The Application Of Context To Senior High School English Vocabulary Teaching

As an important aspect of language knowledge and the foundation of language skills,the importance of vocabulary can never be ignored which makes vocabulary teaching play a fundamental role in English teaching.Thus,the study on how to effectively teach English vocabulary is very significant and useful.However,in traditional vocabulary teaching,vocabulary are usually taught by distinguishing pronunciation,presenting vocabulary directly,explaining the usages and making sentences and students need to remember the vocabulary mechanically.Based on input hypothesis and constructivism theory,this thesis aimed to study the effect of vocabulary teaching with the application of context to participants' vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary retention.The experiment spanned 36 days in two parallel Senior two classes from Linxia County Middle School.Before the experiment,pre-questionnaire was handed out to both classes.The data were then analyzed by SPSS 22.0.From the results the author found the two classes used almost the same vocabulary learning strategies.During the experiment,the author taught vocabulary with the application of context in experimental class.In controlled class,the author taught vocabulary without the application of context.After experiment,the post-questionnaire,short-term memory test and long-term memory test which shared the same content were handed out to both classes.After independent sample t-test of pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire in both classes.the results suggested that students in experimental class are much better at realizing the importance of vocabulary learning strategies and adjusting their vocabulary learning strategies at any time they thought necessary.After independent sample t-test of the short-term memory test and long-term memory test in both classes,the experimental class and the controlled class performed similarly in short-term memory test,but the performance in long-term memory test in experimental class is significantly better than the controlled class which means EC performed much better than CC in vocabulary retention.Supported by major findings and discussion,there are two main implications: learners should realize the importance of vocabulary learning strategies and adjust their vocabulary learning strategies;teachers should teach vocabulary in context,present and consolidate vocabulary in context to help students memorize vocabulary,especially long-term vocabulary retention.