An Empirical Study On The Corpus-based English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High Schools

Vocabulary is an indispensable part in English learning and teaching.This research adopted the corpus-based vocabulary teaching method into English class in senior high schools,providing teachers and students a new method to teach or learn vocabulary and drawing their attention to acquiring the depth of vocabulary knowledge.Based on the co-selection theory(Sinclair,1996)and the data-driven-learning theory(Johns,1991),the research applied the corpus-based vocabulary teaching method which regards students as the centre of a class,emphasizes on acquiring the depth of vocabulary knowledge especially acquiring colligation,context meaning,and collocation.In this method,language materials were extracted from the corpus,activities and exercises were designed with them,and a bottom-top learning model of discovering and generalizing language rules from the corpus was advocated.Two parallel classes of grade two in a high school were selected as the subjects of experiment.The study has adopted experiment,test and questionnaire to probe into the following research questions:1)What are the effects of the corpus-based vocabulary teaching method on students' acquisition of the depth of vocabulary knowledge?2)What are students' appraisals and attitudes towards the corpus-based vocabulary teaching method?The research adopted the corpus-based vocabulary teaching method in the experimental class and employed the traditional method in the contrast class.A post-test was used to test students' depth of vocabulary knowledge of the target words including colligation knowledge,context meaning knowledge,and collocation knowledge,according to which the effects of the two different methods were compared and evaluated.The students in the experimental class were asked to do the questionnaire after they finished the test which surveyed students' appraisals and attitudes towards the corpus-based vocabulary teaching method.Based on the analysis with Software SPSS 21,this study has made the findings.The corpus-based vocabulary teaching method has significant positive effects on students' acquisition of the depth of vocabulary knowledge including colligation,context meaning,and collocation in high schools,being more suitable for the intermediate and high proficiency students.Students mainly make a positive appraisal of and show a positive attitude towards the corpus-based vocabulary teaching method.This study will draw English teachers' and students'attention to the depth of vocabulary knowledge and provide them a new and practical vocabulary teaching method in senior high schools.