Study Of Extra-Linguistic Context In Junior High School English Class-A Case Of Noun Teaching

As an essential part of English learning,vocabulary affects directly the depth of mastering the language.Among all the parts of speech,the noun is undoubtedly the one that matters the most.If you go through all five textbooks of Go for it,the number of nouns takes up about half of the total vocabulary.Due to this large quantity and the broad diversity of nouns appeared in these books,many junior students spend much time in memorizing them while the results are not ideal.The traditional method of noun teaching consists of a teacher explaining everything with little interaction which sets the students in a rather passive atmosphere,the method is not only making the class dull but also turning its back to the current educational demands.According to statistics,studies concerning using the context theory in order to get a better vocabulary teaching are not rare while in the studies about combining the noun teaching and the extra-linguistic context,blanks still remain.Considering the importance of noun during junior English learning,this paper proposes to use the extra-linguistic context in the noun teaching.According to Zhong Kunmao,there are four branches in the extra-linguistic context: context of situation,context of culture,context of nature and context of cognition.Therefore,during the class,the teacher may not be explaining each word in the exact order of the textbook.Instead,he or she will present the new nouns to the students in a specific context while giving the students topics in order to present the other nouns which are necessary to know.The method aims to blur the boundary of what students may call the “important words” and the “less important ones”.The paper conducts an experiment between two classes(with close level of English),the control class applies the traditional method of noun teaching while the experimental class adopts the extra-linguistic context method of noun teaching.There are tests for both the classes before and after the experiment along with a questionnaire to the students in experimental class.The paper analyzes students’ attitude towards noun learning after adopting the extra-linguistic context method,it will also observe students’ method of memorizing words and whether the extra-linguistic context method elevate their learning efficiency.After running through SPSS and combining factors like the motivation in both classes and the routine dictation performance,the extra-linguistic context method motivates the students more easily and help them fit naturally into the class.The dictation performance of the experimental class is way better than the control class.After the experiment,three inspirations are highlighted: First,English teacher could create suitable extra-linguistic contexts during vocabulary teaching;Secondly,when using the extra-linguistic context teaching method,the teacher should pay attention to the authenticity and availability of the context he or she created;The last point is for the teacher to focus on the students’ learning experience and guide the students to be active and initiative.