An Experimental Study Of English Vocabulary Teaching Based On Context Theory In Junior Middle School

vocabulary,as one of the three essential elements(pronunciation,vocabulary,and grammar)of language,is vital to language teaching.As Wilkins(1972)proposed,very little can be conveyed without grammar,but nothing can be conveyed without vocabulary.The New Curriculum Standards puts forward higher requirements for English vocabulary teaching in junior middle school,students are required to master 1,500-2,000 words and 200-300 phrases or idioms,meanwhile,they are required to understand and use the vocabulary rather than simply memorizing them.In traditional vocabulary teaching approach,teachers emphasis too much on the pronunciations,meanings and set phrases,but they seldom explain words in context.As a result,students know the meaning of a word but fail to use the word,which will certainly become an obstacle for them in the process of English learning.Consequently,it is urgent to explore a new method of English vocabulary teaching.Context theory playing a great part in educational practice,advocates presenting and consolidating language points in linguistic context,situational context and cultural context.This study applied context theory to guide junior middle school English vocabulary teaching,and a teaching experiment was done to verify the effectiveness of context theory in English vocabulary teaching in junior middle school.Meanwhile,three research hypotheses are put forward: Hypothesis 1: English vocabulary teaching based on context theory can improve junior students’ interests and strategies in English vocabulary learning.Hypothesis 2: English vocabulary teaching based on context theory is more helpful for junior students to improve their ability of memorizing vocabulary.Hypothesis 3: English vocabulary teaching based on context theory has a positive influence on junior students’ word guessing ability.In order to deal with the research questions,the author conducted a one-semester experiment in two parallel classes,one for experimental class(EC),the other for control class(CC).The two classes adopted different teaching methods: the control class was taught by the traditional vocabulary teaching method,while the experimental class received instructions based on context theory in the process of presenting and consolidating vocabulary.Prior to and after the teaching experiment,pre-tests and post-tests were carried out respectively among the students and a questionnaire was administrated with the students in EC.After the experiment,all the data were collected and analyzed by using SPSS23.0 software.Questionnaire data analysis shows that students’ interest in vocabulary learning and vocabulary-learning strategy in the experimental class were significantly higher than those in the control class,so the English vocabulary teaching based on context theory can improve junior students’ interest and strategies in English vocabulary learning;After the training for a whole semester,students in EC got significantly higher scores than those from CC in the word memorization test,the results manifest that English vocabulary teaching based on context theory is more helpful for junior students to improve their ability of memorizing vocabulary;besides,the test results of word guessing ability in experimental class is significantly higher than those in the control class,which illustrates that English vocabulary teaching based on context theory has a positive influence on junior students’ word guessing ability.In the end of the thesis,the author makes a summary of the experiment,and puts forward some suggestions on how to teach vocabulary in context.The results and findings in this research can provide a new way of thinking and some reference for vocabulary teaching and research in the future.