?2)Can the application of DCT to English vocabulary teaching in junior middle school contribute to students’ short-term and long-term English vocabulary memory?3)Can the application of DCT to vocabulary teaching stimulate students’ interest in vocabulary learning and have a good impact on students’ learning strategy on vocabulary?In this study,the subjects are 82 junior middle school students who are form Gujiao Middle School in Yuncheng City.Meanwhile,they are in two parallel classes.Through the two questionnaires and tests before and after the experiment,as well as the immediate test anddelayed tests to analyze the application of Dual Coding Theory to English vocabulary teaching is effective or not.SPSS17.0 is used to analyze the data and the conclusions are as followings:1)The application of Dual Coding Theory to English vocabulary teaching can improve students’ English learning.Meanwhile the students’ English grades improved a lot.2)The application of Dual Coding Theory to English vocabulary teaching can improve students’ vocabulary long-term and short-term memory.3)After the teaching experiment,students become more interested in vocabulary learning and the strategies use in vocabulary learning process become more various.Their awareness of strategy use has been improved.This study confirms that students’ vocabulary level can be improved by the application of Dual Coding Theory to English vocabulary teaching.However,there are still many limitations of this research.The author hopes more researchers can make studies in this field and have fruitful results,which can contribute to the development of English vocabulary teaching in junior middle school.