Application Of Lexical Approach To English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

Vocabulary teaching is the basis of language acquisition and plays an indispensable role in English language teaching;however,one of the prominent problems of today's language teaching and learning lies in the fact that the conventional teaching of English attaches little importance to the systematic and strategic learning of vocabulary of the students.In recent years,Lexical Approach,which is tremendously and fundamentally centered upon chunking forms of vocabulary,has drawn the attention of linguists and language teachers both at home and abroad,and an increasing number of researchers and teachers have been attempting to apply this approach to English vocabulary teaching in classes;nevertheless,the majority of the researches and experiments in senior high school are either hardly comprehensive or too abstract to put it into practice.This thesis discusses the merits of Lexical Approach and probes into ways of applying Lexical Approach into vocabulary teaching and learning in Senior High School practically and effectively;based on this,the author tries to answer whether this approach can facilitate learners vocabulary retention,improve their scores and therefore promote their vocabulary learning interest.This study did a detailed literature review on lexical chunks,its relationship with vocabulary learning,the principles of Lexical Approach and memory theory,and based on the theoretical foundations,the thesis presents a study to try to answer three questions: 1.Does Lexical Approach facilitate students' vocabulary retention? 2)Do the students exposed to Lexical Approach make more progress in vocabulary using than those in the control class after the experiment is finished? 3.Does lexical chunk have a positive impact upon students' interest in vocabulary learning? The participants of this research were 104 students from two classes of Grade One in Liulin Senior High School,Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Region.The instruments in the experiment consisted of two tests and one questionnaire.SPSS22.0(Statistical Package for Social Science)was used to analyze the data collected in the tests in the study.Based upon the statistics from the questionnaires,the analysis of the results of the tests as well as the classroom observation,this teaching experiment has positively achieved certain results.It is salient that applying Lexical Approach to English vocabulary teaching and learning is of great value,which,to be specific,helps to promote students' vocabulary retention,improve their scores and enhance their learning interest in vocabulary.In the learning process they paid much attention to and spent more time on chunks instead of memorizing words by spelling and cramming up,and the remember more words and remember much better.Apart from the beneficial facets of applying Lexical Approach,there are still some limitationsthat should be improved in the experiment.The thesis,specifically,consists of six chapters.It begins with the analysis of the situation of vocabulary teaching and learning in China and presents the purpose and significance of this study.Then the second part a literature review is given on the studies of vocabulary teaching approaches in the West and in China,the studies on lexical chunks and the application of chunk into second language vocabulary teaching and learning.In the third chapter the theoretical foundations are presented in parts,Lexical Approach and the memory theory.In the forth part an experiment was conducted in senior high school classes to value the positive impact and practicality of Lexical Approach in vocabulary teaching and learning.The data collected in the fifth part shows that vocabulary teaching based on chunk can virtually promote students' interest in vocabulary learning and improve their vocabulary learning.